Keyword research is one of the most important aspects of SEO and 93% of keywords only get ten monthly searches or fewer. 

With that said, I see a lot of people struggle with keyword research, and it doesn’t have to be difficult!

Want to know the most effective (and fastest) methods to find great keywords to target?

The remaining content will define what keyword research is, why it’s important for your SEO strategy, and how to target the best keywords for your website. 

Let’s jump in!

What is Keyword Research and Why is it Important?

Keyword research provides valuable insight into the search intent of your target audience. The insight that you can get with these search terms can then help you create an informed content strategy as well as boost your marketing strategy. 

Searchers use keywords to find solutions to any given problem when conducting research online. If your content is successful in SEO, then you get the chance to expose your brand to new audiences.

In fact, 60% of marketers say that inbound (SEO, blog content, etc) is their highest quality source of leads. 

In addition, it’s best not to create content around what you want to tell your audience, it’s a good method to create content around what people want to find. Basically, you want your audience to come to you. 

All of this can be accomplished with easy keyword research methods.

When Do You Need Keyword Research and Where Do You Start?

It’s generally a good idea to perform keyword research before creating any new content for your website. 

Collecting information can be useful when you begin your keyword research. 

It will also help ensure that the content you’re creating is actually something that your audience is looking for.

For example, if you know that only around 8% of search queries are phrased as questions, then you may not target keyword phrases that contain too many questions. 

Google Search Console is also a great tool for research. Your ranking data can help you identify some of your underperforming keywords that are attached to your content. 

You can also find keywords that Google associates with your website that you may have missed. 

When researching for keywords in your industry, you might come up with a set of recurring keywords that also show up on your competitors’ websites. 

Make a list of your competitors, visit their websites, and observe their target set of keywords.  

By knowing which keywords they are using to rank highly, you have a better idea of how to create content for a successful digital marketing strategy.

Let’s move on to some phrases and terms you should know: 

Keyword Research Metrics and Terms To Know

When using keyword research tools, you might see metrics about the keywords you analyzed.

Similar to this:

Here’s a quick overview of each of the major keyword research metrics:

Keyword difficulty

Keyword difficulty is representative of competition. This is the metric we use to determine how difficult it is to rank for a focus keyword. Most keyword research tools provide you with a ranking of keyword difficulty.

If too many high-authority websites with many quality backlinks are ranking highly for your focus keyword, it might be a good idea to search for another keyword with less competition. 

Monthly search volume 

Monthly search volume represents the number of times a keyword was searched in a month and how often it shows on results pages.  

Free SEO tools like Google Trends provide you with an estimate on the number of search queries across longer time periods. It’s also known as keyword search volume on some tools.

Cost-per-click (CPC)

Cost-per-click is the amount of money you spend for each click on one of your PPC ads. This metric is essential because it allows you to quantify the expenses of your Google Ads or Microsoft Ads. 

Here are a few additional terms you may see regarding keyword research:

Keyword stuffing and cannibalization

Many times, keyword cannibalization is the result of keyword stuffing. 

Keyword stuffing is the practice of stuffing pages of content with keywords in hopes it will boost your ranking in SERPs. 

Not only does this not work, but it could also cause Google to penalize your website. 

Keyword cannibalization happens when you have one too many identical or similar keywords that are spread throughout the content of your website. 

As a result, Google can’t tell what content to rank higher. 

That can sometimes mean it will give a higher ranking to the webpage that you aren’t trying to prioritize. 

How to avoid keyword stuffing:

• Pick a primary keyword for your website
• Keep up with keyword density
• Create longer content
• Select secondary keywords
• Add target keyword to page elements

The solutions for keyword cannibalization:

• Restructure your website
• Create new landing pages
• Consolidate your content
• Find better keywords
• Use 301 redirects

With that said, let’s move on to how to conduct SEO keyword research:

How to Conduct Easy Keyword Research 

Now that we’ve talked about the importance of keyword research, it’s time to focus on how to do it. 

Additionally, you can use these steps: 

1. Come up with a keyword topic list

Brainstorming content ideas for your website is a good starting point for keyword research. This is a great time to step in the shoes of your buyer personas and identify which topics your target audience will search about. 

What kind of topics do you want your business website to rank for? If you’re a business in the computer parts industry, for example, you might come up with a list that looks like this:

• Does overclocking damage your CPU?
• What is the difference between CPU and GPU?
• How to assemble a custom PC?

These topics are relevant to the computer industry and represent evergreen content for your website. 

An alternative to finding out what your audience is researching is by looking on online forums such as Reddit and Quora. 

Once you have assembled a sizable topic list, it’s time to identify the keywords that you’ll be using to rank the content in the SERPs. 

There are three major types of keywords:

• Head keywords are popular search terms that have high search volumes. Think of a very general search term like “Christmas cards”.
• Body keywords are two to three words long. For example “digital Christmas cards”.
• Long-tail keywords are phrases that have several words, usually four or more. These tend to be more niche-oriented and hyper-focused on a result. Take a look at “Christmas cards for kids”. 

