Writing successful SEO blog posts is a 2-step process (you can even use this strategy for your Pay-Per-Click campaigns). The first step is finding the right keywords that are going to bring the maximum amount of traffic to your site. The second step is building an article around those keywords that will be hugely successful.
This is what many people don’t realize: the quality of the article will also impact the SEO. Google uses your keyword density and other clues to get a good idea as to the topic of your site. But it will then look at factors such as bounce rate in order to decide whether to keep your article at the top of the SERPs – and whether to prioritize other articles that you write.
So how do you handle this process?
First: you need to find the keyword. There are plenty of tools that will allow you to find high-volume search terms, but the key is in choosing the right ones. That should mean:
• Finding ones with a high volume of searches
• Finding ones without too much competition for you to go up against
• Finding ones that match your INTENT – meaning that you deliver the answer to the question that the user is asking
• Finding ones that you know about and can write well
• Finding ones that will continue to be popular and that ideally might even grow
As you can see then, there is much more to choosing keywords well than simply finding terms that are experiencing high volumes of searches.
If you pick the most popular keywords, then you will struggle to write something original about them while still answering the question. There are BILLIONS of articles on how to make money online, how to get abs, and how to get women.
So instead you should aim for a smaller niche. This is easier to rank for as you are establishing yourself, and it also allows you to say something new and interesting that will benefit your audience.
One bad piece of advice that you hear often, is to find ways to “fit” a keyword into what you want to write.
For example, if the keyword is “how to make apps,” you might be advised to use that keyword when writing your article on setting up Android Studio (a tool used to make apps). Why? Because “how to set up Android Studio” is a less popular search term.
BUT if you do this, then you aren’t satisfying the intent of the visitor with your content. And guess what? They won’t stay on your page!
So choose the right keyword for your topic. Go niche. And focus on making a deep and narrow impact, rather than being broadly appealing to people on a surface level.