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The Beginner’s Guide to Keyword Research

What is Keyword Research?

You might have heard a lot of marketers talking about how important keyword research is when developing your marketing strategy. Keyword research is essential if you want your marketing to be successful.

So what exactly is it?

Well, it's exactly what it sounds like – researching keywords. I'm kidding, of course. There's a lot more to it than that.

Keyword research is what we marketers use to find out which alternative search terms people enter into search engines when they're searching for a similar subject. It helps us to understand what people are searching for, and how we can optimize our websites or content to reach those people.

Through keyword research, you can learn a lot about your target keywords. Things like how competitive your keyword is, which competitors rank for that keyword, and other helpful metrics you can use to determine the best keywords for your business. You have to think critically to analyze the metrics for different keywords and determine which ones will work best for you.

Why is Keyword Research so important?

You want people to see your website on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) right? You want people to be able to find your website easily when searching for terms related to your content.

You need keyword research to do this. Keyword research will help you discover different search terms that you might not have considered for your content before. Knowing these terms and adding them to your page so you can rank for them can bring in traffic you otherwise might not be able to reach.

So how do you get started?

First, you need to brainstorm. What basic, relevant topics come to mind when thinking about your business? Be sure to write them down. Come up with 5 to 10 topics and keep them general. These are your jumping-off point.

If you're a blogger or content creator, you'll probably want to pick the topics you write about the most. If you provide a service, what kind of service is it? Who is your customer? What problems are you solving for them?

If you're writing these down, make a separate column for each general topic. In each column, you will begin to list variations of that keyword and other relevant keywords and phrases.

Head Terms vs. Long-Tail Keywords

You'll also notice there are short, basic keywords – we call these head terms. You might also have written down longer phrases and sentences. These are referred to as long-tail keywords. You want to have a good mix of head terms and long-tail keywords. Keep a good balance of both.

Why are long-tail keywords important to include?

Well, consider the competition. A head term like “blogging” is going to be harder to rank for than a long-tail keyword like “how to start a blog” or “tips for writing great blogs.”

The whole point is ranking in the results, right?

Now, it's true that fewer people are going to search for those long-tail keywords. But consider that people searching for long-tail keywords are looking for specific answers to their query. You'll start to bring in higher quality leads who are looking specifically for what you're offering.

Things to Keep in Mind and Questions to Ask

There are certain things you need to consider when doing keyword research. Successful keyword research requires critical thinking and a bit of creativity.

Consider your keyword difficulty. Chances are you're not the only person out there using your keywords. With each relevant keyword you come up with, ask yourself the following questions:

How many people are searching for this keyword?

What is your competition level?

How many sites or business are targeting the same keyword, and how?

These are important factors to consider when coming up with your keywords. If your competition is ranking for certain keywords on your list, start focusing on improving your keywords.

Keyword Research Tools You Can Use

How do you evaluate your competition?

There are tons of Keyword Research Tools out there that will help with this. Many of them require a subscription or some other form of payment. There are some excellent free resources out there for this purpose as well.

Keyword Research Tools can also help you find lesser-used keywords that are relevant to you. If you had trouble brainstorming alternative keywords during the first few steps, you can use these resources to find some.

Google Keyword Planner (Free with Google Ads)

If you are running ads on Google, you should have access to the Google Keyword Planner. This tool from Google works with your Ads account to find new keywords for you.

That's not all you can do with Keyword Planner. It will also provide you with metrics for certain keywords and forecast how they might perform for you in the future.

SEMRush (Free Trial, Paid Sub)

SEMRush is a popular SEO tool used for keyword research. SEMRush does offer a Free Trial, but if you want to unlock all their features and get unlimited searches, you need a paid subscription.

There's a lot you can do with SEMRush, but in this example, we're going to be looking at their Keyword Magic tool. Just type in one of the basic keywords you brainstormed earlier. Make sure you have the “Related” button selected, and click “Apply.”

With this example, I used “digital marketing” as my keyword. You can see that the Keyword Magic tool came up with a lot of results for related keywords – a total of 102,120.

You can see the different keywords in the Keyword column. Notice there is a mixture of head terms and long-tail keywords. If you look to the right, you can find the statistics for each keyword, including how closely the keyword is related to your target (Related %), the average number of monthly searches (Volume), how difficult it would be to outrank your competition (Keyword Difficulty, or KD), the level of competition for that keyword, and the number of organic search results for that keyword.

