Keyword research is the solid foundation your content needs to gain organic traffic. You have to find the right keywords, analyze the keyword difficulty, and use them wisely.
I have been using the SEMrush Keyword Difficulty Tool for quite a while now. It makes the whole keyword research process much easier and organized.
Table Of Contents
How the SEMrush keyword difficulty tool works
You can find the SEMrush Keyword Difficulty Tool in your dashboard under Keyword Analytics.
At a single go, you can type in up to 100 keywords, one keyword per line. After listing down all the keywords, click on show difficulty.
You’ll see a table like in the picture above. In the columns, you can see the keyword difficulty, the number of results, and SERP features.
How to choose the keywords
The first thing you should do is set your location. You will find just above the typing area, labeled as Database: Country name. In the picture above, the location is set to the United States.
You can select only one country at a time. If you want to work with different locations, you will have to repeat the entire process.
Also Read: Improve Readability Because It Affects Your SEO
Analyze the data you get in the report for keyword research
The first column in the report has all the keywords you typed. These keywords are clickable. If you click on them, you will be redirected to a page that shows an overview of that particular keyword.
This overview consists of summary, trend, and top 20 organic results from that keyword.
How to use the keyword overview report
It shows the average CPC to bid on that keyword. The number of results on Google and search volume per month will tell you how difficult or easy it will be to rank for this keyword.
The trend shows you if the number of searches for the keyword is increasing over time or decreasing. If it is currently trending, it is a good opportunity to start drafting content around it to get more traffic.
Check out the related keywords to get an idea of a broader spectrum of keywords that are similar to your subject. This way, you can reach a wider audience.
Try to use the questions that people mostly search for around this keyword in your content. If you include these questions in your keyword research in your sub-headings, it can help you rank higher in search engine results.
Also Read: How to Create & Edit Reusable Blocks in WordPress
What determines the keyword difficulty?
The second column shows you the keyword difficulty score out of 100.
It is an estimation of how difficult it will be to overtake competitors’ positions in organic search for that particular keyword.
The third column shows the number of monthly search queries for the given keyword. You can click on the arrows above and below Volume to sort by ascending or descending order.
The results column shows you the number of URLs in the organic search results for the given keyword. Click on the arrow to sort the results in ascending/descending order.
The last column is SERP Source.
You can click anywhere in the box to get the SERP for the keyword:
- Traffic from search engines
- How many keywords have organic rankings
- What are some of the keywords they rank for (you can use this to add more keywords back into your search)
- Who are some of their competitors
You can export the report of the SEMrush keyword difficulty tool on your system. The available formats are Excel, CSV, and CSV semicolon.
Once you export the data, you can add additional metrics such as Page Authority, Domain Authority, Mozrank, Trustflow and CitationFlow.
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