2. Find “easy win” keywords

Did you know you might be sitting on a hidden pile of gold?

If your site has been around for a while, there’s a good chance that with a few changes you could drastically improve your traffic.

The vast majority of the traffic is on the first page of Google – especially in the top 3 positions, which can account for more than 30 percent of the total traffic!

It’s great to be in the top 3, but what about all the keywords that you’re ranking for below that in positions 4-30?

Google already “likes” you for these keywords and sees you as relevant, you just haven’t broken into the top positions.

So if you could find these keywords that your site is ranking for, and boost them up, you could see a massive jump in traffic!

How do you find these keywords?

You can use our free tool: HOTH Google Rankings Checker.

First, enter your URL and click search. After it gathers the data, it will display a list of keywords that your website is ranking for.

Because most clicks go to the top three positions, look for the keywords ranking in the 4-30 slots and focus on boosting those up.

3. Uncover your competitor’s keywords

The task of brainstorming for new keywords can be daunting. Especially in small niche industries, how many keywords are actually relevant to your company?

The good thing is you can just uncover what your competitors are ranking for!

First, go to our free tool HOTH Keyword Gap Analysis, and type in your competitor’s URLs.

They can be direct competitors (where they sell the same thing you do) or indirect competitors (meaning they just market to the same people you do).

Examine the list of the right keywords and take note of the phrases that you aren’t targeting.

Start creating content based on these keywords and give your competitors a run for their money!

4. Find related keywords

When you’re going to create a new piece of content, it’s a good idea to understand the topic at hand to maximize the amount of search traffic you can get from the long tail.

You know your main keyword for the article, but what other facets of the subject should you be including to help rank for additional long-tail phrases?

Here’s how to find those long tails:

First, go to our HOTH free Keyword Planner alternative and put in a seed keyword.

Our tool will spit out a list of awesome long-tail keywords you can use throughout your article to rank for more phrases!

Make sure to include these variations while writing your content.

Understanding Keyword Intent Types 

Keyword research identifies the words that best describe the content on your website or content page. It also helps you rank well for the searches that people look for every day. However, there’s more to it than simply matching words to phrases. 

Because you know your brand better than anyone else, you may not have the same mindset as potential customers. The terms and phrases you might use to search for your products on the web may not come close to what shoppers are searching for. 

As you begin your keyword research, you will want to consider the buyer’s journey and the search intent behind particular phrases, and whether or not your content matches it. 

Here are the keyword intent types you should consider: 

• Informational: your audience wants to learn something from your content.

• Navigational: your audience is looking for something specific from your website.

• Transactional: your audience wants to compare specific products and is almost ready to purchase.
• Commercial: ready to buy!

When your content keywords match your customer’s intent, they tend to stay on your page for longer. That can help you rank on search engines and even build relationships with your audience. 

Let’s move forward to the best free tools for easy keyword research:

Best Tools For Keyword Research

The best part of keyword research is that you don’t have to break your marketing budget to perform it. 

There are quite a few free keyword research tools available. Here’s a brief list of the best keyword research tools you can use to come up with your keyword list:

AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic is one of the easiest and simplest free SEO tools out there. AnswerThePublic prompts search questions and provides you with raw search insights.

By typing into the prompt, AnswerThePublic will show you long-tail keywords organized in several subcategories: questions, prepositions, comparisons, alphabetical, and related.

AnswerThePublic’s free version only allows you to search up to 3 keywords or phrases per day. 

Moz Keyword Explorer

With this tool, you enter an URL or keyword and it’ll take you to the best keywords to target for a specific search. 

It shows monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, CTR, keyword opportunity, and suggestions for each term. Its free search results also feature a SERP analysis with 10 pages that rank for your focus keyword. 

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a Chrome extension that shows you monthly search volume, CPC, and keyword queries on Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and YouTube. 

It has a respectable keyword database and provides you with the number of backlinks you’d need to rank on the first page of Google for a keyword phrase. 

Its free version only allows you to search for a single website and three keywords per day.

Ahrefs Keyword Generator

Ahrefs automatically generates up to six keyword ideas reports that contain your seed. To use their keyword tool, you just have to enter up to ten words or phrases for free.

SEMRush Keyword Magic Tool

SEMRush Keyword Magic Tool lets you create an account for free and gives you access to a report featuring monthly search volume, competitive density, and difficulty. 

It has useful organizing figures that allow you to sort out your keywords and export your findings to your email. 

You’re given access to 10 searches a day with a free account. It can be useful for analyzing your homepage, landing page, and any other subpages on your website.

Google

Google is one of the underdogs of keyword research tools. By using the search engine’s auto-suggest feature, you can get some great ideas about what people are searching for. 

For example, if you were to type “cakes”, some options that come up are “cake toppers”, “cake topper happy birthday” and local brands that have the cake keyword as part of their name.

Google’s Keyword Planner can also be used to research keywords. This tool gives you suggestions for keywords related to your products, services, website, and the average cost for your ad to show on searches. It’s also known as Google Adwords.

