Supercharge Your Website with this Keyword Research Method
As we delve into the digital era, the importance of having a robust online presence is more significant than ever. Whether you are creating a new website or seeking ways to optimize an existing one, keyword research is a critical component of your strategy. This blog post will walk you through my comprehensive strategy for keyword research, highlighting both free and paid methods, and how to leverage these methods to skyrocket your website’s performance.
The Indispensable Role of Keyword Research Tools
The first step towards a successful keyword research strategy is investing in a reliable keyword research tool. One of the best tools in the market that I highly recommend is ahrefs. This tool is not only user-friendly, but it also provides up-to-date and in-depth keyword research and competitor analysis capabilities. Utilizing a tool like ahrefs can significantly enhance your keyword research process, making it more efficient and effective.
When it comes to keyword research, ahrefs offers a plethora of features that can help you uncover valuable insights. The Site Explorer feature allows you to analyze your competitors’ websites, giving you a snapshot of their keyword strategies. By entering your competitor’s URL, you can access information about the keywords they are ranking for, the search volume of those keywords, and their keyword difficulty. This information can be instrumental in identifying potential keywords for your own website.
In addition to competitor analysis, ahrefs also provides a Keyword Filter feature. This feature allows you to filter keywords based on volume and keyword difficulty. By setting specific criteria, such as a minimum search volume of 1000 per month and a keyword difficulty of 10 or less, you can narrow down your keyword list to those that are most relevant and attainable for your website.
Another valuable feature of ahrefs is the ability to create Keyword Lists. These lists help you organize your keywords into different categories or silos. By grouping keywords together, you can create a more structured approach to your content creation and ensure that your website covers a wide range of topics within your niche.
Crafting Your Website Strategy
Before you dive into keyword research, it is crucial to understand your website’s strategy. This involves identifying the silos, pillar content, and categories of your website. For instance, if your website falls in the outdoor or gardening niche, you might want to plan how to structure your website. A great example to follow is commonsensehome.com. This website has effectively categorized its content into topics such as gardening, food storage, home remedies, recipes, preparedness, wild crafting, homesteading, herbalism, household tips, natural health, and book reviews.
By organizing your content into silos or categories, you can create a more comprehensive and authoritative website. Search engines favor websites that provide in-depth content on specific topics, as it demonstrates expertise and relevancy. Moreover, organizing your content in this way makes it easier for users to navigate and find the information they are seeking.
The Significance of Silos in a Website
Silos in a website are like the different sections of a library. They help categorize your content, making it easier for users to navigate and find relevant information. Each silo goes deep into a specific topic, making your website an authority in that space. This not only enhances user experience but also improves your search engine rankings as search engines love websites that provide in-depth content on specific topics.
Let’s take a closer look at the gardening silo on commonsensehome.com to understand the power of silos. Within the gardening category, there are various subtopics such as soil preparation, plant care, pest control, and harvesting. By creating detailed and informative content within each subtopic, commonsensehome.com establishes itself as an authority in the gardening niche. This level of specialization not only attracts visitors interested in specific gardening topics but also improves the overall visibility and credibility of the website.
When conducting keyword research, having a well-defined silo structure helps you focus on specific keywords related to each silo. This allows you to create content that targets those keywords and covers the breadth and depth of the topic. By doing so, you increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results and attracting organic traffic.
Paid Method: Mastering Keyword Research with ahrefs
ahrefs is a versatile tool that simplifies the keyword research process. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use ahrefs for your keyword research:
- Site Explorer: You can use the Site Explorer feature to get a snapshot of your competitor’s website by pasting their URL. This will give you insights into their keyword strategies, including the keywords they are ranking for, their search volume, and keyword difficulty. By analyzing your competitors’ keywords, you can identify opportunities and uncover potential keywords for your own website.
- Keyword Filter: The Keyword Filter feature allows you to refine your keyword list based on specific criteria. You can filter keywords by search volume, keyword difficulty, and other relevant metrics. For example, you can set a minimum search volume of 1000 per month and a keyword difficulty of 10 or less to focus on keywords that have sufficient search volume and are relatively easier to rank for.
- Keyword List Creation: Once you find a keyword you like, you can add it to a list. This helps you organize your keywords under different categories or silos. By grouping keywords together, you can create a more structured approach to your content creation and ensure that your website covers a wide range of topics within your niche.
Understanding and effectively using these features can help you build topical authority, improve your rankings, and get your website approved for AdSense.
Free Method: Leveraging Harper AI for Keyword Research
If you are on a tight budget, Harper AI is a free tool you can use for keyword research. With the Harper AI Chrome extension, you can extract keywords from a competitor’s article, perform research, and find keyword density and LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords.
To extract keywords using Harper AI, simply visit a competitor’s website and use the Harper AI Chrome extension to analyze the page. It will provide you with insights into the keywords used within the article, their density, and related LSI keywords. This information can be valuable in understanding the keywords your competitors are targeting and finding opportunities to optimize your own content.
By leveraging Harper AI, you can gain valuable insights without the need for a paid keyword research tool. It is a cost-effective solution for conducting keyword research and optimizing your website’s content.
Harnessing the Power of Free SEO Tools in ahrefs
Even without a paid account, ahrefs offers several free SEO tools that can help with your keyword research. These tools include a backlink checker, broken link checker, website authority checker, keyword generator, YouTube keyword tool, SERP checker, SEO toolbar, keyword rank checker, keyword difficulty checker, website checker, and an AI writing tool.
The backlink checker allows you to analyze the backlinks of any website, providing insights into their link profile and potential link-building opportunities. The broken link checker helps you identify broken links on your website, enabling you to fix them and improve the user experience. The website authority checker gives you an indication of the authority of any website, helping you gauge the competition level.
The keyword generator tool helps you generate a list of keywords based on a seed keyword or topic. This can be a great starting point for your keyword research and content creation process. The YouTube keyword tool allows you to find keywords specifically for YouTube, helping you optimize your video content for search. The SERP checker helps you analyze search engine result pages for specific keywords, giving you insights into your competition and potential ranking opportunities.
The SEO toolbar, keyword rank checker, keyword difficulty checker, website checker, and AI writing tool provide additional functionalities to enhance your SEO efforts and improve your overall website performance.
Exploring Answer Socrates for Keyword Research
Another useful and free keyword research tool is Answer Socrates. This tool generates questions related to a specific topic, providing you with content ideas. By entering your topic or seed keyword, Answer Socrates will generate a list of questions that people commonly ask related to that topic.
For example, if your topic is “start a garden,” Answer Socrates can generate questions like “when is the best time to start a garden?”, “how do you start a garden?”, “should I start a garden in a specific time?”, and “what is the cost of starting a garden?”. These questions can guide your content creation process and help you create content that your audience is searching for.
In addition to questions, Answer Socrates also provides prepositions and related words. These can help you generate even more content ideas and expand the breadth of your website’s content.
Conclusion
Keyword research is a vital part of growing your website or blog. Whether you choose to use free tools like Harper AI and Answer Socrates or invest in a robust tool like ahrefs, the important thing is to understand your website’s strategy, structure your content effectively, and continually optimize your content based on your keyword research findings. Implement these strategies today and watch your website performance skyrocket! Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more informative content.