Keyword Difficulty and Competition are two things you definitely want to consider when choosing your keywords. You want to pick the keywords with the least amount of competition – something that won't be hard to rank for.

Keyword.io (Free to use, PRO membership available)

Keyword.io is a free long-tail keyword research tool that helps you find the best keywords for multiple platforms, including Google, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, and more. Unlike the other tools on this list, Keyword.io does not provide metrics for these keywords (that feature is available with a PRO membership). It's a great free option if you're struggling to come up with unique long-tail keywords that are relevant to your target keyword.

I used Legendary Marketer as an example keyword here. You can see that the Keyword.io tool found 140 long-tail keywords that match “Legendary Marketer”. You can export these keywords by selecting the keywords you want OR clicking “Add All” and then “Export” on the right. Keyword.io lets you copy your keywords to your clipboard, export them as a text document, or even import them into the Amazon Keyword List tool.

UberSuggest (Free to use)

UberSuggest from Neil Patel is a free SEO tool you can use for keyword research. What's cool about UberSuggest is it allows you to look at domains as well as keywords, so you can spy on your competition.

Take a look at this example using the Legendary Marketer domain. UberSuggest shows you the keywords Legendary Marketer ranks for. You can filter by country if you want to view the most effective keywords for a specific part of the world. They also show you what the domain's rank is for a certain keyword on SERPs. You can see that our site ranks first or second for a lot of these keywords.

UberSuggest also has a Keyword Ideas section, where you can plug in your target keyword and get a list of keyword ideas related to your target. UberSuggest will even tell you how competitive the keyword is in addition to showing you the top ranking sites on the Google SERP for that keyword.

Keyword Research can be a complicated subject, but if you’re able to think critically and successfully apply it to your SEO, you’ll start ranking in search results and bringing more traffic to your website. And that’s the ultimate goal, right?

Do you have any tips and tricks for keyword research that I didn’t cover here? Let me know in the comments.

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How to Hack the YouTube Algorithm (And Get Great Results)

David Sharpe bio

It's no secret – video is here to stay.

And YouTube is the place to go for video.

What most people don't realize is that YouTube is a search engine – the second largest search engine online. In fact, YouTube accounts for 14% of all internet traffic worldwide. It's available in 61 countries and languages. Most marketers and small business focus their efforts on Google and Facebook, so there's less competition on YouTube.

YouTube has 1 billion unique users in a month. 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube uploaded every minute. Every month, people view 6 Billion hours of video – almost an hour for every person on earth. Millions of users subscribe to channels every day.

YouTube has a specific algorithm for ranking results. I'm going to show you how you can hack that algorithm to get more views, more engagement, and a higher ranking for your channel and videos.

What is “Ranking”…?

YouTube ranks videos in their search results according to relevancy to the query, as well as viewer engagement.

Obviously, if your video has a high ranking, it will appear higher in the search results and be recommended more.

So how do you increase your video's rank?

YouTube ranking factors are primarily based on viewer activity. The longer viewers watch your videos or stay on your channel, the higher your rank will go.

How can you keep viewers watching?

You have to create quality content, sure, but to keep people watching your videos, you have to get them to click in the first place. This is where people get discouraged – after all, how can you get people to watch your videos (and keep watching) if your video isn't ranking and appearing in search results?

This is where you have to put your SEO hat on.

YOUTUBE SEO HACKS

Here is where your keyword research is important. Your Keywords are the main thing that tells YouTube what your video is about. Try not to use over-used keywords. For example, “Keto Friendly Meal Prep” is much more specific than “Healthy Recipes”. Your video will rank better with a more specific keyword than it will with broad, general keywords.

Title

Your video title is the hardest hitting factor in your SEO. Try to put as many keywords here as possible. Your video title affects your CTR (click-through rate) as it prominently appears in search results.

Obviously, don't sacrifice relevancy for the sake of stuffing as many keywords into your title as you can. YouTube is all about providing relevant content in their search results, so keep your title relevant to the content of your video.

Description

This is the only place to describe what your video is about. Make sure you keep including those keywords. This will make those words bold in the search results page if they directly match the query.

For example, if you're doing a tutorial on how to use iMovie for the iPhone, make sure your description includes those keywords. Take a look at the highlighted portions of the image below for an example of how keywords from the query appear in the search results.

