Find keywords for your content strategy

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@andreea-macoveiciuc-content-expert


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Discover the appropriate keywords for your company’s content strategy and reach your ideal audience. 


Create a list of all the topics that fit within your content strategy and add them to a Main topics column in a spreadsheet.

For example, if your content strategy is built around social media marketing, you may come up with topics such as Instagram marketing, Facebook advertising, paid social ads, and social media advertising.

Brainstorm keywords that fit within those topics and list them next to a main topic in a Subtopics column.

For example, if your content strategy includes a topic like building custom websites, your list might contain keywords like Custom website building, Website customization, Customize your website, and Building a customized website.

Get ideas for more keywords using Google’s recommendations: type your keywords in the search bar and use the Searches Related to ___ option at the bottom of the page.

You can also type your target keyword followed by each letter of the alphabet, one by one, to see the most common queries for each letter.

Look for common questions asked by users with a tool like AnswerThePublic.

Go through your list and remove the keywords that don’t match your goals.

For example, if your goal is to attract more customers for a tool, you should keep keywords that show commercial intent, such as buy [tool’s use case], tool for [use case], and software for [use case]. You should also include keywords that include your competitors’ names, such as alternative to [tool] and free [tool] alternative.

Complete your list with keywords that are consistent with what your buyer personas would search for on their buyer’s journey.

For example, if you offer a service and your users might want not only to buy the service, but also to learn about it, you should include both commercial and informational keywords in your list. Make sure to include both head terms and long-tail keywords in your list.

Research the traffic volume, difficulty, competition, and relevancy of your list with a keyword research tool such as Moz, SEMrush, or Ahrefs.

  • Add these numbers to your keywords spreadsheet, and add a new column for priority.
  • Assign a lower priority to keywords that have a high search volume and high competition, and a higher priority to keywords that are relevant while giving you a chance to rank. For example, you might want to postpone writing about a topic like insulated tumbler and replace it with custom insulated tumbler for birthday party.

Add a new column to your spreadsheet and include the content type, working title, and angle to take.

  • Go through the list and for each keyword, look at the top 3 ranking articles. Write down the Content type - how to, list, tutorial, guide, etc.
  • Based on the titles and structure of the top ranking articles, write down a potential working title and angle for your articles.
  • Aim to create content that surpasses what is currently available for those search queries, in terms of quality and relevance.

Using a tool like Ahrefs or Google Search Console, look for queries that your content is already found for.

  • Add these queries to your list of target keywords, and look for opportunities to include them in your already published content.
  • Alternatively, create new content that addresses those queries.

Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T12:35:19Z