Keyword Research, Blogging, and Backlinks in 2024 (Part 2) – Semrush Edition

Hey everyone, 

Okay, part 2 of this series is going to be focused on using your existing keyword profile to find additional keywords for content ideas.

Part 1 was focused on using Semrush to find “Easy” and “Very Easy” COMPETITOR keywords.

What we’re going to do in part 2 is to go through your entire website and find all the keywords that you rank for in the top 100 positions on Google.

Then we’re going to separate these into 3 different categories for you to focus your keyword research and content writing on.

So, let’s get to it.

3 Different Types of Keywords From Your Existing Keyword Profile

So, what we’re going to do is use Semrush to find more keyword opportunities based on the keywords you’ve already used and the content you’ve already written.

These can be separated into 3 distinct categories:

• Keywords ranking from position 1-15 = Low Hanging Fruits
• Keywords ranking from position 16-50 = Existing Keywords
• Keywords ranking from position 51-100 = Clustering Opportunity

So, to quickly explain these.

Firstly, you’ll always want to target your low hanging fruit keywords.

Google is literally telling you that it prefers these types of keywords to be used in content on your website, as they are already ranking you for these keywords.

Secondly, you have your existing keywords, whereby you’re not ranking great, so therefore they may be opportunities to either improve these articles to better target search intent, or perhaps even to find backlink opportunities to improve the ranking of these articles (I’ll cover this is a future article).

Finally, we have your clustering opportunity keywords, thereby your articles that are ranking in positions 51-100 for specific keywords.

Realistically, this final category you probably haven’t hit search intent very well, there’s far too much competition for the keyword you have targeted, or you simply don’t have enough information around this topic.

Now, the reason these keywords are referred to as “clustering opportunity” will usually mean there is a lot more information that you can write about to target this keyword.

This could mean a much more in-depth article is required.

OR

For those of you familiar with “topic clusters”, this could mean that you can target very closely associated keywords to fully discuss the topic at hand.

There isn’t a specific number to create a topic cluster, so this could be as little as 5 articles on a particular subject (targeting different closely-related keywords) or as many as 50-100.

This very much depends on the niche and the subject at hand.

However, as I say, you should always start with your low hanging fruit keywords (as these are the keywords/articles that Google is already ranking you for) and find similar keywords to write about.

Low Hanging Fruit Keyword Research From Your Existing Keyword Profile

Okay, once more, for this tutorial I’m going to be using Lizzy’s website (and keywords) to find more opportunity (lucky Lizzy, lol).

So, first we we want to go to Semrush and click on “Organic Research”, then we will put Lizzy’s website url into the search bar and click search.

This will then list ALL of Lizzy’s keywords that are ranking in Google in positions 1-100.

Now, before I go any further, there’s something kinda relevant, but very interesting to notice here.

And that is that Lizzy’s website appears to have “recovered” somewhat from a previous Helpful Content Update.

The “recovery” started in August 2024, so the exact time that the August 2024 Core Update started, and it has improved even more so in September 2024.

According to Semrush stats in July 2024 Lizzy’s website was ranking for 1,171 keywords in the top 100 in Google.

But, of those keywords 1,062 were ranking in position 51-100 (so, absolutely NO Google traffic from these), and most of the rest of the “ranking keywords” were ranking in position 21-50 (so, once more, likely they weren’t producing any traffic).

In July 2024, according to Semrush, Lizzy had NO keywords ranking in the top 10 of Google.

However, as of August 2024 (when the Core Update hit approx. 15th August), Lizzy was ranking for 3,928 keywords in the top 100, 11 of those keywords ranked position 1-3, and 129 of those keywords ranked position 4-10.

And then, now in September 2024, Lizzy has a total of 5,428 keywords ranking in positions 1-100, with 19 keywords ranking position 1-3 and 206 keywords.ranking position 4-10.

Fingers crossed, it’s looks like Lizzy is “back”, we’ll continue to monitor this in upcoming months and hopefully we’ll continue to see these improvements.

Right, back to the point again, LOL.

So, as I say, we now have a list of ALL of Lizzy’s keywords ranking in Google, positions 1-100.

As I’ve mentioned, we’re going to break these into 3 different categories, and FIRST, we are going to look at Lizzy’s “low hanging fruit” keywords, i.e. ranking from position 1-15.

Firstly, you want to click on “Positions”.

Then, on the next page, click on the “positions” dropdown menu and then change the “custom range” to 1 – 15.

