Finding the right keywords for your content is a HUGE deal.
Fact: Google commands 80% of the world’s online traffic. (In 2023, it also enjoys over 85% of the market share for search engines.)
That means, when most people open their browsers, they start with a Google search and keywords — words or phrases that help them find information, answers to questions, products, services, businesses, and more.
So if you’re not targeting keywords in your content, you’re missing out on a huge traffic source for your business and website.
But you can’t just target any keywords. You need to pinpoint the RIGHT keywords. 📌
Luckily, that’s what I’m going to teach you today in this keyword research masterclass blog + video: How to find them.
Using the strategies I’m about to share with you, I’ve been able to get my websites to rank for over 40,000 keyword positions in Google and bring ideal clients directly to my door.
Let’s dive into exactly how to do it.
Table of Contents: Keyword Research Masterclass
- How to Find the Perfect Keywords for Your Content
- 4 Sources of Effective Keywords to Unleash Your SEO Potential
- How to Create Content from Your Ideas, Keywords, and Research in Minutes
- Mastering the Art of Ranking through Optimization
- Conclusion
Watch My Keyword Research Masterclass
How to Find the Perfect Keywords for Your Content
Just because a keyword is easy to rank for (i.e., it has a low competition score or high search volume) doesn’t mean you should target it.
I made this mistake many years ago, and I made it to the top of Google for keywords unrelated to my business.
Of course, that led to zero results, too, because I wasn’t drawing in my ideal customer with those terms.
If you want to attract your target audience, you need to do things differently.
- Find a keyword related to what you do, your audience, or what you sell.
- THEN, make sure it has a low competition score (often called keyword difficulty or KD, which is measured on a scale from 1 (easy) to 100 (impossible)).
This is what I call an ideal keyword.
Let’s break down each of these factors further.
Relevancy (Related to What you Sell, Your Industry, & Your Audience)
Relevancy is a biggie for finding the right keywords. You need to target ones that make sense for your business, and that your audience is searching for, too.
Keyword intent (or search intent) is another thing to consider when we talk about relevancy. It refers to the purpose behind a user’s search query. Why are they searching Google for that term? What are they hoping to do, find, or learn?
Competition/Keyword Difficulty
Once you find relevant keywords, you need to filter them further by competition/keyword difficulty (KD).
This is simply a metric that tells you how difficult that term will be to rank for. Most keyword research tools (like Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool) include it in their data.
If the competition is stiff (for instance, the keyword has a KD of 40 or above, and the top of Google for the keyword is full of big, established names in your industry that have been online for years and have built up a ton of authority), you won’t be able to break into the rankings.
That’s why targeting less competitive keywords is important.
Ideal Keyword Example
Great example: Let’s say you’re a realtor in South Texas. Obvious keywords for your niche might include “Texas realtor”, “Texas real estate”, “homes for sale in Texas”, etc.
However, the difficulty of these keywords might make it impossible for you to break into the top rankings and appear on Page One, where most clicks occur (only 0.63% of searchers clicked on something on the second page in a Backlinko study).
So if we start filtering all of the possible keywords for your niche by keyword difficulty and competition, we’ll weed out the impossible ones and find the possible ones.
For instance, “why choose me as your realtor” has a KD of 5!
But keyword research isn’t the only place to find keywords to target. Let’s look at all the possibilities.
4 Sources of Effective Keywords to Unleash Your SEO Potential
Unlock the power of keywords to boost your SEO with these four data-driven sources. Let’s dive into the four treasure maps that will lead you to ranking gold.
1. Use Keyword Research Tools for Data-Driven Insights
Tools like Semrush and Ahrefs are fantastic for identifying relevant, low-competition keywords in your niche.
Starting here, with solid data, is a great idea because you’ll know right off the bat that your keywords are relevant, winnable, and will bring in targeted traffic.
2. Leverage Popular YouTube Content as Inspiration
YouTube isn’t just for entertainment – it’s a goldmine for keyword ideas.
Analyze popular videos related to your niche to find topics that resonate with viewers and turn them into winning long-form content pieces on your website.
3. Learn from Your Competitors
Your competitors have already done the heavy lifting when it comes to keyword research – take advantage of their hard work.
Analyze their top-ranking pages to uncover powerful keywords driving traffic and conversions in your industry.
Study Top-Performing Blog Posts within Your Industry
Successful blogs know how to choose the right keywords – learn from them.
Examine top-performing blog posts in your niche to identify the terms that make them stand out and incorporate them into your own content.
4. Use Your Raw Ideas
Finally, tap into your own brain for keyword and topic ideas. After all, you know your business, your niche, and your audience better than anyone — so your ideas for content have merit.
Just remember to plug the topics/ideas you come up with into a keyword research tool to find the right phrase to target in your content.
By tapping into these four sources, you’ll have a treasure trove of effective keywords at your disposal, ready to elevate your content marketing game.
Tip: Keep track of your keyword ideas in a Google Sheet or spreadsheet, and keep adding to the list as you come across or ideate new keywords.
So go forth and conquer those search engine rankings with confidence.