Tags

Adding tags to your video is another way to insert those keywords and increase your rank. This is where you can target lesser-known keywords to get your video to rank for that query. You should put at least 10 relevant keyword tags. Of course, you can put more than that. No need to hold back here – just keep the tags relevant to your video content.

Remember to add variations, plurals, and the like. YouTube does not recognize the difference between a plural and non-plural word, so if you are using the keyword “Marketing Secret” or “Advertising Tip”, make sure you include the plurals as well (“Marketing Secrets”, “Advertising Tips”).

Transcription and Closed Captioning

Did you know YouTube automatically transcribes and captions your videos? They also index your video transcriptions and use it to rank your video by the keywords found in that transcription.

Now, if you take a look at YouTube's auto transcription, it isn't always very accurate. They can miss a lot of keywords or see your video as not being relevant to your tags, title, or description keywords. You can avoid this by providing your own transcription and closed captioning. Make sure your transcription is accurate to what you actually say, and not what a robot hears.

When you add Closed Captioning, your video will have a CC icon indicating it is captioned – check it out:

This little icon can indirectly increase your CTR and help your video rank higher. YouTube actually allows users to filter videos with Closed Captioning, so you can reach a wider audience by adding captions to your videos.

CONTENT AND ENGAGEMENT

YouTube doesn't just use SEO factors when ranking videos. Your content and viewer engagement have a huge impact as well. There are a lot of different factors at play here – your video length, average watch times, quality of the content, likes and comments, favorites, inbound links, embedded videos, and channel authority are just some of the things YouTube looks at when ranking your video.

Channel Authority

Channel Authority is the basis for your individual video rankings. You are entirely in control of your Channel Authority. YouTube determines your channel authority by your content. When you have Channel Authority, your channel will appear in the search results when people search for you.

These are just a few of the factors they consider:

  • How your content is optimized
  • How often you upload and publish content
  • How you promote your videos
  • How engaged your audience is
  • How relevant your tags, title, and description are

The biggest trick here is to stay consistent with delivering valuable content to your viewers and keep them watching.

Content

Content delivery is probably the most important factor in your video rank. If your video content sucks, no SEO tricks will help. Keep your videos useful, informative, and entertaining to your viewers. Be consistent with your upload schedule and keep bringing that value.

Video Length

YouTube's most watched videos are usually around 4 to 6 minutes long. That might not work for your content, and that's okay. Longer videos have become more common recently. Make sure your content is relevant to the topic of your video and avoid going off on tangents.

Viewers are looking for relevant, valuable content that won't waste their time. If you can provide that in a clear, concise, and entertaining manner, your viewers will keep coming back for more.

If you're not sure what your video length should be, experiment! Upload videos of various length and keep an eye on your Analytics. Check out your Audience Retention statistics. We'll get more into Audience Retention later, but I wanted to give you an example of how you can use it to determine what length your videos should be for optimum performance.

For example, the average view duration for my channel in February 2019 was 5 minutes and 45 seconds. In other words, viewers are only watching about 5 minutes of video before clicking off and doing something else.

This tells me people would rather watch shorter videos (around 5 minutes in length) and are more likely to watch those shorter videos until the end.

Viewer Engagement

This is a big one. The point of uploading your video is to get views, right?

Viewer Engagement is about more than just views. Lots of factors come into play here when ranking your video. YouTube considers your watch time, audience retention, likes, dislikes, comments, inbound links, embedded video views, and even response videos.

Views

Your main goal should be to keep your viewership up. Like I said, the whole point of uploading a video to YouTube is to get people to watch it. There are some things you can do to increase your viewership and bring your rank up.

You want to maximize your views immediately. If your video gets a lot of views immediately, it will rank higher. The first few hours are crucial. Make sure you are promoting your video on all social media channels.

Another trick is to set your video to Premier at a certain date and time so your viewers know when to expect your video. They get even get reminders when the video goes live. This helps to increase viewership in the first few hours your video is up.

AGAIN, it is crucial to always share your YouTube video on all of your social media profiles. YouTube makes it very simple to do this – just hit “Share” on your video and you will see an array of sharing options:

This will get the ball rolling and start bringing viewers to your video. Make sure you are sharing your video where it is relevant – YouTube doesn't like it if you spam your links everywhere. Try posting your video link on sites like Quora or Yahoo Answers where people are actively asking questions your video can answer.

