Recent survey results from SEMrush reveal that 91% of marketers in 2020 are utilizing content strategies as part of their marketing efforts. The breakdown of the types of content that marketers prioritize shows blog posts continue to top the list with 86% of content strategies leveraging blogs.
To date, over 4 billion websites exist. Combine this with constantly changing search algorithms, and it’s understandable why it’s challenging for blog content to rank in search. However, it’s important to remember your website isn’t competing against all 4 billion sites.
First, we can reduce the number of websites to rank against from 4 billion to the ones within the same niche as your company. By narrowing the scope of goals to focus on a company’s KPI’s, you create consistent, measurable analytics you can track monthly. This will help ensure that your website is ranking for the right search queries.
Implementing SEO best practices, which includes incorporating targeted keywords, is a crucial part of an analytics-backed content strategy. Each blog post is an opportunity for a web page to appear in a search query. By tracking how web pages rank in search for impressions, clicks, time on page, and conversion, companies can gain a clearer idea of how potential and current clients are engaging with content. Some KPIs to consider are measuring the number of conversions on specific landing pages, how many people followed up and called to learn more about your services, or emailed and scheduled an appointment for a demonstration.
Another critical aspect of a strategic content marketing plan is creating unique content that adds helpful information and contributes to the conversations within your industry. If you answer the same question that your competitors have already explained, why would someone click your blog post link? When you take the time to extend the conversation, you can help people generate additional ideas, encourage more in-depth discussions, and position yourself as a thought leader within your industry.
In order to leverage the right content at the right time, SEO best practices include conducting keyword research. When you know which industry keywords have the highest search volume, you can begin to create a content calendar that focuses on specific content topics you know your clients and potential clients are already reading.
There is a difference between identifying a broad topic by the search volume and narrowing the subject matter further by researching specific phrases, otherwise known as a long-tail keywords. When you pair search volume with a keyword difficulty range, you will identify the best topics to feature that fit what your buyer persona is searching for, and that also highlight your company’s services and products.
For example, let’s say your broad keyword term is “commercial property.” Depending on the real estate market, the long-tail keyword phrase could either be “short sale commercial property” or “best investment commercial property.” Writing the wrong blog post could make you seem out of touch with current events and cause your clients to question whether you understand the commercial real estate market.
Which Keyword Research Tools Should I Use?
There are a lot of options when it comes to choosing a keyword research tool. Many of them offer a free trial period or give you minimal information unless you pay a fee. The thing to know about these tools is that most of them are gathering information from the same source – Google. So, you could end up paying multiple sources for the same data sorted in different ways. That’s why it’s great to have a variety of free sources that look at keywords from different angles.
First, it’s important to make sure that you connect your website to Google Analytics and Search Console. Take time to review data such as Behavior Analytics and see which content is most popular with the people who already know about your company or follow you on social media.
Additionally, you should use a tool such as SEMrush, Serpstat, or Google AdWords to pull a list of broad keywords by volume. This will help you confirm you are on the right track for your buyer persona. Now it’s time to dig into finding those long-tail keyword phrases and also figure out which questions are trending when it comes to your industry keywords.
The Best Keyword Research Tools You May Not Be Using
AlsoAsked.com
AlsoAsked.com takes a search term and maps what other questions “people also ask.” The algorithm presents a visual map grouping how each sub-question topically stems from the overarching topic. AlsoAsked.com allows you to sort by Term, Language, and Region. – Read more
