If you know what SEO is, then you know how important keyword research is.
If you don't know what SEO is, then let me tell you that for online marketers and content creators, keyword research is important.
And, I believe that if enough Steemians implemented one specific keyword research tactic with their posts, we could bring at least 2x more traffic to Steemit within a fairly short timeframe
Below, I will outline how you can capitalize on the types of keywords that will bring your posts (and Steemit) an enormous amount of new traffic.
NOTE: For the sake of clarity, I'm going to write this post for those out there who aren't familiar with SEO or keyword research. If you are familiar with SEO and keyword research, then you can skip the next few sections.
A Quick Run Down on Why Keywords Are So Important
Every time you search for something in Google, you first have to type in a keyword that you think will bring up the most relevant information for what you are trying to search for.
What you may not know is that there are typically a lot of websites that are competing to be among the first few results you will see for the keyword you just searched for.
This, of course, varies depending on how often the keyword you are searching for is searched for by others.
For instance, the keyword "best credit cards" is going to have a lot more people searching for it than the keyword "best denture removal specialists in phoenix". And, as a result, since so many more people are searching for "best credit cards," you can rest assured that there will also be a lot more websites who are trying to rank highly in Google's search results for that term.
However, these two keyword examples only represent the extreme ends of the spectrum. What about all of the keywords in the middle?
If only we had a way to estimate how many searches per month a specific keyword was getting!
Fortunately, we do have a way.... but, what would we do with that information if we did have it?
Why It's Helpful to Know Which Keywords Are Getting Searched for the Most
Most people on Steemit are likely here to create content. And, most content creators want their content to be seen.
There are a lot of different ways to get your content seen. One of those ways is from search engines.
Right now, Steemit gets an estimated 4,500,000 visitors (more on how I get that estimation in a moment) per month from organic search traffic alone. That is a ton of traffic.
What this means is that Steemit is showing up high in the search results for a lot of different keywords.
And, it makes sense, too, doesn't it? Steemit has a huge army of content creators producing an insane amount of content on a variety of subjects every day.
Some of that content gets picked up by the search engines and some of it ranks high for certain keywords that a lot of people are searching for each month.
But not everyone on Steemit is intentionally targetting the types of keywords that get a lot of searches. Most people, I'm guessing, are just creating content that they want to create. Or, they are creating content that they think others want them to create.
However, with the right keyword research, we can start creating the type of content that we know people want us to create. And, we can do so while still creating the kind of content we want to create.
By finding keywords that get a lot of searches per month and that are relevant to the topics that we want to create content around, we can have the best of both worlds.
And, the way to find those keywords is with a keyword research tool.
Keyword Research Tools, Search Estimates, and Keyword Difficulty
There are a ton of different keyword research tools out there. The more popular options include:
- AHREFS (which I will use in this post)
- SEMRush
- Long Tail Pro
- Google's Keyword Planner
These tools all provide a variety of different functions. But each of them can provide you with monthly search estimations for any given keyword.
Let me demonstrate by using AHREFS. We'll check how many searches per month the term "best credit cards" gets...
Entering "best credit cards" into that field and hitting the search button gives us this...
From this image, we can see that, according to AHREFS, the term "best credit cards" gets an estimated 188,000 searches per month.
So, now, instead of just assuming that a lot of people are searching for "best credit cards," we actually have a number that can confirm our assumption.
But, how can this information help us? Should we all start writing posts on the "best credit cards" in order to bring 10x the amount of traffic to Steemit?
Nope. That likely wouldn't work.
The problem is that "best credit cards" is an extremely competitive keyword.
How do we know it's competitive? Well, just like how we could all guess that a lot of people were searching for "best credit cards" each month, we could also all probably assume that there are a lot of websites trying to show up among the top results that are being displayed for that term.
And, just like how we can confirm whether or not a certain keyword is getting a lot of searches per month by using a keyword research tool (AHREFS in particular), we can also use that same tool to see how competitive that search term is.
The more competitive a term is, the harder it is to get a piece of content that targets that term to rank highly in the search results.
With AHREFS, you can check how competitive a keyword is with their Keyword Difficulty estimate:
As you can see, "best credit cards" has a difficult score of 49.