That’s it!

Keyword research doesn’t have to be a guessing game. You can drastically and quickly improve your traffic by using these methods. 

Never forget to analyze the competition for that keyword. 

Schedule a call with The HOTH’s team for a step-by-step tutorial on how to perform keyword research for your website.

Also, don’t forget to sign up for free and check out all of our other awesome free SEO tools and resources!

The post Easy Keyword Research Methods You Can Do In Less Than 10 Minutes appeared first on The HOTH.

That’s a staggering 3.5 billion searches in a single day and 1.2 trillion per year.

This article will cover some of the most up-to-date advanced keyword strategies, providing simple tutorials for each keyword analysis tactic.  

Whether you’re looking to improve your on-page SEO or optimize your PPC campaigns, these advanced keyword research strategies will surely lead you down the road to success. 

Ready to learn? Let’s go!

What is Advanced Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing search terms.

However, advanced keyword analysis can help you explore more in-depth ways to reach your SEO goals. 

Using an advanced keyword analysis strategy is one of the most important elements of advanced SEO because sometimes basic SEO keyword research just doesn’t provide the results you’re looking for.  

We will cover some of these terms and strategies more extensively later, but for now, let’s get reacquainted with some of the basics:

• Search volume: the number of times that the word or phrase is searched for in a specific period of time
• Competition: measures how many site pages are targeting a specific keyword
• Difficulty: this tells you how many other pieces of content you are going to be competing with
• Keyword gap: measures the difference between you and your competitor’s keyword performance
• Audience search intent: the process of understanding the context of a user’s search

Additionally, here are a few advanced keyword phrases you may not be familiar with:

• Traffic-generating potential: is a metric that is essential to advanced keyword success and generating more organic traffic from your focus keyword
• Organic click-rate: a metric that displays how many users click on pages in organic search results for your target keyword
• Google’s “people also ask” keywords: a section in Google’s search results that displays questions related to your search term

Now that we’ve explored some basic and advanced keyword terms and phrases, let’s move on to advanced keyword types: 

Different Types of Advanced Keyword Research

When crafting SEO content that targets a specific search, you will also want to cover a range of related search queries and relevant keywords that are related to it.

They encompass spelling and wording variations of your focus term, common synonyms, or alternative searches striving for the same end goal.

Here is a list of important advanced keyword research phrases: 

• Long-tail keywords
• Branded keywords
• Question keywords
• Shoulder keywords
• Trending or seasonal keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer search queries made up of several words with a lower search volume but a higher conversion rate.  

50% of search queries contain 4 or more words, so long-tail keywords will be necessary for your strategy.

Branded keywords are searches that include a brand name or company. 

These types of keywords will be entered when a searcher is looking for a service or product from a specific business 

Additionally, question keywords are search queries that are in the form of questions. 

These question keywords cover your main topic and target keyword. 

If you need a little help discovering some question keywords for your content, AnswerThePublic is a great place to start.

Shoulder keywords are what your target customers are actively searching for but may not be directly relevant to your product.

They allow you to increase your brand awareness and get more potential customers to the top of your sales funnel.

Lastly, trending or seasonal keywords are popular phrases that are being searched for currently or during a certain time of year, this can be helpful when targeting content for holidays or trending news stories. 

Advanced SEO Keyword Research Strategies

Keyword research is one of the foundation pieces for SEO. It plays a vital part in understanding what your target audience is actively searching for and the type of content that is in high demand. 

Advanced keyword research helps shape your business’ effective and reliable SEO strategy.

With that said, let’s explore some advanced keyword research strategies you can use right now: 

Use low competition keywords

For many businesses, low competition keywords are your key to search engine visibility and attract more traffic to your business. 

Low competition keywords are the searches that may not have an incredibly high keyword search volume, but high-authority sites do not currently dominate them.

Many people assume they can locate low-competition keyword ideas by entering their keyword into a research tool and looking at the keyword difficulty bar. 

You should then manually check the competition for each phrase by doing a Google search.

If there are less than 500 results for a keyword, you can consider it a low competition.

Here are a few tips for finding low-competition keywords:

• Use a basic target keyword
• Find related or phrase match keyword ideas
• Filter through and look for low-competition keywords
• Add filter words such as “buy” or “near me” 

Advanced keyword research strategies using content gaps

Competitor analysis should be at the core of any advanced keyword research process, as it provides insight into the keywords and backlinks that are working for your top competitors. 

You can then reverse engineer what is working for them in order to make gains for your business.

This is important as it allows you to root out all the target terms that should be prioritized in your keyword strategy.

These keywords should be a priority target because the fact that several of your competitors rank for them means that you can feasibly rank for them too.

Once you have identified these prime keyword gaps, you can look closely at how your competitors have managed to rank for them. 

With this information about content and backlinks, you can follow a similar strategy to begin ranking for these terms. 

Additionally, you can use tools such as Google Search Console to help you discover ranking opportunities. 

