Semrush Tutorial 2024 - SEO for Beginners (Step-by-Step)

Summary

In this Semrush tutorial, Simon guides viewers on maximizing the SEO tool's capabilities, focusing on keyword research, content optimization, backlink acquisition, and identifying technical website issues. He offers a step-by-step process to find keyword opportunities, optimize content, and use competitor analysis for better SEO strategies, also highlighting the importance of a 14-day free trial for Semrush.

Takeaways

• 😀 Semrush is a powerful SEO tool that can help optimize websites to rank higher on Google.
• 🔍 The tutorial focuses on using Semrush to find the best keyword opportunities and optimize content for these keywords.
• 📈 Users can extend their free trial of Semrush from 7 days to 14 days by using a special link provided in the video description.
• 🔎 Semrush categorizes its tools into SEO, Local SEO, Advertising, Social Media, Content Marketing, Trends, and Agency Solutions, with SEO being its strongest feature.
• 🌐 Keyword research is crucial and involves using the Keyword Magic Tool to find keyword ideas and understanding different metrics like intent, volume, trend, difficulty, and CPC.
• 📊 Keyword intent categories include navigational, informational, commercial investigation, and transactional, with transactional keywords being the most valuable in terms of conversion.
• 🔗 Backlinks are essential for increasing a website's authority and ranking higher in search results. Semrush provides tools to analyze backlink profiles and find potential link-building opportunities.
• 🚀 The tutorial demonstrates how to use the Keyword Gap tool to identify keywords that competitors are ranking for but your website is not, presenting opportunities for content creation and optimization.
• 📝 The SEO Content Template tool in Semrush helps in creating content that aligns with the top-ranking pages for a target keyword, considering factors like word count, readability, and semantically related words.
• 🔍 Position tracking in Semrush allows users to monitor their website's ranking for specific keywords and adjust strategies accordingly to improve visibility and traffic.
• 🛠️ The Site Audit tool in Semrush identifies technical issues on a website that might hinder its performance and provides recommendations for fixing these issues to improve SEO.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the Semrush tutorial presented by Simon?

The main purpose of the tutorial is to show users how to use Semrush, an SEO tool, to its fullest potential, including finding keyword opportunities, optimizing for these keywords, getting high-quality backlinks, and identifying potential technical issues on a website.

How can viewers extend their free trial with Semrush as mentioned in the tutorial?

Viewers can extend their free trial with Semrush by using the special link provided in the video description, which offers a 14-day free trial instead of the standard seven-day trial for YouTube subscribers.

What are the primary categories of tools available in Semrush according to the tutorial?

The primary categories of tools in Semrush include SEO tools, Local SEO, Advertising, Social Media, Content Marketing, Trends, and Agency Solutions, with the strength being in the SEO tools.

What is a 'seed keyword' in the context of the Keyword Magic Tool in Semrush?

A 'seed keyword' is the starting point for Semrush to find more keyword ideas and opportunities for your industry. It's the initial keyword you enter into the Keyword Magic Tool to begin the research process.

What are the four intent categories provided by Semrush and what do they represent?

The four intent categories are navigational, informational, commercial investigation, and transactional. Navigational refers to users looking to visit a specific website, informational for those seeking information, commercial investigation for users comparing brands or services, and transactional for those ready to make a purchase.

Why is keyword difficulty an important metric to consider when choosing keywords to target?

Keyword difficulty is important because it indicates how challenging it will be to rank for a particular keyword. A higher difficulty score means it's harder to rank, so new websites with low authority should focus on keywords with lower difficulty scores to increase their chances of ranking.

What does CPC stand for and why is it significant in keyword research?

CPC stands for Cost Per Click. It's significant because it shows how much advertisers are willing to pay for a click on their website for a specific keyword, which can indicate the value and competitiveness of that keyword.

How can the Keyword Gap tool help in finding keyword opportunities?

The Keyword Gap tool helps by comparing your website's keyword rankings with those of your competitors. It identifies keywords that your competitors rank for but your website does not, which could be potential opportunities for optimization and increased traffic.

What is the significance of the 'SERP analysis' feature in the context of keyword research?

SERP analysis is significant as it shows what Google displays for a specific keyword, including the top-ranking pages. It helps in understanding the type of content that ranks well for a keyword and provides insights into the structure and authority of competing pages.