And, without getting into too much of the specifics, I can tell you that the keyword difficulty score on AHREFS generally works as follows:
0-10: Not a lot of competition (easy to rank for)
10-20: A little bit of competition (somewhat easy to rank for)
20-30: A moderate amount of competition (somewhat difficult to rank for)
30-40: A lot of competition (difficult to rank for)
40+: Extreme competition (extremely hard to rank for)
So, now, we can confirm that the term "best credit cards" has a lot of competition and it will be hard to rank for.
Is it possible to rank for that term?
Yes, of course. Anything is possible.
However, it would take an enormous amount of effort to beat the competition and rank high for the term "best credit cards."
Without getting into the specifics, Google has an algorithm (as do the other smaller search engines) that they use to determine which websites show up among the top results for a given keyword. Google's algorithm looks at a ton of different factors, all of which get weighed together to determine which website offers the best answer for the people who are searching for that keyword.
The website that appeases Google's algorithm the most gets awarded the top position in the search results.
And, the more competition there is for a specific keyword, the more factors that Google's algorithm will bring into play to in order to determine which site is best suited to show up in the top positions.
But---and this is important for the purpose of this article---on the flip side of that, the less competition there is, the less results Google will have to sort through in order to determine which website can provide the best answer to the searched-for term and the easier it will be to rank for that term.
So, finally, we get to what I am proposing... my proposal is this...
250 of us Steemians each find 10 keywords that average at least 1,000-2,000 searches per month and have a keyword difficulty score lower than 7. Then each Steemian writes a new high-quality post for each of those 10 keywords.
The Math Behind It
- 250 Steemians x 10 keywords/articles each = 2,500 new keywords/articles
- 2,500 keywords/articles x 2,000 average monthly searches = 5,000,000 organic searches
That's a potential 5,000,000 extra organic searches that Steemit could show up for per month!
Of course, all 5,000,000 of those organic searches wouldn't all click on Steemit, even if it were ranking first for every single keyword targeted.
However, the other thing to note is that this doesn't consider the variations of the keywords we targeted and their average monthly searches.
What I mean by this is that if I write a post on the best credit cards, and it ranks well for the term "best credit cards," it might also rank well for the terms:
- best credit card (29,000 searches per month)
- best cash back credit cards (36,000 searches per month)
- best travel credit cards (18,000 searches per month)
So, the potential to rank for other variations of the 10 keywords you are targeting also exists and, as such, the actual number of new organic searches we would be targetting would likely be even higher than 5,000,000.
And, if Steemit could show up on the first page of Google's search results for ~7-8 million extra searches than it is currently getting, there is the potential to bring in another 3-4 million (or more) visitors per month, thus doubling the traffic to the website.
Is the math perfect? Not really. But it's one of those "shoot for the moon" type of scenarios where even if you miss the targeted goal, there is still the potential to bring a ton of more traffic to Steemit and to your own posts.
The difficult part is obviously going to be getting 250 people (or more) to commit to 10 new posts (or more). But, if we pulled it off, the platform would be getting even more exposure than it is now. And, that's not a bad thing.
How to Find High Volume Keywords With Little Competition
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "Sure, Brent, easier said than done! How are we going to find 2,500 new keywords that get at least 1,000 searches per month and have a keyword difficulty score that is less than 7?!"
Well, AHREFS also has a neat feature that allows you put in a website's root domain and it will show you every keyword that that site is ranking for, and what position it ranks for each keyword (as well as the search metrics on that keyword.)
This is how I came up with the estimated monthly organic search traffic for Steemit:
After entering in Steemit.com into the field, you just hit enter:
There you can see that AHREFS estimates that Steemit is getting approximately 4,500,00 visitors per month via organic search.
NOTE: This isn't representative of Steemit's actual traffic numbers. A lot of people come to the site (especially current users) through other means.
If I want to go further, I can also check and see all of the keywords that Steemit is ranking for.
Once I click on the 'Organic keywords tab' I can see everything that Steemit is ranking for. And, from there I can filter the results by ranking position, search volume, and keyword difficulty (as well as a few other options, too).
After setting my filters, I'm left with all of the keywords that Steemit.com ranks for that:
- Are on the first page of the results
- Have an average monthly search volume of at least 1,000
- Have a keyword difficulty score of less than 7
Right here we can see that Steemit.com is ranking for over 1,500 different keywords that match the criteria we're looking for.
