In our last blog, “Mastering Keyword Research in SEO: Building a Winning Keyword Strategy from Scratch,” we explored the essentials of keyword research. Now, let’s dive into how to create a keyword strategy to boost your website traffic. It’s all about understanding what people are searching for, the words they use, and the type of content that meets their needs.
A good keyword strategy isn’t just about picking popular words; it’s about finding those that align with what your audience wants. By focusing on these, you can create content that speaks directly to them. This approach not only attracts visitors but also keeps them engaged.
So, in this blog, I’ll guide you through the basics of keyword strategy. We’ll look at how to identify the right keywords and create content that fits your audience’s intent perfectly.
Let’s get started on making your site a go-to resource for your visitors.
Understanding Keyword Strategy: A Practical Approach
So, what exactly is a keyword strategy? It’s basically a game plan that outlines which search engine queries you want to rank for, how you’ll go about ranking for them, and in what order you’ll tackle them. This helps you prioritize keywords and target them effectively, aligning your efforts with your business goals and resources.
Unlike keyword research, which provides the raw data, a keyword strategy gives that data purpose and direction.
For instance, keyword research might show that “online accounting software” is searched over 10 times more than “accounting software for contractors.” But as part of your keyword strategy, you might choose to focus on the latter. Why? Because it’s less competitive and more relevant to your specific audience.
When crafting your keyword strategy, think about your audience and your business’s unique needs. This approach ensures that your SEO efforts are not just about chasing high search volumes but about driving meaningful traffic that converts.
How to develop a Strong Keyword Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide
You need to have plenty of insights if you want to make informed decisions about your keyword strategy. Start by thoroughly investigating yourself, your product, and your competitors.
a. Know Your Business Inside Out
A good keyword strategy starts with asking yourself the following questions:
- What is your business doing, and why?
- What are your goals?
- What’s your uniqueness in this world?
- What is the message you want to send?
- How’s your branding?
- Why would anyone want to visit your site?
Better insights lead to a better understanding of what you want to achieve. You’ll save yourself time and make sure you’re not focusing on the wrong things.
b. Digging into Search Intent
After you’ve fleshed out your uniqueness, it’s time to look at search intent. Search intent is the why behind people’s search and clicking on your site.
So, ask yourself:
- Do you know your audience?
- Are people only looking for information on your site, or are they willing to buy stuff as well?
- And are there ways for you to target specific search intents with focused content, so you can influence this?
c. Speaking Your Audience’s Language
By doing keyword research, you should get great insight into the words people use to find what they are looking for. Next, make sure the content you write (and that your audience is interested in) fits with your users’ search intent and the language they use.
d. Analyzing and Keeping an Eye on Competitors
Don’t forget to take a good look at your competitors.
- What are they doing?
- How well are they ranking for terms you’d like to target?
- What kind of content do they have?
- Are there ways for you to improve on that?
- Have you thought about looking at the long tail?
e. Using Search Engines Strategically
Of course, while looking at your competitors, you’ll often use search engines to see how they are doing. Doing these types of searches can give you great insights into the strategy of your competitors. It also gives you a very good feel of what happens when you type in your main focus keyphrase.
What’s the on-screen real estate like?
Are there featured snippets you could target?
Are there other types of rich results? Is there a local pack?
In some markets, if you track developments over time, you might see that search engines are increasingly giving answers that lead to no-click searches. Always keep an eye on search engines, but don’t go obsessing about every little algorithm update.
f. Analyzing Data
Of course, analyzing data plays a big role in the success of your keyword strategy. Both before and after, Google Analytics provides invaluable insights into the performance of your site.
Even Google Search Console can give you a lot of stuff to think about and opportunities to pursue!
How to Execute Your Winning Keyword Strategy?
Learning how to create a keyword strategy helps you maximize your SEO efforts. Which can help boost search engine traffic and conversions.
1. Review Your Existing Keyword Rankings
Let’s dive into the first step: reviewing your existing keyword rankings. This is crucial because it gives you a benchmark of your current performance and highlights opportunities for improvement. So, grab a cup of coffee, and let’s get started.