How can the SEO Content Template tool assist in content creation for target keywords?

The SEO Content Template tool provides recommendations for creating content for a target keyword based on the top-ranking search results. It offers insights into semantically related words, backlinks, readability, and optimal text length, helping to ensure content is well-optimized for search engines.

What is the primary benefit of using the Semrush Writing Assistant during content creation?

The Semrush Writing Assistant helps ensure that content stays within the guidelines for SEO optimization. It provides real-time feedback on readability, word count, and other SEO factors, helping to improve the content's chances of ranking well for the target keyword.

How can position tracking in Semrush help in monitoring the performance of target keywords?

Position tracking allows users to monitor the current ranking of their target keywords in Google search results. It provides insights into changes in ranking, which can be critical for understanding the effectiveness of SEO efforts and identifying areas for improvement.

What is the importance of identifying and optimizing pages that are ranking between position two to fifteen for specific keywords?

Identifying and optimizing pages in the second to fifteenth position is important because it can lead to significant traffic increases. If these pages can be optimized to rank higher, especially to the first position, they can potentially capture a much larger share of the search traffic for those keywords.

How can the On Page SEO checker in Semrush assist in optimizing a webpage for better rankings?

The On Page SEO checker provides suggestions for optimization based on an analysis of the webpage and its competitors. It identifies areas such as content improvement, readability, keyword inclusion, and backlink opportunities that can be targeted to enhance the page's SEO performance.

What role do backlinks play in SEO and how can Semrush's Backlink Gap tool help in this regard?

Backlinks are crucial for SEO as they contribute to a website's authority and influence its ability to rank higher for competitive keywords. The Backlink Gap tool helps by comparing backlink profiles with competitors, identifying potential websites to acquire backlinks from, and highlighting opportunities to improve a site's backlink profile.

How can the Link Building Tool in Semrush be utilized to find and manage potential backlink opportunities?

The Link Building Tool helps identify potential websites to get backlinks from, based on competitor analysis. It allows users to manage the outreach process, track communication, and monitor the status of link building efforts, streamlining the process of acquiring valuable backlinks.

What is the purpose of conducting a site audit using Semrush, and how can it benefit a website's performance?

A site audit with Semrush is conducted to identify and fix technical issues that might be hindering a website's performance and traffic acquisition. By addressing the issues found in the audit, a website can improve its health, search engine rankings, and overall user experience.

How can the results of a site audit in Semrush guide the optimization of a website?

The results of a site audit provide a detailed report of errors, warnings, and notices that need attention. These insights guide the optimization process by highlighting specific issues such as broken links, error messages, and other technical problems, along with suggestions on how to fix them.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to Semrush SEO Tool Tutorial

Simon introduces himself and the purpose of the video, which is a comprehensive tutorial on using Semrush, a powerful SEO tool. He assures viewers that this is not a basic overview but a step-by-step guide on finding keyword opportunities, optimizing content for these keywords, acquiring high-quality backlinks, and identifying technical issues on a website. Simon also mentions an exclusive offer for a 14-day free trial for his YouTube subscribers, encouraging viewers to use the link in the video description to extend their Semrush trial.

05:00

🔍 Exploring Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool

Simon demonstrates how to use the Keyword Magic Tool in Semrush for keyword research. He explains the process of entering a seed keyword and analyzing the keyword ideas provided by Semrush. He also discusses the importance of understanding various metrics such as keyword intent, traffic volume, trend, keyword difficulty, CPC, competitive density, and SERP features. Simon emphasizes the significance of targeting keywords with the right intent and manageable difficulty, especially for new websites.

10:02

📈 Analyzing Keyword Metrics and Trends

In this segment, Simon delves deeper into the analysis of keyword metrics, focusing on intent categories like navigational, informational, commercial investigation, and transactional. He explains how these categories can influence the likelihood of converting traffic into customers. Simon also discusses the importance of traffic volume, trend stability, and keyword difficulty in selecting the right keywords to target. He advises viewers to prioritize keywords with consistent demand and manageable competition.