Want my full process of creating content, including EVERY stage and all the steps I go through to produce results-getting blogs? Get my Content Process Blueprint for the full set of strategies, systems, and tools to use for seamless content production.
How to Create Content from Your Ideas, Keywords, and Research in Minutes
Wish you had a writing genie to create quality content in a snap? Enter AI-powered writing platforms like Content at Scale.
This magical tool analyzes top-ranking pages on Google and generates SEO-focused articles, all while you sit back and relax.
Bonus: You maintain your competitive edge without breaking a sweat.
The secret sauce behind these smart tools is their ability to optimize content based on real-time data from Google search results.
This means your articles are always fresh and relevant, giving them a higher chance of ranking well in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Action Steps:
- Pick your platform: Choose an AI-assisted writing tool like Content at Scale to help you create SEO-optimized content.
- Analyze top-ranking pages: Let the AI tool analyze top-performing pages in your niche and generate a tailored article for your business.
- Edit & optimize: Review the generated content, make any necessary tweaks, and ensure it’s optimized for both search engines and user experience.
Let’s look at how to quickly create content from your keywords, ideas, and competitive research in Content at Scale. First, you’ll need to sign up — use my link to get 20% extra credits towards generating blog posts:
After you’re set with an account, learn how to get started and set up a new project in this tutorial.
Create a Blog from a Keyword
From your project dashboard, click “Add Content” >> “From a Keyword.”
Next, you can simply upload your keyword list (download that keyword list we mentioned earlier as a .csv and use it here).
Or, simply plug one keyword into the “What Keyword Do You Want to Rank For?” field to create one piece of content.
That’s all you need! Content at Scale crawls the top of Google in real-time to learn from the top pieces ranking for your keyword. It then uses that information to create a fresh, original blog post in minutes. 💥
Create a Blog from a YouTube Video
To find a hot topic from YouTube and create a blog from it:
- Open up YouTube and search for your main topic.
- For example, you might type in “realtor” if that’s your niche.
- Sort the results by channel and look for ones that are doing a great job teaching your topic.
- Choose a video on an interesting topic that’s getting a lot of traction.
- Open up Content at Scale, click “Add Content”, and choose “From a YouTube Video.”
- Enter the URL of the video you found and hit “Create Content Now.”
Boom! Content at Scale will create a fresh piece of content based on the topic of the video.
Create a Blog from Competitor Research or Your Own Ideas
You can also create content in minutes from ideas you’ve gleaned from competitors or that came straight from your brain.
- Competitor research: What keywords are your competitors ranking for? Google a topic related to your niche to find out. Focus on the top 3 results.
- Then, in Content at Scale, in the “Add Content” selection, choose “From an Existing Blog Post URL” and paste in the URL of one of these content pieces. Content at Scale will create fresh, original content that you can personalize with your style.
- Your raw ideas: Maybe you have an outline of a post created in a Word doc, or you recorded a podcast with your thoughts on a key topic. You can create content from both of these sources in Content at Scale with the “Doc to Post” feature or “From a Custom Audio File.”
Mastering the Art of Ranking through Optimization
After targeting the right keywords, optimization is your secret weapon for climbing search engine rankings.
Here are some additional tips for optimizing your content:
- Subheadings break up content, making it more digestible and engaging for readers while helping search engines understand your topic better.
- Images aren’t just eye candy – they enhance readability, keep users engaged, and can even boost SEO value when optimized with descriptive alt tags.
- Meta descriptions and title tags are small but mighty elements that pack a punch in click-through rates (CTR).
- An irresistible title tag paired with an informative meta description encourages users to click on your link over others in search results.
- Create an SEO-friendly URL by keeping it concise, pertinent, and containing relevant keywords.
- A well-structured URL gives both users and search engines a clear idea of what your page is about.
- Strategic keyword placement within content is crucial for ranking success.
- Introduction: Include your primary keyword in the first 100 words to establish topic relevance.
- Subheadings: Use related keywords and variations to signal search engines about the depth of your content.
- Main body: Incorporate secondary keywords naturally throughout, without overstuffing. Sprinkle some LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords for good measure – learn more from this Ahrefs guide.
For more guidance, check out this blog on the editing framework I use for AI content,
Achieving top rankings may seem daunting, but with proper optimization techniques and persistence, you’ll be well on your way to SEO success.
Nail Keyword Research for Rankings, Results, and ROI
Mastering keyword research can make all the difference in the world to your brand’s success online.
Don’t neglect this important piece of content marketing, or you’ll be left wandering around in the dark wondering why your content is tanking — when it should be ranking.
On top of that, don’t forget that keywords are just one piece of the puzzle. Once you have those figured out, you need to understand how to create outstanding content, how to distribute and promote that content and ensure your website, business foundations, and more are rock-solid.
Need help with any of that?
Then it’s time to consider becoming a member of the Content Transformation System, my year-long mentorship program designed to teach you EVERYTHING you need to know to supercharge your business with content.
Skills, systems, and strategies, plus community, coaching, and live calls are all inside. 💯
Ready to find out more and apply?
Apply here to see if you’re a good fit!
