Keywords are the words or phrases you want your page to appear in searches for. For example, if one of your keywords is “cars,” that means you want your page to appear on the search engine results page when a searcher searches for “cars.”
Finding Keywords
finding SEO keywords
Priority
Prioritize keywords with higher search volume, lower difficulty, and higher organic result placement on search engine results page (i.e., fewer SERP features).
1. Identify broad topic areas
Set up a matrix with stages of the funnel across the top and semantic categories on the left.
Create a list of 400-500 keywords in each cell.
Example
Top Middle Bottom Memory foam mattress why do I wake up with back pain? memory foam for back pain Serta 8" plush memory foam mattress Mattress protectors is my mattress causing allergies? best mattress protectors for allergies queen mattress protector Spring mattress how often do I need to replace my mattress affordable mattresses 8" firm queen innerspring mattress Design Media keyword matrix
Top Middle Bottom Elearning courses Digital marketing Business intelligence 2. Develop large lists of variants
Find keyword suggestions related to original keyword from matrix.
Tools
- ahrefs Keyword Generator
- Answer the Public
- Bulk Keyword Generator- For local SEO. Limited to personal and home services like locksmithing, accounting, cleaners, photography, and fitness.
- Keyword Sheeter- Suggestions from Google autosuggest
- Moz Keyword Explorer
- QuestionDB
- Reddit Keyword Research Tool- Generates keywords given a subreddit name
- Semrush Keyword Magic (blog post)
- Ubersuggest
3. Isolate variants to target
Filter keywords based on priority. Select the ones to target first.
4. Map target keywords to pages
Find the top pages on the site (in terms of search performance, not position in the site hierarchy). Start with these pages when mapping keywords to pages. Can do this in Moz Link Explorer.
- 1-15 keywords per page
- Choose one primary keyword per page and a few relevant but smaller (in terms of search volume) secondary keywords.
- Avoid keyword stuffing or incur Google’s wrath.
Audit keywords the domain is already ranking for using Moz Keyword Explorer. Search for the domain and click “Ranking Keywords”. Add currently ranking keywords to your list of top ranking pages.
5. Label groups in SEO tool
Label by sales funnel phase and semantic topic. By filtering on the labels, you can compare search performance across product lines or funnel phase.
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Organizing Keywords
organizing SEO keywords in SEO tools
SEO tools allow for viewing metrics for keyword buckets. Here are two ways to sort the keywords in these tools.
- by sales funnel stage
- by semantic topic
It’s more effective to track a bucket of keywords than individually because a competitor could start to creep in on a topic one keyword at a time causing the search engine to believe they are more authoritative in that topic. Then, we could lose ground even in the individual keywords we are tracking.
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