Are People Searching for Your Content?
Do You Know Why?
Do you know why people are searching for the content you offer or are you just assuming they need or want it? What are people searching for?
Before you get started creating an effective SEO strategy for your website’s content, you need to gain an understanding of the intent, the reason why they are searching for the answer you are providing.
Knowing exactly what they are searching for will help you choose the right keywords for your content. Does the solution you provide give the people who need it the answer they are looking for?
This is why a well thought out SEO strategy is so important.
What Solution Does Your Content Offer?
People search for content and products online to find solutions to their problems. They are looking for specific answers.
A well written informational blog post and other content offer solutions to problems, or at least some ideas that move the visitor towards a solution.
If you can understand your target audience’s issues, beliefs, and pain points, you will choose better keywords, directing potential customers to your solution.
How well do you know your ideal client?
If you haven’t done so already, you should create an ideal customer profile to help you better understand their needs (often called avatar or target audience). This will help you choose strong keywords.
There are several formulas out there to help you create the image of the person in your mind.
Mike Cheney, a successful internet marketer and a coach of mine, recently helped me by putting a deeper spin on the types of information you want to know about the people searching for you that will give you valuable insights to your ideal client and things began to make more sense.
Beyond the usual age, demographics, financial situation, Michael suggests you use his “Hero Matrix”.
This method has you get to know your audience by their flaws, beliefs, traits, and skills. You learn these when you listen to them and build a relationship. Then use these things you’ve learned to tell their story (not yours) making them the Hero of their story. By telling their story they feel you truly know their needs and wants and can provide the solution.
I will go into this with more detail in another blog post soon.
So the best way to do keyword research then is to fully research what people with these traits are searching for.
What Questions Are People Searching for?
One easy way to brainstorm keywords is to think about what questions your target audience is asking that would lead them to your content. Then you can use these actual questions as long-tail keywords, working them naturally into your content.
You can also get ideas by looking at questions people are asking in your niche on Q&A sites like Quora or on social media.
Think back to questions people have asked you in the past that you’ve answered directly.
Keyword Research Can Help
Doing keyword research goes a long way in understanding the intent of your website visitors. Its not hard once you learn the tools available. Doing it will get you better results so it’s worth you time to learn how.
Start by using a free SEO keyword tool. The easiest one to start with is Google’s search function. Enter an idea into the search bar and see what relevant searches come up. These give you ideas about the content people are searching for as well as how many searches. It’s an easy way to get a feel for the topic. Notice in the image below the suggested longtail keywords Google suggests. These are the specific searches with the most popular at the top.
Matching Visitor Intent with Your SEO
Learning SEO is largely a matter of trial and error, you will get better at it over time. You will also discover which tools give you the best results for your content. Once you have your keywords for your content, and have put in them in the right places, you’ll monitor your results (analytics) and make changes as necessary.
How do you know whether you’ve successfully matched visitor intent with the content of your site?
You’ll see it in your search rankings and analytics. Your ranking will steadily climb and your site analytics will tell you what keywords are bringing people to your site, and how long they’re staying. If people are leaving soon after they visit your site, this tells you your content is not meeting their expectations.
It’s not difficult to do your own SEO. It just takes some planning, a bit of work on the backend, some trial and error, and a little patience and soon you’ll start to see your traffic grow.
Ask Yourself: Are Your Visitors Finding What They’re After?
Increased traffic through organic search means higher conversions. This could mean more sales for your business, downloads of your free eBook, subscriptions to your newsletter, sign-ups, or whatever business goal you want SEO to help you achieve.
By knowing what people are searching for and that your content provides a solution is a major goal for having an SEO strategy that works!
Want to learn more about how you can choose the right keywords for your content?
You can have enthusiastic support and motivation as well as find accountability partners as you implement your SEO Strategy with a free challenge to get you started.
The challenge, delivered by email, is done on your own time. There is a Facebook Group for support and accountability.
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