15:05

🎯 Identifying Keyword Opportunities and Setting Filters

Simon shows how to filter and identify keyword opportunities using Semrush. He suggests starting with easy keywords for new websites and demonstrates how to use filters to narrow down the keyword list. He also discusses the importance of considering keyword trends and avoiding keywords with unpredictable spikes in traffic. Simon encourages viewers to create a list of potential keywords and to use the keyword manager for further research.

20:06

🤝 Leveraging Competitors for Keyword Research

Simon introduces the use of the Keyword Gap tool in Semrush to find keyword opportunities by comparing one's own website with competitors. He explains how to identify keywords that competitors rank for but that one's own site does not, which can be valuable targets for optimization. Simon also demonstrates how to use the Organic Research tab to find a list of top competitors and how to analyze their keyword rankings.

25:07

📚 Optimizing Content for Target Keywords

Simon discusses the importance of optimizing content to rank for target keywords. He guides viewers through the process of using the SEO Content Template tool in Semrush to create content that aligns with the top-ranking results. He also explains how to use the Writing Assistant to ensure the content meets the recommended guidelines for readability, word count, and semantically related words. Simon emphasizes the need to create informative and engaging content that can outperform competitors.

30:07

🔄 Tracking Keyword Rankings and Identifying Opportunities

Simon explains how to use Semrush's position tracking feature to monitor the ranking of target keywords. He demonstrates how to set up tracking for a website and keywords, and how to interpret the data to identify opportunities for improvement. He also discusses a study that shows the significant traffic difference between the first and lower search result positions, highlighting the importance of striving for top rankings.

35:08

🛠️ Using On Page SEO Checker for Optimization

Simon introduces the On Page SEO checker in Semrush to identify optimization ideas for a webpage. He demonstrates how to enter a target keyword and a URL to receive suggestions for improving SEO, readability, and content. He also explains how to use the detailed analysis to understand how competitors are using specific keywords and how to incorporate related keywords into one's own content.

40:09

🔗 Exploring Backlink and Link Building Tools

Simon discusses the importance of backlinks in increasing a website's authority and ranking. He demonstrates how to use the Backlink Gap tool to compare backlink profiles with competitors and identify potential websites for acquiring backlinks. He also introduces the Link Building Tool to find and manage link building activities, emphasizing the value of reaching out to authoritative websites for backlinks.

🏥 Conducting a Site Audit to Identify Technical Issues

In the final segment, Simon shows how to perform a site audit using Semrush to identify and fix technical issues on a website. He demonstrates how to start an audit, set the number of pages to check, and interpret the results once the audit is complete. Simon emphasizes the importance of addressing errors, warnings, and notices to improve the website's health and performance.

Keywords

💡SEO tool

An SEO tool refers to software or a set of tools designed to help improve a website's visibility in search engine results. In the video, Semrush is presented as an 'insanely powerful SEO tool' used for keyword research, optimizing content, and tracking website performance. It's central to the video's theme of maximizing online visibility and search ranking.

💡Keyword opportunities

Keyword opportunities refer to potential search terms that can be targeted to drive organic traffic to a website. The video emphasizes finding the 'best keyword opportunities' using Semrush, which is essential for SEO as it helps in identifying what users are searching for and how a website can rank for those terms.

💡Keyword Magic Tool

The Keyword Magic Tool is a feature within Semrush that generates keyword ideas and provides insights related to those keywords. The script mentions using this tool to enter a 'seed keyword' which serves as a starting point for discovering related keyword opportunities.

💡Keyword intent

Keyword intent describes the purpose behind a user's search query. The video explains different intent categories like navigational, informational, commercial, and transactional, which are crucial for understanding user behavior and optimizing content to meet those needs.

💡Traffic volume

Traffic volume indicates the average number of searches a keyword receives over a given time period, typically a month. The script discusses the importance of traffic volume as a metric for assessing the potential reach of targeting specific keywords.

💡Keyword difficulty

Keyword difficulty is a metric that predicts how challenging it will be to rank for a particular keyword. The video script suggests filtering based on keyword difficulty to identify opportunities that are more achievable for a website, especially for new sites with lower authority.

💡CPC

CPC stands for Cost Per Click and represents the amount advertisers are willing to pay for each click on their ads. In the context of the video, CPC is highlighted as an indicator of keyword value and the potential return on investment for advertisers, which can also reflect the competitiveness of a keyword.