Therefore, this will then give us ALL the keywords that Lizzy is ranking for in Google in positions 1-15.

As I’ve mentioned, these are great keywords to find similar keywords around, as Google seems to “like these keywords on Lizzy’s website” and has therefore ranked her articles around these keywords.

However, we want to go one step further now.

There is a “KD” dropdown menu, which stands for “Keyword Difficulty”, and we initially want to look at the keywords that have a “Very Easy” keyword difficulty (should be very easy to rank for, even easier to rank for if placed on a high authority domain, i.e. “parasite SEO”, but as Lizzy seems to be “recovering” she can target some of these keywords on her own site)

As you can see, Lizzy has a total of 143 keywords on her website that are deemed “very easy to rank for” where she is ranking from position 1-15.

You’ll see that all 143 keywords are listed, now it’s just a case of clicking on each individual keyword (so, Lizzy will need to go through 143 different keywords in total), and then on the next page you will be given a list of relevant and similar keywords.

So, I’ll click on the first keyword of the 143 “very easy well ranked” keywords on Lizzy’s website, which is “Paper Dollhouse Printables” 

This then gives me an overview of statistic for this particular keyword.

(NOTE for Lizzy: If you look at the stats above, I haven’t gone into more detail, but it’s interesting to note that the keyword “Paper Dollhouse Printables” has a much higer traffic volume in the Phillipines and India than in the United States… hmm… do you get much traffic from the Phillipines or India? Something we can discuss together separately, i.e. is it worth trying to target these countries for more traffic, even if the conversion rates are likely to be much poorer? Mainly due to cost of living in these countries)

Then you just need to scroll down slightly to “Keyword Ideas” and we can see that there are 31 keyword variations around “Paper Dollhouse Printables” and one keyword question (YES, you can use semrush keyword tool to find “normal longtail keywords” and “keyword questions”).

We can see there are a total of 31 keyword variations and we just need to click on “View all 31 keywords” to see what they are.

You’ll also notice to the right-hand side there is a “keyword strategy” list, these can be used, click on, and checked for more variations that can be used for more topics to write about, more articles, more topic clusters, etc.

Then, once you’ve clicked on “view all 31 keywords” this will provide you with that list.

Now, remember these are keywords that are very closely related to one of Lizzy’s 143 keywords (that are “very easy” to rank for and ranking in position 1-15).

Now, you do need to be careful here, as you obviously don’t want to write an article with EXACTLY the same search intent, which could lead to “keyword cannibilization”, i.e. lots of articles targeting EXACTLY the same keyword on the same website = NOT GOOD

Sure, lots of articles on your website could rank for the same keywords, but obviously you don’t want to actually target the same PRIMARY keyword in different articles.

So, as an example, when we look at Lizzy’s list of 31 closely related keywords, I probably wouldn’t suggest targeting “free paper dollhouse printables” as the original article is ranking for “paper dollhouse printables” as its primary keyword.

It’s just too close and this can also be obvious to Google as to what you’re trying to do, i.e. I’ll just articles around the same subject, but slightly change the wording to try too trick Google into giving me more rankings = NOT GOOD.

However, when I go further down this list I come across “similar and related” keywords to “paper dollhouse printables” such as:

Dollhouse printables wrapping paper

Dollhouse miniature bakery tissue wax paper box printables

And there’s at least 10 more keywords that are “similar and related” that perhaps Lizzy hasn’t targeted in her original article.

Now, one thing to take into consideration is that a lot of these keywords show as having no “search volume” (no traffic).

However, for those who’ve been following me a while you’ll know that this isn’t something I pay a lot of attention to.

That being said, what I would suggest is using the Google search bar and the autosuggest/autocomplete feature, as well as the “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” to verify whether it’s worth targeting some of these keywords.

Basically, if you type in the first couple of words into the Google search bar (from the 31 “similar and related” keyword list) and it automatically completes the correct keyword, this tells you that there IS search volume (it just hasn’t been picked up yet by keyword research tools).

Google wouldn’t “autosuggest/autocomplete” a keyword automatically if there wasn’t anyone searching for it.

Then again, if I put in the first few words of one of the above 31 keywords and it doesn’t automatically suggest/complete THAT keyword, then put the keyword into the Google search bar anyway, press enter, and then check the People Also Ask and the Related Searches.

Once more, when Google gives you “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” this means that people ARE searching for these phrases in Google.