Here are some helpful suggestions for finding content gaps:

• Consider your audience’s buyer’s journey
• Conduct heavy market research
• Analyze your pre-existing content for gaps
• Analyze any competitors’ content for gaps
• Run a content audit 

Expand your first-page real estate

This strategy is all about taking up as much of the first page on SERPs as possible.

Even the best keyword doesn’t always lead to a #1 ranking. Sometimes you just can’t seem to shift past second, third, or fourth place. 

You might have achieved the first page, but that doesn’t mean you should give up now.

That’s where this SERPs domination tactic comes in!

If your hard work on your own site has led you to rank on the first page for one of your keywords, it’s time to publish optimized content for that keyword across other authority sites.

High authority sites like YouTube, Medium, and LinkedIn can all be used to take up extra spots on the ever-vital first page of Google.

For instance, if you already have a ranking guide on your site for “Keyword Research Strategies”. 

You can then produce a YouTube video optimized for the same key term to get that ranking on the first page too. 

And remember, for help finding keyword data for sites like YouTube, you can use a multi-channel tool like Soovle. 

Explore audience search intent

Earlier in this article, we discussed the meaning of keyword intent and how you can decipher intent into 4 groups: 

• Navigational
• Informational
• Commercial
• Transactional

This strategy analyzes keywords to find out the searcher’s intent, then uses the results to filter your long list of keywords into the ones that really matter and the ones that are likely a waste of resources.

For instance, a navigational keyword (when a searcher is looking for a specific page, brand, or product) may have a high search volume, but ranking for that term isn’t likely to return many clicks.

This is an advanced optimization of your keyword strategy, as it goes beyond striving to rank for high volume search terms, instead focusing on the searches that will return the most clicks and warm leads to your business.

Generally, navigational search terms are probably not worth your time. 

Whereas informational search terms (when a searcher is looking for more information on a topic) provide the perfect opportunity for you to craft an optimized piece of authority content.

Understanding latent semantic indexing (LSI)

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a process Google uses to better understand the core topic of a webpage and its context. This ensures that it can provide accurate results to match a searcher’s query.

For instance, LSI helps Google understand whether a webpage targeting the keyword “mermaids” is a page about the mythical creature mermaids or a page about the 1990 comedy drama Mermaids.

Of course, it’s all of the related keywords, synonyms, and phrases you also use on your web page that will help them understand the context.

In fact, when you search for something on Google, they will also highlight any related words and phrases in bold for each result. 

You can use Google’s LSI process to locate accurate related keywords to enhance your content. This also helps reduce keyword stuffing, providing you with plenty more SEO-relevant phrases to focus on.

All you have to do is enter your main keyword into Google and browse the bold words that appear in the snippets of the results. 

If you notice bold terms that can easily be included in your own content, you know Google will see your page as a good match for that search.

Keyword Research Tools

You will need a few SEO tools to use our advanced keyword research strategies. 

We’ll quickly run you through our recommendations, including free keyword research, planning, and competitor analysis tools.

Google Keyword Planner 

Want to rank #1 on Google? 

Go right to the source and find out search volumes and Google trends straight from the horse’s mouth.

This is a free tool, but you must create a Google Ads account to access it. 

The discovery option is designed to help you locate new keywords relevant to your site, business, and products. 

Whereas the search volume option will provide you with data for a list of keywords you already have.

This tool targets Adwords customers who want to run CPC ads, so it offers data on Ad costs and keyword bidding. 

However, you can still use these tools to locate the right SEO keywords for you.

The HOTH FREE Keyword Planner Tool 

This isn’t just a shameless plug, our keyword research tool is an excellent alternative to setting up a Google Ads account and campaign.

Fuelled by SEMrush, this user-friendly planner tool makes it easy for anyone to locate high-volume terms related to your focus keyword.

It’s as simple as typing in your main keyword and hitting “view keyword research.”

Moz Keyword Explorer 

Moz’s handy tool makes it really easy to find a whole bunch of key terms related to your target query.

Every keyword research tool will offer a list of terms that are related to your specific keyword search. 

Moz’s tool is special because it goes that extra length to offer lateral terms that you won’t see suggested anywhere else. 

This is great for locating those high-converting long-tail phrases and questions.

They also offer a “priority score” for each keyword, combining search volume and difficulty data to help you choose which specific terms and phrases to target.

Ahrefs Keyword Generator 

If you’re looking for a tool that makes it simple to differentiate between the easy and hard keywords to rank for, Ahrefs tool uses a traffic light system that is super self-explanatory.

The free version of the tool also allows you to differentiate between question keywords and regular keywords, which is great for generating SEO blog content ideas.

Their premium research tool is also one of the most insightful out there, providing specific information on how many backlinks you will need to rank first page for a certain term.

The HOTH Keyword & Content Gap Analysis Tool 

Take your keyword strategy to the next level and ensure you are beating your competitors with this gap analysis tool.

You can enter your domain name and up to 3 competitors to compare the keywords you are targeting and ranking for. 

This is great for offering a fresh insight into searches you might have missed or should be shifting your focus to.