But where are we going to find 2,500 more?
Well, we know that if we plug a site into AHREFS that we will get back a list of all the keywords they rank for. So, if we can find other sites that are ranking for a lot of keywords that match our criteria, we can start adding keywords to our list.
What would really be helpful is if we could find another huge site that targeted a wide range of keywords...
A site that also produces a massive amount of content every day...
A site like...
Reddit!
Let's check Reddit and see what we come up with...
An estimated 234,000,000 visitors from organic search per month.
I think we can work with this. Let's filter the list to see how many keywords Reddit is ranking for that match the criteria we are looking for.
Reddit is currently ranking on the first page for 234,230 keywords that match our criteria. Of course, I could filter that down further to come up with a better list (for example, I should probably exclude any keywords that contain "reddit" in them.)
But, again, in my estimation, all we need to do to double the organic traffic to Steemit.com is to find 2,500 keywords out of that bunch that we can write quality content on.
I think we can do it.
Why Reddit is Ripe for the Taking
Again, I don't really want to dive too deeply into Google's ranking algorithm and how it determines what pages should rank atop their search results. That's partly because it is a big subject and partly because I am probably not the best one to cover it.
However, I do want to note a few of the bigger factors that Google's algorithm does look at when determining where to place websites for specific keywords:
- The number and quality of backlinks pointing back to the page that is targetting the keyword
- The overall authority of the website that the page is on (mostly determined by the number and quality of backlinks that are pointing to other pages on the website)
- How high of quality the content is on the page
It's important to differentiate between the overall quality of the website as a whole and the overall quality of the single page that is targeting the specific keyword.
It's also important to note that Google considers the quality of the content on the page that is targeting the specific keyword.
I'll explain why these factors are important with two examples.
Let's say that I have just started a brand new website and I am going to write an article about building a pond in my backyard. And, I'm going to target the keyword "how to build a pond".
In this instance, if I were to write a quality article on how to build a pond, do you think I would rank highly for the term "how to build a pond?"
The answer to that is, no. At least, not at first.
Google doesn't trust my brand new website. Of all the millions of pages that it has crawled, it has never seen my new site pop up. So, it's not going to rank my site for the keyword "how to build a pond" unless I prove to Google that my site is worthy.
On the other hand, if someone goes on Reddit and writes a post on how to build a pond, I guarantee you that that post will rank above my post---even if that post on Reddit doesn't answer the question as well as mine does.
Because Google's algorithm views Reddit as such an authority, Google will trust that the post on Reddit answers the query on "how to build a pond" better than my new website that Google has never seen before.
But, if I were to give my new website four-to-five months (and up to a year) and gain a few quality backlinks here and there, and maybe build a decent social media following and get some traffic going to my site, I might have a shot of outranking that Reddit post for the term "how to build a pond."
And, this is because, despite the insane authority that Reddit has, the big problem with Reddit is that it doesn't often feature long-form high-quality content.
Reddit typically consists of shorter posts, or images, or links to other websites.
And, that is not the ideal type of content that Google wants to show in their search results.
Yet, as we saw above, Reddit is showing up for a ridiculous number of search results. However, we know from the filters we applied that a lot of those keywords are low competition.
So, in the cases of the low-competition keywords, what is happening is that Google doesn't have any other options to display. So, instead, they just display a relevant Reddit post because of how much authority Reddit (as a whole) has.
And, that is where Steemit (and us) hold an advantage over Reddit.
Reddit isn't really tailored for long-form high-quality content. But, Steemit is.
Reddit also isn't set up to be that SEO friendly. Steemit is. (Or, at least, it appears to be.)
And, it's not like Steemit is just some new website that only has a little bit of authority. Steemit is one of the largest websites in the world! It has 15.5 million backlinks pointing to it!
So, in my opinion, Steemit has a foundation that is more accommodating to the types of content that Google wants to see than what Reddit has.
If Reddit can rank for these keywords with below average content based mostly off of its authority, then imagine what Steemit can do with legitimate content along with a massive amount of authority?
If You Want to Join Me, Here's My Plan and How I Will Carry It Out
If you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk. So, over the course of the next few weeks, I'm going to write a few more posts that detail finding the keywords and writing articles that target them.