To begin, you’ll want to sign in to Google Search Console (GSC).
Once you’re in, navigate to “Performance” and then to “Search results.” Here, make sure you check all the boxes at the top to get a comprehensive view of your data. You’ll see a table labeled “Queries” that shows the keywords you’ve been ranking for over the selected time range.
This table also includes valuable metrics like Clicks, Impressions, CTR (click-through rate), and Position. Clicks tell you how many times users clicked on your result, Impressions show how often your result was displayed, CTR is the percentage of impressions that led to clicks, and Position indicates your average ranking for each keyword.
To make this data more actionable, click “Export” to save it in a Google Sheets, Excel, or CSV file. Now, you’ll have a clear picture of which pages are performing well and which ones need some love. Import your keywords and target pages into Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker for tailored optimization ideas.
This tool analyzes your target pages and compares them to the top 10 results for each keyword, providing specific recommendations for improvement.
By focusing on pages with the most potential for improvement, you can make meaningful changes that boost your rankings and drive more traffic.
Trust me, this step sets a solid foundation for your entire keyword strategy.
2. Align Your Keyword Strategy with Wider Marketing Goals
Now, let’s talk about aligning your keyword strategy with your wider marketing goals. This is a big one because it ensures all your efforts are pulling in the same direction, making your overall strategy more efficient and effective.
Think about your broader marketing initiatives. Are you launching a new product? Running a seasonal campaign? Whatever it is, make sure your keyword strategy supports these efforts.
For example, if you’re launching a vegan protein powder, you might already have plans to send out an email newsletter, post on social media, and issue a press release. But don’t stop there—target relevant keywords by creating an SEO-optimized landing page and writing related blog posts. This way, you’re maximizing your launch’s impact and driving more traffic and conversions.
Aligning your keyword strategy with your marketing goals also helps keep your brand messaging consistent. Say, for instance, that keyword research shows “cheap watches” has high search demand.
However, if your brand positions itself as a luxury watchmaker, targeting this keyword could dilute your brand’s message. Instead, focus on keywords that align with your brand identity and resonate with your target audience.
Remember to create buyer personas and define your brand identity if you haven’t already. This will help you identify keywords with the most business potential and ensure your SEO efforts are aligned with your overall marketing strategy.
3. Identify Keyword Opportunities
Next up is identifying keyword opportunities. These are relevant keywords you don’t rank for yet but have the potential to drive significant traffic to your site. This step is all about finding those gaps and filling them.
One of my favorite methods for this is using Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool. Start by entering your domain and up to four competitors’ domains. Choose your country and click “Compare.” The tool will show you an overview of the keywords you and your competitors rank for. To find those golden opportunities, scroll down and select “Missing” to see keywords all your competitors rank for, but you don’t. Or click “Untapped” to see keywords at least one competitor ranks for but you don’t. This can give you some excellent ideas for new keywords to target.
Another powerful tool is Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. Enter a seed keyword related to your niche, choose your country, and click “Search.” The “Broad Match” tab will show you results containing your starting keyword or close variations. This helps you identify a range of potential keywords to target, ensuring you’re not missing out on valuable search traffic.
By systematically identifying and targeting these keyword opportunities, you can expand your reach and attract more visitors to your site.
4. Organize Your Keywords
Once you’ve gathered a list of potential keywords, it’s time to organize them. This step is essential for creating a cohesive and effective keyword strategy. By grouping related keywords, you can create content that covers a broad topic comprehensively, helping you establish deeper authority in your niche.
Start by creating topic clusters. These are groups of thematically related and interlinked pages. Each topic cluster should include a pillar page and several subpages. Think of the pillar page as the main hub for a broad topic, while subpages dive into specific subtopics.
For example, if your pillar page is about “top social media trends 2024,” your subpages might cover topics like “AI Trends in social media,” “ROI trend in social media,” and “how to market our brands with changing social media trends.”
Next, create keyword clusters. These are groups of search terms that share the same search intent and can be targeted within the same page.