Soovle

If you’re looking for keywords beyond leading search engines like Google and Bing, Soovle is your one-stop shop for scraping keywords from across the internet.

If your focus is eCommerce or you have a multi-channel content marketing strategy, this is a smart way to find out about keywords that could have escaped your competitor’s clutches.

SECockpit 

SECockpit is a tool that works just like many other research tools on this list – you enter a keyword, and it reveals a long list of suggestions and their relevant insights. 

However, SECockpit’s insights take data from Google’s Keyword Planner and go more in-depth than any other tool on this list. 

Although the data will be useful for beginners, it will be SEO pros who can truly understand what it means.

You can click on any keyword to reveal competition metrics for the term’s top 10 results, including their backlink profiles and a breakdown of daily traffic.

Our favorite feature would have to be the “niche” indicator, which lets you know the keywords that are worth targeting. 

Takeaways

As we wrap up this article, we’ll remind you of some of the top keyword research tips we have suggested.

If you have any questions or need help with your keyword strategy, why not book a discovery call with one of our experts? 

We’re here to help!

The post Advanced Keyword Research: Strategies To Supercharge Your SEO appeared first on The HOTH.

They seem similar, and both appear in your content, yet there is a substantial difference between the two. Not understanding how anchor text and keywords each work could result in your site falling down the search engine results pages (SERPs), or worst case, a penalty.

We’re going to talk about anchor text and SEO and break down the difference between anchor text and keywords. Let’s get into it!

Keywords vs. Anchor Text

Keywords are words or short phrases that many people are searching for online. Some of the most popular keywords on Google include “weather,” “internet speed test,” and “restaurants near me.”

There are literally thousands of keywords for any one topic, and some are more competitive than others. SEO professionals rank their competitiveness according to keyword difficulty or KD. The super hard keywords are some of the most coveted by websites.

Like keywords, anchor texts are short phrases in your content. The difference is anchor text is hyperlinked to another page or site. Internal and external links are a big part of effective SEO.

Both keywords and anchor texts can boost your online ranking when used correctly.

The Relationship Between Anchor Text and SEO

Anchor text is one of the vital factors that will determine the viability of your website and significantly affect your SEO efforts. It’s not the end-all and be-all to Google ranking but is one of the more important ranking factors. Anchor text affects SEO significantly because it tells your reader where they can find information that’s relevant to their search, something Google takes very seriously.

Do Keywords and Anchor Text Carry the Same Weight in Google?

While it’s difficult to determine the exact weight anchor text and keywords carry as Google constantly changes its algorithms, most believe that anchor text and keywords carry similar weight in terms of ranking and SEO. 

Some believe that anchor text carries even more weight than keywords as they can influence Google’s understanding of what a webpage is about. Indeed, more than a few websites have ad their topic changed by Google’s algorithms based on the anchor text they used.

The biggest difference, of course, is that anchor text is used in links that take a reader to another page on your website or another site entirely. Keywords are the words that consumers type into their browser to find a website initially.

Why is Anchor Text Important to SEO?

Like keywords, anchor text is vital to the success of any website and significantly improves a website’s SEO. 

At their core, anchor text guides visitors reading content on your website to information that they might find useful, helpful, or pertinent to their search. Maybe, more importantly, the anchor text you use tells the reader what they can expect, more or less, when they click the text and are taken to the webpage it links to.

As with keywords, you shouldn’t take anchor text lightly. It’s essential you pay close attention to the anchor texts you’re using and use a variety of them rather than the same anchor text for every link. 

Not only are the words in your anchor text vitally important, but the surrounding words are also, as the combination is what will either convince a reader to click the link or skip over it. 

Anchor text also tells Google everything they need to know about the content of your content. This factor is important because, using their many algorithms, Google will determine what your webpage is about and rank it accordingly. 

Lastly, it’s critical that you only link to web pages that are relevant to the original content and search and link to reputable pages. Using anchor text to link to spam, scam, or otherwise negative websites is never a good idea. (More on this further down.)

What are the Different Types of Anchor Text?

There are several different types of anchor text that can and should, be used in all of your content (some much more than others). Below we’ll take a quick look at all of them to give you a better idea of what they mean and why you should use (or not use) them. All of them, if used correctly, will improve and optimize your SEO and your rank on all search engines, especially Google.

Exact match

As the name suggests, exact match anchor text uses the exact keywords or key phrases that make sense for your website, business, and SEO goals. 

For example, let’s say big-box superstore Target is selling silk ties for men. An excellent example of an exact match anchor text advertising those ties would be “men’s silk ties,” and another would be “silk ties for men.” 

Here’s another example. In this one, you’re writing content for your self-storage center in Atlanta, Georgia. In this situation, excellent exact match anchor texts could include “Atlanta self-storage center,” “self-storage center, Atlanta,” or “Self-storage, Atlanta.”

In short, an exact match anchor text exactly matches the product, service, idea, etc., that you’re linking to, with no extra keywords and no fluff. Note that exact match anchor text is often referred to as “phrase match” anchor text.