💡SERP features

SERP features are various elements displayed on a search engine results page (SERP) in addition to the organic listings, such as images, videos, or 'People Also Ask' boxes. The script mentions SERP features to illustrate how they can impact the visibility and click-through rates of regular website listings.

💡Competitive density

Competitive density refers to the number of advertisers competing for a particular keyword. The video script uses this term to discuss the level of competition for ad placements in search results, which indirectly affects the organic search competition for that keyword.

💡Position tracking

Position tracking involves monitoring a website's ranking for specific keywords over time. The video script describes setting up position tracking in Semrush to stay updated on a website's search ranking performance and to identify areas for improvement.

💡Site Audit

A site audit is a comprehensive review of a website's health, performance, and technical SEO aspects. The video script introduces the Semrush Site Audit tool to identify and fix technical issues that might hinder a website's ability to attract more traffic.

Highlights

Introduction to Semrush as a powerful SEO tool and its capabilities.

Offer of a 14-day free trial for Semrush, extended from the standard seven-day trial.

Overview of Semrush's various tools categorized under SEO, Local SEO, Advertising, Social Media, Content Marketing, Trends, and Agency Solutions.

Emphasis on the SEO tools as the core strength of Semrush.

Step-by-step process for keyword research using the Keyword Magic Tool.

Explanation of seed keywords as the starting point for keyword research.

Importance of understanding keyword intent categories: navigational, informational, commercial investigation, and transactional.

Discussion on the value of transactional keywords for conversion rates.

Analysis of keyword metrics such as volume, trend, keyword difficulty, CPC, and competitive density.

Recommendation to target stable keywords over those with unpredictable spikes in search volume.

Demonstration of filtering keywords by difficulty to find easier opportunities for ranking.

Strategy for using competitor analysis with the Keyword Gap tool to find untapped keyword opportunities.

How to identify keywords where your website is ranking between positions 2 to 15 and the potential for improvement.

Use of the On Page SEO checker to identify optimization ideas for improving page rankings.

Introduction to the Backlink Gap tool for analyzing and improving backlink profiles.

Explanation of the Link Building Tool for finding and managing potential backlink opportunities.

Guidance on conducting a site audit to identify and fix technical issues affecting SEO performance.

Final thoughts on the value of using Semrush for comprehensive SEO strategy and optimization.

Transcripts

- Hi there, my name is Simon

and in this Semrush tutorial

I'm gonna show you everything you need to know

on how to use this insanely powerful SEO tool

to its fullest potential.

But don't worry, this is not just another basic overview

of all the tools of Semrush.

I'm gonna give you a simple step-by-step process

on how to find the best keyword opportunities

for your specific website and business.

You will also learn how to optimize for these keywords

so that your website will appear at

the top of Google search results.

Then I'll show you how to use Semrush

to get high-quality backlinks to your site,

and also how to find potential technical issues

on your website that you might not even be aware of.

I'm very excited about everything I'm gonna show you

in this video, so let's get into it.

(upbeat music)

All right, now before we get into the tutorial,

I want to quickly show you

how you can extend your free trial with Semrush,

so you can use all the tools for free for a longer time.

Now when you're on the Semrush homepage,

you can scroll down and then you can see

that normally they offer a seven-day free trial

to use and test all of their tools.

But if you use the links down below

in the video description of this video,

you get to this page right here

where you can see the special offer.

This is for my YouTube subscribers.

You can get a 14-day free trial

instead of a seven-day free trial.

So if you don't already have a Semrush subscription,

make sure to create your account

using the link down below in the description,

and that way you can get a 14-day free trial

instead of a seven-day trial.

So now we're logged into our Semrush account

and we can already see on the left side

all the different tools that we can use

to optimize our website to rank higher on Google.

Now, I'm not gonna be going through

each and every single one of them in this video in detail,

because this video would be over five hours long.

I'm gonna be focusing on the most important ones

that you'll be using,

implementing the keyword research process

I'm gonna be showing you,

and also the process to optimize your content

and your website in general.

Semrush has also sorted all of these tools

into different categories.

So here we have the SEO tools, Local SEO, Advertising,

Social Media, Content Marketing, Trends,

and Agency Solutions.

So Semrush is kind of like an all-in-one marketing tool,

but the strength is definitely in the SEO tools.