By targeting multiple keywords with the same page, you can rank for a broader range of search terms, increasing your chances of attracting more traffic.
Tools like Ubersuggest, and Semrush’s Keyword Strategy Builder can simplify this process. Enter up to five keywords you’ve identified and choose the location of your target market.
The tool will provide a visual representation of your suggested pillar pages and subpages, along with a detailed breakdown of each keyword cluster. This allows you to evaluate search opportunities more accurately and plan your content strategy accordingly.
By organizing your keywords into topic and keyword clusters, you can create a structured and effective keyword strategy that drives traffic and establishes your authority in your niche.
5. Consider the Search Landscape
Understanding the search landscape is a crucial part of your keyword strategy. It refers to the composition of the search engine results page (SERP) for a given keyword, and it helps you determine the opportunities for ranking and the likelihood of users clicking on your result.
Let’s say you’re targeting the keyword “best SEO strategy.” If the first organic result appears right at the top with no ads or SERP features like map packs, it suggests a high organic ranking could drive a lot of clicks.
However, if the top organic result for another keyword appears below ads and a map pack, it might get fewer clicks, and you may need to optimize for those SERP features or consider targeting different keywords.
To understand the search landscape for your target keywords, use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. Pay attention to the competitive density (Com.) metric, which measures Google Ads competition on a scale from 0 to 1. Higher scores mean more competition.
Also, look at the SERP features column to see which features appear for each keyword. Clicking on a keyword takes you to the Keyword Overview tool, where you can see the overall number of results and the available SERP features.
The search landscape is dynamic, so it’s essential to keep an eye on it and adapt your strategy as needed.
By understanding the composition of the SERP, you can optimize your content to increase its visibility and click-through rate.
6. Evaluate Keyword Intent
Keyword intent is the purpose behind a user’s search, and understanding it is vital for determining which keywords to focus on and how to create content that satisfies user needs. If your content doesn’t meet the user’s intent, it’s unlikely to rank well.
For example, if you target the keyword “best seo tools of 2024,” you’ll notice the search results are dominated by product best seo tools and pages of blogs written about it.
Keyword intent also indicates where the user is in the marketing funnel and how likely they are to convert. By evaluating keyword intent, you can create content that meets user needs, improving your chances of ranking and driving conversions.
7. Assess Your Ranking Potential
Before you pursue a keyword, it’s crucial to assess its ranking potential. This involves evaluating its keyword difficulty score to determine if you have a reasonable chance of ranking for it.
SEO TOOLS like ubersuggest/ahrefs/semerush provide a personal keyword difficulty (PKD) score out of 100, which factors in your domain’s relevance, competition level, and how your domain compares to rivals.
It’s a good idea to target some keywords with lower difficulty scores to start building topical authority. Filtering for keywords with a personal difficulty score of “Easy” or “Very Easy” can help you find these opportunities.
For a deeper understanding, look at the Keyword Overview tool to see your site’s topical authority and the potential position you could reach. If your site has moderate authority on a topic, it might be better to focus on keywords where you have more expertise.
By assessing your ranking potential, you can prioritize keywords that are easier to rank for and gradually build your authority on more competitive terms.
8. Take Stock of Your Resources
Creating an effective keyword strategy requires knowing what resources you have at your disposal, including time, money, skills, knowledge, and tools.
It’s also helpful to take stock of your existing assets, such as blog posts, ebooks, videos, testimonials, case studies, proprietary data, and images.
9. Plan and Prioritize Your Content
Once you’ve evaluated your keywords and resources, it’s time to plan and prioritize your content. Go back to the Keyword Strategy Builder and determine which pillar pages and subpages to prioritize based on your findings. Create a keyword map to organize your content and decide on a priority order for each task.
For example, you might focus on improving key landing pages first, then create blog posts targeting untapped keywords. Use Semrush’s SEO Content Template tool to get content recommendations, including suggested word count, readability score, and more.
By planning and prioritizing your content, you can ensure your keyword strategy is actionable and aligned with your goals.
