Are your page views stagnant, erratic or non-existent? Mines were too and I could not work out why. I was publishing 2-3 times per week, making at least one pin for each post then shouting from the rooftops about the articles on social media. The problem? It’s your keyword research game. Solution? A solid strategy for searching for keywords which will help you rank on search engines (SERPs) like Google. It’s not magic, it’s strategy, procedure, and technique and I’m going to show you how with two free tools and Keysearch, the affordable keyword competition tool.
In this post you will learn:
- How to plan keyword research
- How to find long tail keywords for free
- Pro and cons of 2 free keyword planner tools
- How to use Keysearch paid keyword tool
Am I ready?
- The first 3 search results in Google get over half of all traffic
- Less than 1/4 of searchers bother to click page 2
Which position do you want to be in? I honestly used to get excited and assume some kind of Harry Potter shizzle had gone down when I noticed one of my articles on Google. I never really understood what that meant though. I was ignorant to the fact that by ranking on Google I would increase the number of people reading my posts which would then make my brand more attractive to my businesses and they would want to pay me.
Wordbank
Volume: number of people searching for keywords
Difficulty/competitiveness: how easy is it to rank for keywords?
Domain authority (DA): predicts how well sites might rank on Google
What are keywords?
Keywords are the main points/topics/themes that you are discussing in your article. It’s the title, story, the message, and the reason you are writing the article.
The problem with finding keywords
Many of us are using keywords we cannot compete for. For example, regardless of how well-written, humorous, or useful your article on ‘Moscow’ is, it is not going to rank. You have to narrow the topic down.
‘What to see in Moscow’ is better but still difficult because lots of content creators before you are already ranking for that term so we want to drill down to a topic even more specific.
‘Moscow landmarks’ is spot on and this is what the industry calls long tail keywords.
These are just examples of keywords, there are tools to help us find more information.
Free keyword research tools
Google recommends
Google recommends is a great starting point for planning your articles. You may want to begin formulating your ideas around some of these suggestions
Chrome addon
Combine this addon with Google Recommends and you will get a bit more information about your potential long tail keywords.
The volume section is useful as it tells us how many people are asking Google about your long tail keywords. However, Google Recommends with Keywords Everywhere is limited as it does not identify how competitive the keyword is. This means how successfully are the others on page 1 of Google ranking and does my site have a chance of competing?
Google Recommends/Keywords Everywhere
Pros
- Free
- Good starting point
Cons
- Volume is not specific
- Competitiveness not identified
Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz are the guys who measure our DAs (domain authority). Your DA is formulated by investigating around 40 different criteria and the quality of the links you have linking back to your posts. If your DA is lower than 30 you will find it harder to rank on Google, it’s not impossible, just more of a challenge.
You can check out your domain authority here.
Health warning: I did not start tracking my DA until it was in its 20s (I had no idea what it was!) Concentrate on building your brand, enjoy writing and follow this guide to help improve your DA.
Moz have created a nifty free tool to help you rank on Google through keyword research. It is a step up from Google Recommends/Keywords Everywhere as it not only details your volume but also how competitive those keywords are, the part missing from free keyword research strategy one. It also shows you who you would be competing against and other keywords you might want to consider.
However, it is free and as the saying goes – the devil is in the detail. Moz free website does not tell you much about your competitors (which the paid software, Keysearch does) and the volume is not exact. It also restricts your use and you are going to want to do more keyword research than that when you see how easy it is to do and increase traffic to your website.
Moz Free Keyword Research Tool
Pros
- It’s free
- Highlights competitiveness
- Identifies competitors
- Additional keywords
Cons
- Volume vague
- Monthly limit
Keysearch: Affordable keyword competition tool
Keysearch is the most popular paid keyword research tool amongst the content creators we network with. It is relatively cheap at $17 per month or $169 for the year.
- For 20% off Keysearch use the code: KSDISC
Keysearch not only fills in flaws that the two free tools above fail on but also offers
- Keyword tracking
- Backlink check
- Google Trends
Keysearch is a website I use every day, not only for new content (I did not publish a new article at all for two months and look at my page view statistics) but also old posts.
How to use Keysearch
1. Type in your keywords into the search bar
2. Choose your location or leave ‘all locations’
3. Hit return
The above image displays the Keysearch information. We can see the following:
- The volume of our long tail keyword ‘Moscow landmarks’ is 1000.
- I am happy with a volume above 100.
- It also states how difficulty the keywords would be for us in terms of competitiveness.
- Red is difficult, amber would be tough and green is possible. Moscow landmarks is a go-gettum green
The goal is to find a keyword that is high in volume but low in difficulty.