Another tip is to ALWAYS ALLOW EMBEDDING on your videos. Embedding makes it possible to take your video outside of YouTube. YouTube still tracks your analytics on embedded videos. So when you embed your YouTube video on a blog post and your readers watch it, YouTube tracks those stats. If someone else embeds your video on their website, you still get those views. It's another opportunity to rake in more views and start ranking higher.

Comments, Likes/Dislikes, and Responses

Getting consistent comments on your videos gives you huge Channel Authority. Keep viewers engaging with your content by engaging back. Reply to their comments, like them, pin the best comments to the top. Your audience will love it if they see you actively engaging with them.

Make sure you ALWAYS include a Call To Action in your video and description. It can be something simple, like “Like this video and comment below” or “Subscribe to my channel and click the bell icon to get notifications.” Remind your viewers to engage with your video beyond just watching it.

You can even give them an incentive to engage with your video. For example, you can promise to upload a highly requested video if you get a certain amount of likes. Another popular method is doing giveaways – giving your viewers a chance to win something for engaging with you. Points for making your giveaway relevant to the content of your video!

This Creator is reviewing a beauty product subscription box, and the items she is giving away are actual products included in the box. She is using a popular method of using comments as entries, meaning that viewers who want to enter the giveaway must comment on the video.

You can also use an outside tool like Gleam.io to run a giveaway and collect entries via various forms of content engagement.

Audience Retention

YouTube measures your Audience Retention and bases your Channel Authority on that. You can keep viewers on your channel longer by creating playlists. Put the links to those playlists in your video descriptions. When you upload a new video that fits into a playlist's topic, add that video to the playlist immediately. You also add end cards to your video linking to other videos or playlists to keep viewers watching.

You want to keep them watching. YouTube will give you a higher rank if your audience retention rate and average view times are high. Keep an eye on your analytics and use your critical thinking skills to figure out if people are sticking around and which type of videos get you the most views and retention.

CONCLUSION

The YouTube algorithm can be a tricky thing to figure out. I hope this sheds some light on how you can tweak your content or channel to use that algorithm to your benefit. If you can start looking at your channel critically and apply these methods correctly, you'll start seeing serious results.

Let me know if you use any of these tips in the comments. How did they work for you? Do you have any other tips to offer that I didn't cover here?

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10 Simple Tricks to Increase Your Facebook Engagement

Standing out on Facebook can be tricky. With over 60 MILLION active business Pages, Facebook is an endless sea of content. Out of all of that content, how can you make someone engage with YOURS?

If you're marketing your business on Facebook, engagement is everything. You have to keep your audience liking, commenting, and sharing. You need your posts to reach as many users as possible. The higher the engagement rate, the higher your reach, which means more eyes viewing your content.

Here are my top ten simple tricks you can start using right away to increase your audience's engagement with your content.

Check them out, and let me know some of your tips in the comments below.


  1. ENGAGE!

Let's start with the most obvious one – engage back! Your audience will be more likely to comment on your post if they see that you are replying to other comments. Keep the conversation going.

Look at other companies to see how they are engaging with their audiences. Starbucks is a great example. Take a look at how they reply to some of the comments on one of their posts:

You should also be engaging with other brands and Pages similar to yours. Chances are, their audience will be interested in your content, too! You can use this to get your name out there. Share or comment on their posts, reply to their audiences' comments, get out there and start making connections.

 

  1. Check Your Insights

Facebook Insights gives you a look at how your page is performing. You can view when your audience is online (which is the best time for you to post)…

You can also which types of posts get the most reach or engagement on your page.

You can see Facebook's suggestions for Pages to Watch, which compares your page to other pages similar to yours. Super useful for finding other pages to engage with, like I mentioned above.

Adjust how you post based on what your Insights tell you. The best time to post is when your audience is online. If your Photo posts get more engagement then your Links and Videos, then post more photos. Just remember to be consistent! CONSISTENCY IS KEY.

 

  1. Invite Engaged Users

You probably already know that you can invite people to like your page, but did you know you can specifically invite users who have already engaged with your posts?

It's a simple trick I've seen used a lot. Just look for one of your recent posts with the most engagement.

Here's where it gets cool:

You can click on the reactions area to view every user who has engaged with that post.

See that little “Invite” button there on the right? That means this person is not a fan of your page – yet. Just click that button and invite any users who don't currently like your page.

Chances are, if they've engaged with your content previously, they would be interested in seeing more. Why not invite them to like your page, so they see when you post something new?

If you want to take it a step further, you could always reach out and invite them with a message. It adds a nice personal touch to your invitation.