Let’s have a quick go: 

Let’s try Dollhouse printables wrapping paper (admittedly, in the screenshots I have only put in “printable” and not the plural, “printables”, but it shouldn’t make a great deal of difference.

So, initially, I’ve typed 

Dollhouse Printable W

Into the Google search bar and it has come up with a number of relevant suggestions, but “wrapping paper” is not one of them.

When I type

Dollhouse Printable Wr

Into the Google search bar, sure “wrapping paper” is suggested, but in my mind I had to put most of the keyword in, so realistically it was almost obvious that Google would suggest “wrapping paper”.

Therefore, I would say that there may be some traffic for this keyword, but it isn’t regular traffic, so perhaps only on special occasions, such as Christmas, when wrapping paper is on everyone’s mind.

So, it’s not the best keyword in terms of traffic potential, but it may well be a good seasonal keyword, so perhaps Lizzy could target something like

Dollhouse Printables Christmas Wrapping Paper

The other thing for Lizzy to consider is the intent around this keyword and whether it fits in well to her overall niche,

Personally, I would say that this keyword ISN’T worth an article on its own, but, if Lizzy has an article around “christmas” and “dollhouses”, then perhaps this keyword could form part of an FAQ.

In other words, if Lizzy has an article about Christmas that isn’t ranking on the first page of Google, this could be a good opportunity to update that article and add an FAQ section.

So, let’s try the other way, and put the whole keyword into Google and see what the People Also Ask and Related Searches suggest (we know for sure that these “keywords” definitely have some regular traffic, otherwise Google would suggest them).

I won’t bother with the screenshots because upon checking there are NO People Also Ask queries and NO related searches suggested.

Therefore, realistically this keyword probably gets absolutely no traffic for most of the year and potentially a few searches around Christmas time.

So, once more, not a keyword worth targeting with an entire article (but I still think if Lizzy has an article around “dollhouses and Christmas”, she could add this as part of an FAQ).

Hey, it only takes one visitor to make a sale, so you never know.

That being said, Lizzy still has 30 “similar and related” to “Paper Dollhouse Printables” that she can check.

And then, she still has another 142 keywords (that she is ranking in positions 1-15 for that are “very easy” keywords to rank for) to check through for more article ideas.

So, you would think that there’s a great chance that Lizzy can come up with at least 50 more keywords that are slightly related to some of her already ranking articles, and that are “very easy” to rank for.

Always worth going through.

What About the 16-50 & 51-100 Keywords?

Okay, so I’ve mentioned that you should always initially start your “existing keyword profile” keyword research with the articles (keywords) that are ranking well in positions 1-15.

The next step is to EXACTLY THE SAME Semrush research for your keywords that are ranking 16-50 and also for those ranking 51-100.

However, for these keywords, as they AREN’T ranking as well (and probably producing no traffic) it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to target “similar and related” keywords INITIALLY.

Realistically, for the 16-50 ranking keywords you initially want to check which articles are ranking for these keywords (Semrush will tell you, it provides a link to the article next to all the stats).

So, firstly, is the keyword that is ranking in position 16-50 for that article actually the PRIMARY keyword, i.e. is it the main keyword you actually targeted when you wrote that article?

If not, there are a couple of options here.

Firstly, can you write an entirely new article around that keyword? i.e. write a NEW article using one of the 16-50 ranking keywords as your PRIMARY keyword 

Once more, I would do the Google autosuggest/autocomplete search putting just the first couple of words of that keyword into the Google search bar and see if it is “suggested”.

If so, this means there is some traffic for that keyword, therefore it would probably be a good idea to target it.

However, I would also put that keyword into Semrush under “Keyword Magic Tool” (you’ll see this on the left-hand side) to see what the KD (keyword difficulty) is, as well as other metrics..

If it’s “very easy” or “easy” then sure, immediately use that keyword to write a new article.

If it has slightly more difficulty you will need to make the decision as whether to write the article based on your own website’s authority.

However, for now, I would suggest that everyone mainly targets “very easy” and “easy” keywords, as at a guess, most people won’t have great authority and are unsure how to do outreach for editorial backlinks (once more, this will be covered in a future lesson).

The second way (if the keyword is NOT your primary keyword for that article) is to see if there is anyway you can expand that section of the article to provide more information on that topic (keyword) WITHOUT adding a load of fluff to the article.