- Low DA readers: this is where you may run into difficulty. Aim for under 20 difficulty (they are hard to find unfortunately) and remember to check out section 10 of these techniques to help build your domain authority
- To the left-hand side, a series of variations of our keywords are displayed as well as other keywords we might want to consider such as Moscow parks. You are getting two services for the price of one! BOGOF. In my most popular post, I rank for over 1000 keywords, naturally not on page 1 for them all! I’m not that good
- You can use the ‘filter’ option to refine your search and also the categories at the top such as volume to organise the results better
Bingo, you have your targeted long tail keyword, variations and also other keywords you can potentially rank for. If you think you can nudge out around two of the competitors on page 1 at present (see below) you can hit the export button on the top right-hand corner to download this list of keywords and start writing your great content, answering the questions that potential readers are asking Google.
Checking out the competition
Cast your eyes to the right-hand side table on Keysearch. This is who is currently ranking for the selected keywords. This is where we assess how likely we can elbow into the top slots. Are there sites that you have a higher DA than?
If these sites do not have the keywords in the URL, (meta) description, title and/or they lack links (backlinks from other respectable sites/internal links) then we may be in for a chance of competing to rank on page 1 and even better, top 3 positions of Google. However, if the URLs have the topic name in their URL there is a good chance that Google will see them as more authoritative than us. This is also true for the amount of content you have on your site about one topic (in this case study, Russia). It’s better to write in depth and go wide than write thinly about lots of different topics.
Go on, make traffic happen!
Let us show you how to find keywords, where to put them, how to tell Google they are there and make your old posts bring more traffic. It’s all covered here in our Complete SEO Strategy guidebook. For $27 (+VAT)
Now that you know how to find keywords using the paid tool Keysearch. It is not often I need to recommend paid tools but in all honesty, Keysearch is worth every penny. It is super user friendly (even for a tech-no like me) and I’ve only touched upon its capacity in this guide. Want more?
Want to Learn SEO?
Here’s a word from a reader: “If you don’t understand SEO, it is the clearest instructions I have ever read {Dean Williamson, La Vida Global}.
»»» Check out our ebook SEO The Easy Way – Complete SEO Strategy.
Did you find this useful? Why not pin it?
We love to chat.
Leave us a question or comment below.
Don’t forget to join the community of hundreds of kick-ass content creators in our Facebook group: Make Traffic Happen
Great article and very helpful. Just a comment, I could not see this Google recommends? Is it the “Searches related to what to see in Moscow”? Another thing, I wanted to pin the picture, but you do not have any sharing options? Kind regards
Sorry, I saw it now! It is greyed out and I was looking for the red symbol :-s Pinned, haha
Super! Yeah, that is the correct term for Goggle recommends. I’ll make that clearer. Thank you for reading and pinning! Come back to us with any questions.
Hi Gemma! I’m obsessed with your site! I can tell you’re a teacher because of how clear your “learning targets” for the reader are. I so appreciate the way you unpack a difficult concept into something anyone can understand. What an incredible resource! Thank you!
P.S. I saw your talk at TBEX Ireland and am so impressed with what you ladies do!
Hey Courtney, thank you for the kind words! I hope that we continue to impress you. Have a very merry festive period and here’s to making traffic happen in 2018. PS, did you make the pledge at Facebook? 😉
I just joined the fb group so I will check it out! Thanks again!
Hey Gemma,
When you saw it’s better to write in depth and go wide than write thinly about lots of different topics, let’s say you were writing about sightseeing around Iceland on a road trip, would you say it’s better to make a complete guide for each part of the country (East, West, North, South etc) with food and accommodation recommendations or partition the food and accommodation recommendations into separate posts? Thanks!
Good question Lisa. Take my Peru guides for example – I have a XYZ weeks itinerary which is extremely detailed and touches upon everything you need to know about travelling in Peru. Then I link internally to all of my Peru posts – destinations, restaurants, accommodation, activities, etc. I rank well for the itinerary and also many of the other articles which means I get traffic from lots of articles (which is ideal if you lose traffic on one) and I have more authority on the topic than I would if I only have one poor article. Check what you can rank for and what’s worth your time. If you can’t rank but still want to write it, market it via social media/newsletter/Pinterest.
I’m actually going to Iceland! As a reader, I would only be interested in what I could do in 4 days. As a content creator, I’d be looking at what I could rank for and creating from there. So although we create speaking Google’s language, we also think about the reader.
Hope this helps!
This is super helpful! I just started using keysearch and love how much easier it is than doing all this research manually. one question — I know it’s good to use synonyms of your primary keyword sprinkled throughout your article. I’m wondering: Is it better to choose secondary keywords that don’t have tons of competition (i.e. that you also have a chance to rank for), or is it worth including any secondary keywords that are too competitive for you to rank for, but have radically higher search volumes? Any insight you have on this would be great. Thanks!
Thanks, Carrie, it’s really user-friendly eh?
I would do both, lower volume and higher volume keywords then assess via Search Console later once the post is ranking. After reviewing Console, I recently switched keywords in a headline and it made a big impact on click-through rate and traffic. Annoying answer but sometimes it takes time and a bit of playing around to see what works best ranking wise.