Partial match

Partial match anchor text is any anchor text that includes partial keywords and phrases plus several other words used together in the same link. In short, it’s not exact, but it’s pretty close.

Using the same two examples from earlier, an excellent partial match anchor text for Target and their men’s silk ties would be “How to buy a man a silk tie,” “Where to find men’s silk ties,” or “The best silk ties for men.” 

If we use the 2nd example for the self-storage center in Atlanta, some well-written partial match anchor texts you could use would be “Safe, clean storage units in Atlanta,” “How to find Atlanta self-storage locations,” or “ Where to store your stuff in Atlanta.” 

Partial match anchor text will take you to the same web page as an exact match but allows you to use various words that a potential visitor, customer, or client might use to search for what you have to offer. 

By the way, partial match anchors and partial match anchor words are the same as partial match anchor text. (If you see these terms, you’ll know what the author is talking about.)

Branded

Branded anchor text uses the exact brand name of a company, product, service, etc. Using our examples, “Target” would be the brand anchor text used for Target, the big-box retailer. For our Atlanta self-storage center, “iStorage” would be the branded anchor text. 

Naked URL

While not the best for driving visitors to your website or online content, naked link anchor text can be useful. Also, Google seems to love them as the chance of naked anchor text being spam is much lower. Using our previous examples, a naked link anchor for Target would be https://www.target.com/, while one for our self-storage center in Atlanta would be https://www.istorage.com/. 

Basically, a naked link anchor text consists of the protocol plus the domain address (i.e., the complete URL) for a website’s page.

Note that some consider branded anchor text and naked link (URL) anchor text to be almost identical. However, the difference is that the former uses the company’s proper name, website, etc., while the latter uses the brand’s URL.

Generic (Random) 

Many people confuse generic anchor text with naked anchor text, but, as you’ll see, they are quite different. 

Generic anchor text features words, although they aren’t keywords. However, as you might have guessed, the words are random or generic and have no connection to the product, service, or information being offered. Naked anchor text, as we saw above, is simply the URL for a web page. (Big difference, yes?)

An example of a generic link for Target’s ties for men would thus be; To learn more about our trendy men’s silk ties, “Click Here.” For our storage center example, you could use the same “Click here” and the also generic “See More.” A few other generic anchor text examples include “More Information” and “Vist our webpage.” “Read more” and the incredibly generic “website.”

One important thing to note is that when using generic anchor text, the regular text surrounding it must give the reader a solid idea of what they will get if they click the link. 

If the surrounding text doesn’t do that or does it poorly, the reader may be confused, which is the last thing you want when creating online content. 

Here’s a good example using the Atlanta self-storage center from earlier. “If you’d like to learn more about storing your household goods in Atlanta, Georgia, click here.” 

A poor example would look something like this: “Thank you for visiting our website today. Please click here for more.” Some readers might see that and ask themselves, “For more what, exactly?”

Related

Related anchor text is similar to partial match anchor text minus a precise keyword phrase. 

Typically, related anchor text uses a variation of the wanted target keywords. A good example of related anchor text for our Target silk ties would be “trendy men’s fashion tips” or “must-have men’s clothing accessories.” 

Our Atlanta self-storage center could use a related anchor text like “How to store a car” or “long-term wine storage.” Related anchor text helps Google decide what your link is relating to and will also keep your link profile noticeable different from others. That way, it won’t get dinged as spam. 

What is an Image Anchor?

An image anchor is when you use an image as a link to another internal or external webpage. It’s similar to anchor text, but you use a picture, photo, drawing, or some other type of image instead of text. 

Many businesses use image anchors to help visitors navigate their website, and they are most commonly used for internal rather than external linking. 

Many image anchors are similar to a clickable ad you’ll see when surfing the web, and many have a call to action (CTA) that encourages the visitor to click them and go the linked webpage.  Also, image anchors are an excellent method of varying your anchor texts, even if they are a bit non-traditional.

When using image anchors, one thing to keep in mind is that they have a nasty habit of making a website less accessible to visitors. 

For example, in many instances, a visitor will be trying to resize the page to better see what they’re reading. However, doing so with an image anchor can move them around against their wishes, which can be frustrating and cause them to click away.

Optimizing Your SEO With Keywords

SEO professionals spend a lot of time researching keywords. They use software and online tools to help find relevant keywords that have a high search volume and are more likely to end in conversions.

Free tools like The HOTH’s Keyword Planner can help you explore keywords without signing up for an expensive service.

You can search for specific keywords relevant to your business. As you can see below, it will tell you the search volume, keyword difficulty, and the cost per click (CPC) for any ad campaign.

Once you compile a list of effective keywords, your next step is to include them on your site. You should add them to titles, descriptions, headings, meta tags, and throughout web copy.

Google will then index your pages and begin to rank your website by matching your keywords with what people are searching for online.

Optimizing Your SEO With Keywords

SEO professionals spend a lot of time researching keywords. They use software and online tools to help find relevant keywords that have a high search volume and are more likely to end in conversions.

