3 types of keywords that improve your ranking

Visibility in search engines is absolutely critical if you want your personas to find your website and get the answers to the questions they are asking or challenges they are facing. But how can you gain more visibility?

There is a lot of work to be done in order to grab that first place in a search result in Google, but luckily there are also many smaller measures you can implement to increase visibility – without necessarily having to go for the top score in the search engines.

Among other things, there are some types of keywords that will make a bigger difference for your SEO than others, and here are three of them: 

1. Popular Keywords

It can pay off to be flexible enough to embrace a new trend when it emerges. Is there a particular issue that is featured in the media or a new phenomenon you can observe? Being first out with a new and popular keyword can have a big impact on the rankings in the search result.

Take a look at Google Trends, keep an eye on the news, and subscribe to blogs from countries that might be ahead in some areas. This way you can be first out on the market in your country. Also use Twitter Moments, Facebook Trends or other pages that feature updates related to your industry.

Always make sure that the trend in question is relevant to your business. A healthcare consultant may not want to mention house painting, and a supplier of house paint does not need to write content about a new drug for allergy sufferers.

Also, be sure to share information that is useful to those who read the content. There is little point in delivering content that disappoints the reader right after the first section.

Free checklist: 10 things you must have in place for SEO in 2017

2. Long-tail Keywords

A long-tail keyword is usually phrases that make a search more specific. “Inbound marketing” is a general search phrase that will provide a broad search result. However, if you search “inbound marketing agency in Oslo” you will get a much more specified result.

It is often far more difficult to rank high in search results for general, shorter searches. Although they may provide higher search volume, those who enter more specific searches will often be more aware of what they are looking for, and thus often more ready to purchase.

If you are working with inbound marketing, it will be advisable to try to reach out to your particular personas rather than try to hit absolutely everyone.

Carefully consider what phrases these people use, how they express themselves, and how they think. Then test your hypotheses by trying different variations and combinations to see what works best.

3. Keywords You Already Rank For

If you already have produced content for a while, you do not need to tear the house down and start building it up again. Look at the statistics for the content you've already published, as well as the organic traffic this has caused.

Are there any keywords relevant to your business that you do not have content for, but as a business still get traffic from? Even though you already appear in the search result, it is always possible to rank better.

Look at what information and topics you can produce and publish that are useful to your personas, and plan articles, website content, and downloadable content around this.

Also, take a look at which blog posts have performed best. Do you have new information or other angles that fit this topic? Are there any points you can draw from and write separate blog posts about?

We could, for example, have written a whole separate blog post about how you can analyze your keywords so that you can rank even higher for keywords that already make you visible.

It's clear that people already use these searches and that they do find you, so this is more about becoming visible to even more people who think similarly, and might need your help.