Digital Marketing - Study Notes:
From keyword research to website content
So, when you have conducted your keyword research by completing the four steps – you’ve selected a topic, brainstormed, reviewed each keyword’s value and difficulty, and then prioritized the keywords – how do you use this procedure, in practice, to improve SEO performance?
Let’s look at a practical example that turns keyword research – implemented according to this approach - –into content for a website. Note that this can be done for pages already existing on your website, or to identify content gaps. Content gaps are pages that don’t exist but could be quite valuable to create.
- Identify the top 10 pages from your website that you would like your site to rank for on search engines.
- Create a spreadsheet to keep track of your keyword research and use the left column to list the topics that you want to research.
- Populate the columns adjacent to your topics with one P1 keyword, two P2s, and between zero and ten or more P3 keywords. While the focus will be on your most important keywords, you don’t need to fit them all into your content across a limited number of pages. Doing so might otherwise appear forced, or seem artificial.
- Sometimes you will have to create a new page to rank for a specific keyword. You can justify creating a new page if your existing content doesn’t satisfy the user intent for that keyword, or it can’t be easily adapted to do so.
- Repeat the keyword research for each page and record the details in the spreadsheet.
- Review your findings and explore any relevant topics that aren’t already covered to identify potential content gaps.
- And finally, research further web pages and add any content gaps you’ve identified to your content creation plan.
Clark Boyd
Clark Boyd is CEO and founder of marketing simulations company Novela. He is also a digital strategy consultant, author, and trainer. Over the last 12 years, he has devised and implemented international marketing strategies for brands including American Express, Adidas, and General Motors.
Today, Clark works with business schools at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and Columbia University to design and deliver their executive-education courses on data analytics and digital marketing.
Clark is a certified Google trainer and runs Google workshops across Europe and the Middle East. This year, he has delivered keynote speeches at leadership events in Latin America, Europe, and the US. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Slideshare. He writes regularly on Medium and you can subscribe to his email newsletter, hi, tech.
Neil Patel
Neil Patel is the co-founder of NP Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.
Nikki Lam
Nikki Lam is Senior Director of SEO at Neil Patel Digital, where she oversees the Organic Search offering, leads a growing team of over 20 passionate Search strategists, and assists in award-winning SEO campaigns for NP’s growing roster of enterprise and Fortune 1000 clients.
Joe Williams
Joe Williams teaches search engine optimization at Joe Wills. He holds a degree in Computing Informatics, and he’s been an SEO specialist for over 15 years. He’s consulted and trained many large blue-chip companies including The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, and Sky. He's on a mission to make SEO easy, fun, and profitable. You can catch him on X and LinkedIn.
