Are You Using The Right Keywords For Your Business?

Not all keywords were made equal.

Choosing the correct keywords is essential to your SEO content strategy.

It’s even more challenging for newer or smaller businesses with low site domain ratings (DRs) to try and compete with the big dogs.

If your site has a low to medium DR, here’s how to choose the best keywords for your content:

The keywords that Deloitte can rank for will be different than those a small startup in the same industry may have a chance at.

It’s important to remember two things:

✅   Keyword difficulty is relative.

✅   You can’t make an informed decision without analyzing the search engine results page (SERP).

It can be tempting to take one look at the keyword overview to make your decision, but the real insights lie in the SERP.

It all comes down to the quality and strength of your own site compared to the other content ranking.

We may look at the overview of the term below and consider it a dead-end.

But, the SERP indicates some opportunity to rank.

Similarly, the term below looks like you’ve struck gold.

But, the SERP tells a slightly different story.

The ranking sites offer high-quality content, and the DRs may be slightly too competitive for smaller startup sites to rank against.

It’s not an impossible term to rank for, but it’s an example of relative keyword difficulty.

When choosing your keywords based on competitiveness, remember to consider these three key points:

✅   The DRs of the sites ranking – can you compete?

✅   Is the quality of your content better than the sites that are ranking?

✅   Is the search intent behind the term better suited to your business than it is to those ranking?

Generic, broad keywords can be tempting.

They’re often the obvious choice, and it feels like you should be ranking for them,

However, the problem with generic keywords is that they attract a far wider audience than your content could be relevant to.

You want to narrow your keywords down to match the search intent of your ideal customer profile; otherwise, you’ll get a lot of unnecessary traffic.

Instead, use those broad terms as your starting point and dig deeper.

Ahrefs provides you with loads of similar search terms to explore—this is a great place to find different avenues.

Next time you’re unsure about the keywords you’ve chosen, take a look at our checklist to make sure your terms are:

✅   High volume.

✅   Low competition.

✅   High user intent.

✅   Relevant to the service.

✅   Brand enhancing.

✅   Relevant in-house expertise.

Let’s get out there and rank 📈