Free tools like the HOTH’s Keyword Planner can help you explore keywords without signing up for an expensive service.

You can search for specific keywords relevant to your business. As you can see below, it will tell you the search volume, keyword difficulty, and the cost per click (CPC) for any ad campaign.

Once you compile a list of effective keywords, your next step is to include them on your site. They should be added to titles, descriptions, headings, meta tags, and throughout web copy.

Google will then index your pages and begin to rank your website by matching your keywords with what people are searching for online.

Best Practices for Anchor Text and SEO

As we pointed out above, anchor text is used for links while keywords are used to optimize your website ranking on Google. There are two types of links: internal links that drive visitors to another page on your site and external links that send visitors to another site on the web.

Backlinks (when another site has a link to one of your pages) are one of the most effective ways to boost your website ranking.

Here is a description of anchor texts from our link building online guide.

By now, you’ve probably noticed that this article has anchor texts. You’re learning fast!

Our guest post product can help clients obtain more links by using blogger outreach and anchor text.

Can keywords be used as anchor text?

Yes, but beware because doing that too much could potentially harm your SEO. No perfect anchor text ratio currently exists. Rather you should keep your anchor texts diverse. There are six anchor text categories to choose from, all of which we described in detail (above):

• Using the exact keyword
• A variation of the exact keyword
• Listing a naked URL like http://www.thehoth.com
• Hyperlinking a brand name
• Using benign anchor texts like “click here.”
• Linking only an image

Online tools like Ahrefs allow you to look up all of your links and see whether you’re using all six equally. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

More Best Practices for Using Anchor Text to Optimize your Website

Now that you have a much better idea of what an anchor text is and the different types of anchor text let’s take a closer look at the best (and not so good) methods of using anchor text in its various forms.

Ensure your anchor text adds value for the reader

When building and optimizing a website, you need to realize that, in Google’s eyes, every single thing is important. That includes written content, images, keywords, links, and the anchor text used in those links. 

The worst thing you can do on a website is use content that provides no value to the reader, including the words you use for your anchor text. 

Also, anchor text needs to be placed where it makes the most sense. Lacing random links throughout your content might seem like a great idea, but to Google, it’s a cardinal sin.

Avoid overuse of anchor text to optimize your SEO

Anchor text and the web pages they link to are essential for any website, whether those links are internal or external. However, too many links and too much anchor text will be flagged by Google as spam as, in their eyes, it’s a gross manipulation of the practice. 

Another no-no is using the same anchor text repeatedly, which means that you need to use various anchor text combinations. 

Referring back to our earlier example of the Atlanta self-storage center, if you constantly use the anchor text “Atlanta self-storage center,” Google will often penalize you. Instead, use a variety of anchor text. “Safe self-storage in Atlanta,” for example, “What to look for in a self-storage center,” or “Is Atlanta self-storage affordable?”

Place anchor text accordingly when link building

Today, many people skim web pages rather than starting at the beginning and reading every last word. When they do, they typically look for headings and subheadings, including H2, H3, etc., to guide them, reading more when they see a header that interests them. 

For this reason, placing your anchor text and links near your site’s “hot spots,” if you will, is a good call. This technique is more psychological than a specific formula, though, and changes from one website visitor or reader to the next. 

Use relevant anchor text when link building

Here’s the thing about Google; they are very obsessive about always providing a better user experience to the folks using their search engine. They love it when your anchor text is relevant to your website and also when it links to relevant information. 

The opposite is also true, as Google despises non-relevant anchor text that leads the reader to non-relevant web pages and content. 

Even if you place a non-relevant anchor text that links to your own website, Google will often flag you, which can severely damage your SEO and ranking on their search engine. 

Use a good combination of anchor text styles to optimize your SEO

One critical best practice when using anchor text is distributing them in the correct proportion on your website. 

Unfortunately, there’s no “right” way to distribute anchor text but there are abortions that, generally, are acceptable. The HOTH recommends using anchor text in the following proportions to optimize your SEO:

• Branded anchor text- 50%
• Naked Link Anchor Text- 20%
• Website page title- 20%
• Generic / Random anchor text- 2-5%
• Exact anchor text- 2-5%
• Partial match anchor text- 2-5%

Beginner Tips for Better SEO

Understanding the difference between keywords and anchor text is only the first step on the road to better SEO and higher rankings on Google and other search engines. You need to start creating more content on your site that includes both of these essential items.

For example, create content that answers frequent questions asked by your customers, and includes your keywords and anchor text. Not only will this be helpful for them to read (meaning better customer service ratings), but it’ll also boost your SEO and optimize your ranking.

Don’t worry about creating more than one page for a product or group of products. When it comes to product pages, a best practice is to build one page to rank for one keyword. Having too many keywords on one page could confuse the Google algorithm.

Start Growing Your SEO This Year!

We hope you better understand keywords and anchor text after reading this article. They are the foundation of good SEO. It’s important to be familiar with both terms, whether you’re optimizing on your own or working with an agency.

