Seed Keywords: The Starting Point for SEO Research Every successful content strategy starts with a short list of simple words. Before I ever open a keyword research tool, I write down a handful of phrases that describe what my business does or what my audience searches for. Those phrases are seed keywords, and they do more work than most marketers realize. In this guide, I will walk through what seed keywords are, why they matter, exactly how to find them, the best tools to use, and how to turn a seed list into a full content plan. Table of Contents What Are Seed Keywords? Why Seed Keywords Matter for Content Strategy How to Find Seed Keywords Best Seed Keyword Tools How to Build Your Content Plan From Seed Keywords Frequently Asked Questions About Seed Keywords What Are Seed Keywords? Seed keywords are broad, short phrases (typically one or two words) that represent the core topics your business operates in. They are the starting point for keyword research, not the finish line. Think of them as the seeds you plant before a topic cluster grows around them. For example, if you run a project management SaaS, your seed keywords might be “project management,” “task tracking,” and “team collaboration.” From each of those seeds, you can grow dozens of long-tail keywords, supporting blog posts, and pillar pages. Think of seed words as the simplest, most direct description of a topic your audience cares...

I Asked Experts About Improving Keyword Rankings — Here Are Their Tips I’ve been in content marketing for over a decade, and let me say that it’s never been this hard to rank highly in search. The reason is that there’s a lot of content out there — Google says that it indexes “hundreds of billions of webpages,” which take up over “100,000,000 gigabytes in size.” With these numbers, does it even make sense to publish new articles? Absolutely — you just have to change your approach to creating content to improve your keyword rankings. Here’s how to find out what your current rankings are, along with 11 tips to help you boost your positions. Table of Contents What is a keyword ranking? How to Check Your Keyword Ranking How to Improve Keyword Rankings What is a keyword ranking? A keyword is a phrase you enter into a search engine to get an answer to your query. In an ideal scenario, you’ll get a list of results matching your intent. Keyword ranking refers to a web page’s position in those search results. For example, if we Google “best content marketing tactics,” HubSpot ranks first for this phrase and Outbrain second. Why are keyword rankings important? Since I started my marketing career, brands have fought to secure a spot in the top three search results — and for good reason. The number one result has...

Embark on Your SEO Treasure Hunt With Keyword Mapping Who’s up for a treasure hunt? No, we’re not after gold doubloons, but something equally valuable: top rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). Keyword mapping will show us where X marks the spot. Your site’s content is the key to climbing SERPs and reaching your users where they are. An important element for effective content is assigning the right keywords. A keyword map helps you do just that. And what fun would a treasure hunt be without friends? To help chart our course through keyword mapping, I sought insights from Nicole MacLean, head of marketing and sales at Compose.ly. Table of Contents What is keyword mapping anyway? The Importance of Keyword Mapping: SEO and Beyond How to Map Keywords: A Guide to Start Your Keyword Mapping Journey What is keyword mapping anyway? “At its core, keyword mapping is the process of assigning specific target keywords to the most relevant pages on your site so that your content meets searchers’ needs throughout the funnel,” said MacLean. “Whether the intent behind a search is informational (to learn something) or transactional (to take action), keyword mapping makes sure your pages are positioned to rank, convert, and answer the users’ needs. Think of it as the roadmap connecting user intent to your site’s content.” Keywords help optimize your site for search engines. The right keywords help your users...

How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner's Guide While Google keeps us on our toes with all the algorithm updates they keep rollin' out, one thing has stayed pretty consistent for inbound marketers looking to optimize their websites for search: keyword research. In this post, we’ll define what keyword research is, why it’s important, how to conduct your research for your SEO strategy, and choose the right keywords for your website. Why is keyword research important? Keyword research provides valuable insight into the queries that your target audience is actually searching on Google. The insight that you can get into these actual search terms can help inform content strategy as well as your larger marketing strategy. People use keywords to find solutions when conducting research online. So if your content is successful in getting in front of our audience as they conduct searches, you stand to gain more traffic. Therefore, you should be targeting those searches. In addition, in the inbound methodology, we don't create content around what we want to tell people; we should be creating content around what people want to discover. In other words, our audience is coming to us. This all starts with keyword research. For an inside look into how Arel="noopener" target="_blank" hrefs can aid you in your SEO keyword research, check out our case study and exclusive interview here. Conducting keyword research has many benefits, the most popular...