You don't need to wax poetic about why you think they'll love your page – just send them a simple message saying you noticed they like your content, and invite them to like your page. It's easy and effective in establishing a connection with your audience.

 

  1. Include CTAs in Every Post

Your fans are more likely to engage with your post if you include a Call-To-Action at the end. There are the more obvious Calls-to-Action, like asking them to click, like, comment and share the post with their friends.

You can also get creative by asking open-ended questions. Ask your audience to fill in the blank. Ask if they prefer this or that. Ask what they would do in a particular situation. Make them think.

Add a Call-To-Action to every post you make, even if it's just asking for a like. Your fans will be more likely to engage with something that asks for a response.

Here are some basic examples you can throw at the end of almost any post to drum up engagement:

  • “Like if you agree!”
  • “Let me know your thoughts in the comments.”
  • “Share this with someone who needs to see it.”
  • “Don't forget to like and comment!”
  • “Tag a friend in the comments.”
  • “What do YOU think?”

 

  1. Images are Everything

Research shows that Facebook posts with images see more than twice the engagement that links and text posts do. Keep your audience interested in your content by being dynamic with what you post.

Share images from other pages or create your own branded content. While it's true that memes and motivational quotes tend to get more engagement, don't be afraid to throw some personal photos in there once in a while. Your audience will feel more of a connection with you if you do.

 

  1. Stay Away From Confusing Jargon

Imagine listening to a lecture about quantum mechanics without knowing anything about the subject. You'd be confused, right? Maybe you'd feel a bit alienated.

That's what happens when you overuse jargon in your content.

While it's true that some of your audience might understand the more technical terms used in your niche, you can't always assume the reader knows what you're talking about. They might not know the terminology. Keep your language simple and easy to understand – your fans will appreciate it.

 

  1. Make Your Audience Feel Valued

If your audience feels appreciated, they'll keep coming back for more. A popular method for garnering tons of engagement is offering a contest or giveaway. Who doesn't love free stuff?

One common method is to host a giveaway of one of your products (it doesn't have to be your product, but it doesn't hurt!). Have your audience share the post or tag someone in the comments to enter the giveaway. The more it gets shared or tagged, the more people it will reach. The more people it reaches, the more people will enter by sharing it with their friends. It's a great way to get your content spread around.

Take a look at this Facebook Giveaway example from 1-800-Flowers. It’s a great example of using engagement as the entry criteria for a giveaway.

 

  1. Go Live with Facebook Video

Give your audience a behind-the-curtain look at your brand by doing Facebook Live videos. You don't need to worry about fancy video production here – be authentic and keep it unscripted. Keep it fun. Give your audience insight into the human element behind the scenes.

Facebook Lives get a ton of engagement from fans, so if you want to boost those numbers, try doing a quick live video while your audience is online (remember – check those Insights). Try doing one or two short live videos every day to get a feel for what works best for your page.

 

  1. Keep Delivering That Value

One thing your audience will appreciate more than anything is  VALUE. Providing value in your content is one of the best things you can do for your brand. If you provide value in your posts, whether by sharing something new, teaching them something, or giving them something they can use people will flock to you.

Now, for me, I like to do this with things like short videos or text posts where I break things down and teach my audience something. I'm a marketer, so I'm always giving my audience marketing tips and advice. Figure out what kind of value your audience is looking for you to provide, then make sure you deliver!

The important thing to remember is: you need to keep delivering that value consistently, or it won't matter.

 

  1. Use Trending Topics, Articles, and Hashtags

Trending Topics are “Trending” for a reason: they're hot. People click on them. And the truth is, they get more engagement than most other things out there. If there's a trending topic in your niche, make a post about it!

Find a popular article or video and share it on your page – add your own commentary, too. Your audience wants to know YOUR thoughts, so don't be afraid to let them know how you feel.

You can also try creating your own original content around that topic. Write out your thoughts in a text post. Set up a poll. Shoot a quick rant video.

Make sure you find out which hashtags are popular in your niche and add them to your posts. Don't go overboard with those hashtags though – posts with fewer hashtags get the most engagement.

So there you have it: my top ten simple tricks to increase your engagement on Facebook. If you can successfully start using these tricks, you'll begin to see those engagement rates go up tremendously. So try some of them out, and let me know how they worked for you.

Do you have any tricks to get more engagement that I didn't cover here? Let me know in the comments.

 

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