Suppose you don’t have the time, skills, or interest to work on your digital marketing. In that case, you should consider a managed service like HOTH X. Our enrolled clients work with a dedicated campaign manager and have access to all of our products: web copy, blogging, link building, and more.

Want to chat with us about your goals? Schedule a call, and we’ll offer you recommendations on the best services to improve your online business.

The post Anchor Texts vs Keywords: A Full Breakdown appeared first on The HOTH.

If you run what would be considered a “local business” in your community or city, it’s absolutely imperative that you have GMB set up and that you stay on top of it.

This blog will discuss five ways you can revamp your GMB if things have grown stagnant. Your first step should be claiming your listing if you haven’t done it already.

Then, simply follow these tips to start boosting your local SEO. Ready to begin? We’re going to count down the top five things you can start doing immediately.

Start scrolling to learn how to get started.

1. Add Keywords to Your Business Description

Our first piece of advice is to incorporate relevant keywords in your Google My Business listing, including within the 750 characters you get to describe your business.

That’s not to say you should overdo it by packing as many keywords as possible. As with any SEO content, the use of keywords needs to be natural and your description should be useful for visitors.

An effective GMB business description is clear and concise, and ideally, it would include a primary keyword to help your website rank.

Some enterprising businesses will attempt to add keywords to their business name. If that works for you, fantastic! Just make sure it doesn’t come off as spammy or fake.

In most cases, this only works for businesses whose names already contain a keyword. For example, a company named “Home Renovation Auckland.”

If you’re going to try to do this, we recommend proceeding with caution. Getting flagged by Google could result in penalties or losing your GMB listing.

2. Engage Visitors With Photographs

What’s the first thing people look at when they Google your business? That’s right, photographs!

If you operate a restaurant, for example, they want to see what it looks like inside before making a reservation. Or if you sell a unique product they want to see an image of it before buying one.

Here’s something to consider: businesses with images on their GMB get 42% more requests for directions and 35% more website clicks.

We live in a visual society and a majority of customers want to see pictures before they purchase goods or services.

The key here is to post high-res photographs. Blurry or badly composed pictures will reflect negatively on your business.

It may be worth it to hire a professional to get shots of the exterior and interior of your business, staff members, and any products or services you’d like to highlight.

3. Update Local Directories With Your Business

While optimizing your Google My Business page, you also want to ensure your business information is updated in other local directories like Yelp, Yellow Pages, Hot Frog, or Yahoo Local (to name a few).

Why does this matter? Any local directory with your business information can refer new customers. This means all of the key information like address, hours of operation, or contact information should be up-to-date.

It’s not an uncommon scenario for businesses to change their hours of operation and not have it reflected on local directories. This could be frustrating to customers and even result in a lost sale.

Not only do you want to ensure the information is always relevant but adding more directory entries can improve your SEO as well.

We know how this takes a lot of time and effort. That’s why we offer The HOTH’s Local Business Listings & Citation Building Service. Our team can conduct a full audit of all the places you appear and whether the information is correct.

Then, we can start building new optimized citations for your business to grow your exposure and search ranking.

4. Check All of Your Google My Business Settings Regularly

Details change all of the time. Parts of your business are always evolving and even Google updates its systems a few times per year.

That’s why it’s up to you, a business or the agency you hire to help with GMB, to stay on top of the listing.

One easy way to optimize your listing is by updating categories. Google automatically assigns your listing a category but you’re able to change it to something more accurate.

You can also add “additional categories” to get more specific with your listing, which could result in more qualified traffic.

Another strategy is to keep all of your information localized. Make sure your phone number is listed with a local area code, for example, and set your GMB service area to only include the areas where you operate.

It may be tempting to expand your search area in GMB to reach more people but don’t do it unless that’s the actual strategy your business is taking.

5. Solicit Reviews From Satisfied Customers

Our No. 1 tip for revamping your GMB listing is to get more reviews! After looking at your business photographs on GMB, most online visitors will check out your reviews next.

They want to know whether the products and services you’re offering are high-quality, and how past customers have felt about you. Getting good reviews not only attracts more customers but can also improve your SEO.

Google will be more likely to show your business in search results if you have more reviews than your competitors.

Reviews aren’t always easy to get but you can solicit them from customers by sending an email after the sale to follow up on their satisfaction. This could include a link to your GMB listing.

Some companies even provide this link at the checkout.

It doesn’t matter what strategy you use to solicit reviews but the important thing is that you start getting more on your GMB.

Watch Your Local SEO Soar!

It’s impossible to boost your local SEO without claiming and optimizing your Google My Business page.

Following all of the tips we listed above won’t take long and they’ll deliver results. Once your listing is optimized, you’ll want to set a schedule for checking on it to make sure no revisions are needed.

Do you have additional questions about GMB or are you concerned about possessing the experience to manage it?

Our expert team of SEO professionals can help you! Simply book a call with us to get started.

The post 5 Tips to Revamp Your Google My Business Page appeared first on The HOTH.