10. Track Your Results and Keep Adapting
Tracking your results is crucial for understanding what’s working and what isn’t. Use Semrush’s Position Tracking tool to see where you rank for your target keywords and get alerts about important changes. The “Rankings Overview” table shows your rankings and whether you rank in any SERP features.
For an overview of your top landing pages, use the Organic Traffic Insights tool, which compiles data from Semrush, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics 4. This allows you to monitor your progress and adapt your keyword strategy as needed.
By tracking your results and making adjustments, you can continuously improve your SEO efforts and achieve your goals.
Final Thoughts
Building a winning keyword strategy from scratch requires a thorough understanding of your business, your audience, and the competitive landscape. By following the steps outlined above, you can identify the right keywords, align your strategy with broader marketing goals, and create content that resonates with your target audience.
Remember, the key to a successful keyword strategy is continuous evaluation and adaptation. Keep tracking your results, refining your approach, and staying updated with the latest SEO trends.
With persistence and strategic planning, you can boost your website traffic and drive meaningful engagement and conversions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ques. What is a keyword strategy in SEO?
Ans. A keyword strategy in SEO is a plan that defines the search queries you want to rank for, how you’ll attempt to rank for them, and in what order. This involves identifying keywords that align with your business goals, assessing their ranking potential, and creating content that matches the search intent of these keywords. It’s a crucial part of SEO to drive meaningful traffic and conversions to your website.
Ques. How do you build a keyword strategy from scratch?
Ans. Building a keyword strategy from scratch involves several steps:
- Understanding your business and audience.
- Conducting keyword research to identify relevant terms.
- Analyzing the search intent behind these keywords.
- Evaluating the competitive landscape and ranking difficulty.
- Organizing keywords into clusters and creating a content plan.
- Continuously monitoring and adjusting your strategy based on performance data.
Ques. What tools are best for keyword research in 2024?
Ans. Some of the best tools for keyword research in 2024 include Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, and Ubersuggest. These tools offer features like search volume data, keyword difficulty scores, and competitive analysis to help you find the most valuable keywords for your strategy.
Ques. Why is search intent important in keyword strategy?
Ans. Search intent is crucial because it helps you understand the purpose behind a user’s search query. By aligning your content with the user’s intent—whether informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional—you improve your chances of ranking higher in search results and meeting the needs of your audience effectively.
Ques. How do you evaluate keyword difficulty?
Ans. Keyword difficulty can be evaluated using tools like Ahrefs and Semrush, which provide a keyword difficulty score based on factors such as the number of backlinks, domain authority of competing pages, and overall competition for the keyword. This helps you choose keywords that you have a realistic chance of ranking for.
Ques. What are long-tail keywords and why are they important?
Ans. Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific search phrases with lower search volume but higher conversion rates. They are important because they often reflect a user’s intent more precisely and face less competition, making them easier to rank for and more likely to drive targeted traffic to your site.
Ques. How do you use competitive analysis in keyword strategy?
Ans. Competitive analysis involves examining the keywords your competitors are ranking for, their content strategies, and their backlink profiles. Tools like Semrush’s Keyword Gap and Ahrefs can help identify keyword opportunities that your competitors are leveraging, allowing you to target similar or complementary keywords to gain a competitive edge.
Ques. What is a keyword cluster and how do you create one?
Ans. A keyword cluster is a group of related keywords that revolve around a central topic. To create one, start with a broad topic (pillar content) and identify related subtopics (cluster content) that support and link back to the main topic. This approach helps improve site structure and SEO by covering a topic comprehensively.
Ques. How do you align keyword strategy with business goals?
Ans. Aligning your keyword strategy with business goals involves understanding your target audience, defining your business objectives, and selecting keywords that drive relevant traffic to achieve these goals. For example, if your goal is to increase sales, focus on commercial and transactional keywords that attract potential buyers.
Ques. How often should you update your keyword strategy?
Ans. Your keyword strategy should be reviewed and updated regularly, ideally every quarter, to account for changes in search trends, competitive landscape, and business goals. Continuous monitoring using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console can provide insights into performance, helping you refine your strategy for better results.
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