The question we’re going to answer here is:
Specifically…
You’re going to decide which keywords are really worth your time.
Then, you’re going to put them in order of priority.
Here’s how…
Eliminate Any Obvious Losers
After using The Power of Observation to look at:
- Your keywords
- Current SERPs
You can probably see some clear losers. These will likely be the ones that:
- Have high difficulty
- Show low search volumes
- Have high numbers of page level backlinks
- Don’t feel 100% relevant
Let me remind you:
You don’t have time for keywords that won’t benefit you!
We are looking to build an SEO strategy that offers the the path of least resistance and maximum ROI.Here’s how I eliminated the obvious losers from my spreadsheet:
Doing this will take a good chunk of potential content off the table.
Now:
We are going to collect some optional data to get a better idea of the resource requirements for each potential piece of content.
Optional Data Collection For Smarter Decisions
Surfer SEO is a tool that analyzes over 500 different ranking factors.
I use this tool to get an indication of the ideal word count for a piece of content.
It might be that “perfect keyword” you want to target needs you to invest time, effort and money into producing a 15,000 word monster guide.
Where as you could divide that same word count between a spread of 6 keywords that give you a higher search volume in total while building out a complete topic.
Knowing the exact “resource cost” is essential to managing a cost efficient SEO strategy,
Now:
If you read most SEO blogs, they’ll likely tell you:
- “You need to 10x your content!”
- “The longer, the better!”
- “Short-form content doesn’t rank well!”
But what I’ve found is it’s not about writing long- or short-form content.
It’s about writing content in a way that Google AND readers want.
For example:
Following traditional advice, I wrote a 68x point SEMRush review and created a page that was 27,000x words in length.
The post was EPIC…but it honestly never ranked that well.
When I ran it through Surfer SEO it told me to remove 22,000x words from the post.
Weird advice, right?
But I went along with it to see what would happen. I reduced it to just under 5000x words.
The post then shot up to the number 1x position.
Watch this video to see for yourself:
These content length recommendations are priceless and rooted in live data from the real time search results.
It’s the power of observation on steroids.
We’ll use Surfer SEO later on to help with our content strategy and writing because they have it down to an exact science. I highly recommend grabbing their 7-day $1 trial.
Once you’ve done that:
Go ahead and add an extra column to the [6] FINAL STRATEGY tab of your Topic Research Spreadsheet called “Words Required”:
Then follow the steps in this video to populate the column-
Once you have finished:
You’ll have a complete overview of your keywords, the resources required to create content and roughly how many links you’ll need to build.
How To Choose Which Content To Create First
Each of your keywords will be different.
They’ll all offer different:
- Word counts
- Relevancy to the business
- Intent
- Search competition
- Resources required (graphics, videos, link building, etc.)
You need to identify the content that offers you:
- The MOST return for
- The LEAST investment
Let me explain…
It’s better for you to create a post that’s:
- 1000x words
- Low keyword difficulty
- High relevancy
- High intent
- 1000 search volume
Then it would be to create a post that’s:
- 5000x words
- Low keyword difficulty
- High relevancy
- Low intent
- 4000 search volume
Post 1x may be shorter and have a lower search volume. But the mix of RELEVANCY and INTENT makes it valuable.
Keep in mind…
The “value” of a keyword differs from business to business. You need to know what your goal is!
Always prioritize by focusing on high ROI with minimal investment.
With that said:
It’s time to select the primary keyword you’re going to target.
Watch this video to see how to do that:
Final Thoughts…
We now know precisely which keyword you want to target.
For me I am going to build out the racing topic first despite having lower average search volumes than photography, the drone topic requires significantly less resource in content and backlink production.
That means my target keyword is:
Best FPV racing drone
In the next module, I’m going to show you to accelerate your results by selecting which “supporting content” you need to create for your target keyword.
See you over there…