As you all hopefully know by now, ONE article can rank for literally thousands and thousands of keywords, most of these keywords won’t rank very high in Google, whereas the PRIMARY keyword you targeted, and some very closely related keywords to the Primary keyword, have a good chance of ranking well, and therefore bringing that article more traffic.

Once more, it is down to YOU to determine whether it worth expanding that PARTICULAR SECTION of your article to see if you can get a SECONDARY keyword, ranking in position 16-50, higher up the rankings.

You can again put that keyword into Semrush and check the search volume.

As an example, if this SECONDARY keyword only gets about 10 visitors per month I probably wouldn’t bother updating that section of the article in order to try to rank higher for that SECONDARY keyword (lot of effort, very little return).

But, let’s say that the SECONDARY keyword has a search volume of 320 according to Semrush, well if I update that section of the article, and my 16-50 ranking SECONDARY keyword get’s onto page one of Google that could easily mean 100 extra visitors per month.

For me, 15-20 minutes to expand ONE section of an article for potentially an extra 100 visitors per month is WORTH IT.

Again, the decision is YOURS to make (and of course, you can always ask me).

Now, when it comes to keywords that are ranking in position 51-100 things are very different.

It’s clear that if your website has keywords that are ranking in positions 51-100, those keywords will not be producing any traffic.

Furthermore, if those keywords were the PRIMARY keyword you targeted that article around, once more, this shows that either the keyword was too competitive for you to target in the first place, or you haven’t hit search intent correctly (a good way to to determine search intent is to simply read the articles ranking in positions 1-3 and see whether your article is along the same lines, if you’ve gone a completely different route then you won’t rank because you haven’t hit “search intent”, or the article simply isn’t good enough to rank higher (it may even be considered “thin content” and you’ve been lucky to actually rank in positions 51-100).

As I’ve mentioned, the keywords you have ranking in positions 51-100 can be called “clustering opportunity keywords”.

Now, I’ve already mentioned “topic clusters” and I have spoken about this for many years previously.

A topic cluster is basically a group of articles, all of which are focused on tiny aspect of your niche.

As an example (and moving away from Lizzy’s niche for a moment), let’s say that your website is focused “weight loss for vegans”.

And one of your articles is about “Vegan breakfasts under 500 calories”.

In this article you have made a listicle of your “5 favourite vegan breakfasts under 500 calories”, but unfortunately your article is ranking for the primary keyword somewhere between positions 51-100.

We then look at the top 3 search results in Google and they have “50”, “42”, and “37” different types of vegan breakfasts under 500 calories.

Clearly, they have gone into much more detail than you, provided many more options for their readers, and it’s also likely that these articles will be shared far more across the internet, i.e. they will receive many more backlinks than you (don’t forget, in order to obtain backlinks “NATURALLY” people have to be able to see you article, so if you’re ranking in position 51-100 people AREN’T ever going to see that article).

Now, the most obvious solution (you would think) would be to expand your original article so it is more in line with what’s ranking in the top 3 positions.

However, another option would be to expand the number of articles that you have around this topic, i.e. create a topic cluster.

So, as an example, this could be

• 11 Tofu Breakfast Recipes For Vegans Under 500 Calories
• 17 Vegan Pizza Breakfast Recipes Under 500 Calories
• 7 Quinoa Breakfast Recipes For Vegans Under 500 Calories
• 13 Vegan Spinach Breakfast Recipes Under 500 Calories
• 21 Vegan Lentil Breakfast Recipes Under 500 Calories

The aim here is to cover as many ingredients in DIFFERENT articles and then interlink all these articles together in order to create a topic cluster.

What you’re generally looking to happen here is that, let’s say you write 20 different articles to cover “Vegan Breakfast Recipes Under 500 Calories”, perhaps 1 or 2 will rank very well.

However, as you have 20 different articles on this subject there is a lot of internal links going in-between these articles and therefore you’re higher ranking articles (higher authority articles – YES, individual articles on your website can have differing levels of “authority”) will pass some “internal link juice” to your lower ranking articles.

Furthermore, when Google sees that you have covered this subject in great detail over a number of articles, this can eventually push that original article (and other articles) that was ranking 51-100 higher in the SERPs.

Realistically, the simplest way to look at it is if you have articles ranking for their PRIMARY keyword in positions 51-100 either your keyword research was poor or didn’t cover the topic in enough detail.

And that is how you use Semrush and your existing keyword profile in order to discover new keywords and new article ideas for you to target.

Thank You For Reading