Keyword research is one of the most important aspects of any online business. Without keyword research, there would be no way to know what words and phrases people use to find websites that are related to their interests.
These keywords become the foundation upon which all future SEO strategies are built. By identifying the right keywords, optimizing those keywords, and then focusing on building links back to those keywords, you can begin to build a solid foundation of SEO success.
Keyword Research
When starting out, it’s very tempting to just start posting articles using whatever keywords you think people might be searching for. However, if you do this, you risk being penalized by Google for spammy behavior. As such, it’s better to spend time doing proper keyword research before even writing your first post.
There are two ways to go about doing keyword research: manually and automatically.
Manual keyword research means going through popular directories, forums, blogs, and social media platforms to find new ideas. While this method of keyword research may take longer than automated methods, it allows you to get deep inside your industry. You’ll discover what types of topics people want to read about, and what types of things people talk about online.
Some tools you can use to automate your manual keyword research include ScrapeBox, BuzzSumo, and SEMRush.
Automated keyword research uses natural language processing algorithms to analyze data from various sources. There are many advanced NLP tools available today, but the simplest ones work quite well.
For instance, Google Autocomplete lets you enter key phrases into the search box and instantly show you suggestions for related terms. These tools don’t require downloading software or installing plugins. They simply give you suggestions based on the phrase you’ve typed.
Keyword Research Tools:
There are many great tools out there to help you come up with ideas for new keywords. Some of them are listed below.
Paid Options:
- Moz Pro – Moz Pro is a great tool for finding long tail keywords. It has a lot of features, such as the ability to export data into Excel.
- Ahrefs – Ahrefs is a paid option that offers a lot of features including keyword difficulty, backlink analysis, competitor analysis, and more.
- Buzzsumo – BuzzSumo is a paid tool that lets you analyze competitors’ social media posts to get insight into their audiences and their messages.
- SEMrush – SEMrush is a paid tool that analyzes competitor backlinks and ranks them according to importance.
- KW Finder – KWFinder is another great tool for performing keyword research. It’s very simple to use and gives you tons of options.
- Long Tail Pro – Long Tail Pro is a keyword research tool that helps you discover long-tail keywords.
Free Resources:
- Wordtracker – A tool that helps you find the right words to use in your content. Wordtracker works by using data from millions of websites around the world to determine the frequency of certain words across all languages.
- Majestic – Majestic is another popular keyword research tool. Similar to Wordtracker, Majestic allows you to enter a few keywords and then let it crawl the internet to give you a list of related keywords.
- Yahoo! Autocomplete – Yahoo! Autocomplete gives you suggestions for keywords based on what you’ve typed into their search box.
- Bing Suggest – Bing suggests keywords based on your previous searches. These keywords may not necessarily be the same ones that you’re looking for but they could lead you to some good ideas.
- Content is also important to SEO. Here is a list of content marketing platforms. Also, some information on creating content.
Content Marketing Platforms:
- HubSpot – HubSpot is a platform used to create landing pages, blog posts, and other types of content. They offer a free plan as well as a paid plan.
- Wistia – Wistia is a video hosting platform that allows you to upload videos directly to their servers. Their free plan includes unlimited storage space and bandwidth while their pro plan has additional features such as advanced analytics and custom branding.
Video Hosting Sites:
- YouTube – YouTube is the largest video sharing site on the planet. It’s free to post videos and view others’ videos. However, if you want to monetize your videos, you need to sign up for a premium account.
- Vimeo – Vimeo is owned by NBC Universal and is known for being a place to share educational videos. There are no limits to the amount of time you can spend uploading videos.
Blogging Platforms:
- Blogger – Blogger is a blogging platform that was once owned by Google. It’s still widely used and very simple to set up.
- Medium – Medium is a publishing platform that focuses on long form writing. It’s free to publish articles but you must pay to promote your posts.
Content Ideas
When it comes to creating content, there are two main types of content: informational and transactional. Informational content includes articles, guides, white papers, eBooks, and infographics. Transactional content includes landing pages, sales pages, case studies, press releases, and video series.
You should always strive to create high quality content. That means producing text, graphics, and videos that are informative and engaging. However, if you want to rank highly in search engines, you must take steps to ensure that your content is optimized not only for humans, but for search engines, too.
Content Creation
Creating content is a critical component of any successful SEO strategy. Your content should provide value to readers and engage them emotionally. When writing copy for SEO purposes, focus less on keyword density and more on providing real value to your readers.
Whether you decide to do it yourself or use a digital marketing agency, the importance of SEO is unquestionable. Hopefully the information and tools talked about here steer you in the right direction and help to get the results you are looking for.