Here's my step-by-step plan:
- First, I'm going to find 10 keywords (all tech-related most likely) that get at least 1,000 average searches per month and have a keyword difficulty score of less than 7.
- Then, I'm going to write high-quality content that targets those keywords and post that content here on Steemit.
- Finally, I'll track those keywords and see if/when my articles start showing up on the first page for those terms.
Along with writing the 10 posts, I'm also going to be writing a post (and possibly doing a video) on how I found the keywords I came up with.
So, I will basically be giving an over-the-shoulder look at how I come up with the 10 keywords that I will target for this experiment.
Then, I'll likely come back and provide some updates on how my posts are ranking. That way you'll not only get a step-by-step plan on how to target the right keywords and write the right content, but, hopefully, you'll get visual proof that the method works as well.
The Potential Pitfalls of this Plan
I'll admit, this plan isn't perfect. There are plenty of issues that can---and likely will---arise.
For instance...
1) Again, getting 250 people on board to write 10 articles each isn't going to be easy.
Getting 250 people together to do anything is difficult. But even if we get 20-30 people doing it, we could make a sizable increase in the amount of traffic Steemit gets. Especially if it's a dedicated 20-30 people who can commit to more than 10 posts each.
2) Also, getting 250 people to find the right keywords is going to be difficult.
In my opinion, AHREFS provides the best keyword difficulty metric. There are other options out there, but they're all pretty expensive. So, not everyone is going to want to fork out the money to use these tools. A lot of them do have free trials that you can use to find your 10 keywords, though. And, if you want, I can help you find 10 keywords that are relevant to the topics you want to write about. Just leave a comment or message me.**
3) If 250 people each pick out 10 keywords, some people are likely going to pick the same keywords to write about.
This could cause problems with "keyword cannibalization." However, with a user-generated content platform like Steemit, I don't think there's any way to avoid that. Ideally, we could figure out a way to ensure we're all targeting different keywords, but I'm not sure how we could accomplish that on such a large scale.
4) We'd also likely have users choose keywords that Steemit is already ranking high for.
So, when picking your keywords, you'd also want to cross-check them with the keywords that Steemit is already ranking for.
5) Not all of the keywords that Reddit was ranking for are practical.
For instance, some of the big keywords that are low-competition that Reddit is ranking for are based on popular subreddit names.
6) AHREFS keyword volume data isn't perfect.
For instance, some of the estimated search volumes are based on aging trends. We know this is true, because AHREFS says that the keyword "where do i vote in the 2016 united states election" is getting 865,000 searches per month. And, I'm pretty sure that isn't true. So, some keywords could be showing false volumes.
7) Steemit's Ideal Traffic Source Probably Isn't From Google
The other thing to note is that Steemit probably doesn't benefit from organic traffic as much as a traditional website. Steemit's main goal is to get users to signup for and use the platform. So, even if we did double the organic search traffic to Steemit, that probably doesn't mean we'll double the number of people who want to join Steemit. A lot of people will click on the Steemit articles that we have written, get the information they need, leave, and then never think twice about what Steemit is.
Still, Though, The More Organic Traffic, The Better
Ultimately, though, this is one of those scenarios where even if we accomplished a quarter of what I'm proposing, Steemit would be getting a decent amount more organic search traffic every month.
And, the more people that stumble onto Steemit every month, the faster it will grow, and the better off we will all be!
What You Should Do Now
If you're still confused on how to carry out the keyword research for this strategy, follow me so you'll get updates on the upcoming posts where I will explain it in more detail.
Again, in the coming weeks (or sooner), I'll be doing a walkthrough of the strategy outlined in this post to show you the exact keywords I come up with to write about. So, if you're interested in this strategy, but you're not quite sure on how to implement it, stay tuned as I will attempt to simplify it more for you.
If you're already SEO-savvy and you want to join me in trying to get more organic search traffic to Steemit and to your feed, you probably already know what to do: find high-search-volume/low-competition keywords, and start creating content around them!
Also, as I've said above, if you don't have AHREFS, or you've already used their free trial, just comment below (or message me) with the niche you want to write about and I will find you 10 keywords you can target.
In any case, though, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this strategy. Are you interested in participating? Do you think it will work? Could it be improved in anyway? Let me know in the comments!