You can also use Google Analytics to find keywords for content optimization. Scroll down to see the Related Keywords report, which will give you ideas for new keywords you can use for content optimization.
When you talk about search ranking in SEO, you’re talking about the position of your content on search results pages . Search engine optimization efforts aim to increase organic traffic. That’s the traffic you get when visitors click a link in search results to get to your site. That’s in contrast to paid traffic, which comes from ads. Both on-page and off-page SEO aim to make your site more friendly, as well as trustworthy, to users and search engines.
Often, you will find authoritative content when researching a content topic. Then you just need to make a note of it so you can add it to your content. Now, let’s look at what Google uses to determine which web pages have a good search engine ranking. Here’s how you find search engine rankings for your web pages with SEMrush. One of our favorite online toolkits is SEMrush, which includes a variety of tools for SEO, content marketing, and search engine marketing. One of the first steps in improving SEO is to know where you’re starting from.
For example, we’re going to look for keywords that have low competition, so we have a better chance of ranking. With Ahrefs, a good starting point for keyword research for is the Keywords Explorer tool. Type in your terms, choose your country and search, and you’ll get an assessment of important related keywords and how difficult it will be to rank for those terms, known as “keyword difficulty”.
Meta descriptions aren’t a search ranking factor anymore, but they help Google work out if your content is relevant to a search term. To get the most data, link your Google Search Console account to your Analytics account. Then go to Acquisition » Search Console » Queries in your Analytics account. You’ll see a table with the keywords that bring traffic to your site.
Longtail keywords are phrases of four or more words with a low search volume. Together, these tell Google how users interact with your site and if your content is relevant, which can affect search ranking. Aside from keywords, which we’ll look at in a later chapter, it’s essential to understand what people mean when they type in a search term. You can learn more about the importance of links for SEO in our ranking factors guide. In terms of outbound links, it’s important to create links to authoritative sites relevant to your topic. This shows visitors and Google that you’re creating quality content.