Find out how to use different keyword research steps and techniques to inform your marketing themes and messages. Using keywords for research means giving your customers what they want

As one of the fundamental, foundational elements of effective search engine optimization (SEO), using keywords for research enables digital marketers to understand what consumers are looking for online and the potential opportunities to capture this interest and attention through the creation of relevant content and optimized user experiences.

Using keywords for research: campaign or always on?

SEO is often seen as an always-on, hygiene activity that is necessary before, during, and after campaigns but rarely seen as an integral part of a campaign itself. However although keyword research can be very useful for unearthing larger, more permanent content opportunities for an owned media presence, the process itself can also be used to help inform ideas, themes, and concepts for a campaign,…

5 techniques to use SEO data to make better content marketing decisions

Did you know that 91% of marketers use content marketing as an approach in their organizations?  It’s clearly gaining momentum. But not all is sunshine and roses. The same survey also showed that 48% of marketers believe that their content marketing strategies are either average, fair, or poor. Image via SEMrush That brings us to the question: What can marketers do to drive content marketing ROI? The answer lies in leveraging SEO data. To create an effective content marketing strategy, marketers need to take a closer look at their SEO insights.  In this article, let’s take a look at how you can amplify your content marketing efforts through SEO insights.

5 techniques…

A three-step process for brainstorming, collecting and refining your keyword list

Whether you’re putting together a pitch proposal, preparing for an interview or working on a comprehensive SEO strategy, keyword research enables you to develop a clear understanding of what people are really searching for online. It’s a simple yet fundamental task that serves as the foundation for any small or complex project. Effective keyword research removes the guesswork and provides a level of objectivity based on real user behaviour. I’ve often been confronted with requests to use certain words or phrases because they seem right or align neatly with a particular brand positioning. But when we’re creating content that we want to surface in search, we must mirror the language of our customers. [si_guide_block id="5762" title="Download our Premium Resource – SEO gap analysis Excel spreadsheet" description="An SEO gap analysis helps you review your market share of consumer searches by comparing the number…

What guides, templates, examples and Quick Wins have our members found helpful in 2019? We've taken a look at this year's most popular Smart Insights resources

Over the last year, we’ve updated and created new guides, templates, presentations and Quick Wins in order to help you better develop your marketing skills. We always aim to provide the most up-to-date information and advice to enable you to grow your knowledge, while our practical approach means you can easily put this knowledge to use. No matter what your membership level, business or personal goals, we’ve aimed to provide you with a broad range of resources to help you achieve them. So, whether you’re trying to improve your skills, upskill your team or grow your business, you’re all set with the support of Smart Insights. You’re not the only one either, as this year has seen a huge number of people making use of our guides,…

Find out whether Latent Semantic Indexing has such an impact on your SEO and what you should do to improve your keyword research

Before writing this post, I’ve noticed wide discussions on Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and its effect on SEO. Some sources state it’s crucial to select what’s called LSI keywords to boost your rankings. Others say LSI has no impact on the positions your website takes. After reading different opinions on the topic, I’ve realized there are lots of people who don't know what LSI actually represents. [si_guide_block id="5750" title="Download our Individual Member Resource – Successful SEO guide" description="This 7 steps SEO guide is one of our most popular and rightly so. If you get it right, SEO can be a fantastic, relatively low-cost way to drive quality visitors who want to do business with you to your site."/] If you’re interested in SEO tendencies, you’ve obviously heard of the Latent…

Positioning more than one type of content will divide your forces, reducing the effectiveness and confusing both Google and your users

Keyword cannibalization occurs when you're ranking for keywords with more than one URL on your website. Think of it like a chess game where you’re playing on both sides of the board. Positioning more than one type of content will divide your forces, reducing the effectiveness and confusing both Google and your users. User intent is the focus here, because whilst the keywords you want to rank for might be different, the search intent or "query" is the same. [si_guide_block id="5762" title="Download our Premium Resource – SEO gap analysis Excel spreadsheet" description="This spreadsheet will show you how to create a comprehensive target keyword report and review performance to identify new SEO and content marketing strategies."/]

Why do multiple pages compete?

Having different URLs compete for the same keywords is not unheard of. In…

Don't fall short of these common search marketing mistakes

It seems almost too easy at first. It really does. You find a keyword tool and you type in whatever search term that comes to mind. Voilà! Like magic, you find out how many people are searching for your keyword, as well as a whole slew of other useful statistics like the keyword’s average cost per click, competition, suggested bid, and other data – depending on which keyword tool you’re using. However, before you get too ahead of yourself and pick a keyword to target, know that there is more to keyword planning than meets the eye. There are a lot of nuanced factors you might not have accounted for that can entirely change your keyword strategy. To make sure you get it right from the get-go, here are ten common mistakes that you’ll want to steer clear of.

1. Not realizing that Google…

A detailed tutorial on how to research your AdWords target keyword list to improve your ROI from PPC

Keywords trigger your ads. Building and maintaining the right list of keywords is vital to getting the best return on your paid search spend. Keywords are organised into ad groups. You assign ad creatives (ad text) to these ad groups, which appear when triggered by these keywords. Therefore, knowing which keywords will perform best is important. Keyword research is the process of building keyword lists, based on the frequency at which consumers search for these words and phrases.

Why Is Keyword Research Important?

Keywords are the nuts and bolts of your AdWords campaigns. They let you control your visibility in search results, as well as affecting the amount you spend. If you’re setting up an account for the first time, it’s essential to build a robust keyword list as soon as you can. The quality of this list will…

Proper use of well planned long tail keywords is key to SEO success

Long tail keywords are about more than squeezing that last bit of traffic from an overused search engine. They are the closest thing to reading minds outside of a comic book. A long tail keywords is any search of 4 words or more. Since they make up about 70% of all searches, it pays to learn how to use Google to read minds.

Other People’s Problems

Understanding the long tail keywords related to your business is the first step to getting a higher ranking on Google. Search engines are so popular because people want information for solving a problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s curing an illness, buying the right camera or learning to dance the polka. The stronger the need, the more specific the search. The more specific the search, the more likely action gets taken. We use search engines…
What is the objective of your SEO program? Actually you will have many but at the heart will be the desire to increase the amount of relevant traffic that hits your website(s) from natural search. The total number of potential keyword searches that could drive traffic to your website is enormous. Some web owners get traffic from hundreds of thousands of different keywords. However, not every keyword delivers high quality traffic that adds value to the bottom line of the business. One of the biggest challenges for SEO is to learn which keywords are contributing to ROI, focusing efforts where they can deliver the most reward. To achieve this you need to separate the wheat from the chaff and that means using the data available to discover what doesn’t work. This article takes a look at some of the techniques you can use to identify and screen poor performing keywords, enabling you to…