And in this video we're gonna be focusing mostly on

this tab here, the SEO tools.

All right, so now I'm gonna show you a step-by-step

keyword research process to find keyword opportunities

for your website and industry.

So the first thing you wanna do

is come over to the SEO tools,

and then under keyword research,

click on the Keyword Magic Tool.

Then here we're gonna have to enter a seed keyword.

This is gonna be the starting point for Semrush

to find more keyword ideas and opportunities

for your industry.

So for example, let's say we are in the AI tool niche

and maybe we've created a website with AI tools

or we are a blog writing about AI tools.

The first thing as a seed keyword I would enter here is just

AI tools, and then click on search.

And now we can see that Semrush gives us

a lot of different keyword ideas related to AI tools.

But before we go through each of these ideas,

I wanna first go through each of the different metrics

that Semrush shows us for each of these keywords,

because it's really important that you understand

what everything means

so that you can make good decisions about

what keywords are actually a good opportunity

and what you should not go for.

So the first column shows you the intent of the keyword.

This is one of the most important things

you want to think about

when deciding what keyword to target,

and also how to create your content

to make sure you rank for that keyword.

So intent just basically means what is the person

who typed that phrase into the search bar

actually looking for.

What is the goal of that person?

And Semrush basically gives you

four different intent categories.

There is commercial, there's informational,

there's navigational, and then we also have transactional.

And here we can see an overview

of all of these different intent categories.

So the first category is navigational.

So for example, if somebody just types in Subaru website,

then this person just wants to go to the specific website,

which is Subaru.

Then we have informational.

When somebody types in what is a good car,

then the person is not really ready to buy a car yet.

The person just wants to find some information about

how to make the decision what car to buy.

Then we have commercial investigation.

When people compare different providers or services,

like Subaru versus Nissan,

this person is not quite yet ready to buy a car.

It's still trying to compare different brands

to finally make the decision which brand to go for.

And then we have transactional.

When somebody types in buy Subaru Forester,

this is really specific and the buy definitely shows us

that this person is ready to actually buy the car.

So this person is the furthest along in the funnel

to becoming a customer.

Now it doesn't make sense for us

to go for navigational keywords

if we aren't really the Subaru website.

So what we wanna be focusing on is mainly on informational,

commercial and transactional.

The most valuable keyword in terms of each click

is definitely the transactional one,

because people who type in these keywords are further along

and it's a lot easier for us to convert them

into a client or a customer,

compared to let's say informational intent keywords,

because those people are just looking for information

and aren't ready to buy something yet.

So looking at the keyword intent

will give you a good idea about how likely it is

for the traffic to convert into customers or clients,

compared to other keywords.

So the conversion rate for the transactional keywords

is a lot higher

compared to the conversion rate of the commercial keywords.

And then the conversion rate here is a lot higher

than the conversion rate of informational keywords.

So this is also how I would prioritize

targeting different types of keywords,

also taking into account how much traffic volume there is

for those keywords.

And the volume we can see in the third column.

This shows us the average monthly searches

over a 12-month period for our keyword.

So on average about 15,000 people type in AI tools

into the search bar per month.

So obviously the higher volume the better

because if more people search for something,

potentially the more traffic you can get.

But usually the higher the volume,

the difficulty to rank for that keyword is also higher.

Then in the next column we have trend,

which shows us the trend of the searches

over a 12-month period.

So for AI tools we can see that the trend is going up,

which is a good sign if you want to target that keyword.

It just shows us that the interest in AI tools

is actually going up over time.

Then sometimes you also have these spikes here.

So for example, for DragGan AI Tool,

we can see that there was a big spike a few months ago,

but now the searches are really low.

So just, you wanna keep that in mind.

So don't expect to just get 1,900 in traffic volume

for that keyword every single month,

because there was just a big spike

which increased this number.

But maybe now it only gets like a hundred

or even less searches per month.

And then you probably don't want to target this keyword

if you compare it to other ones

who have a more stable trend.

In general, I would recommend to just go for

more stable keywords, like for example, AI writing tools.

Here you can see there's a consistent demand

for this keyword, and it's a lot easier to predict

if it's gonna be worth it to target this keyword,

instead of just looking at these spikes

which are really unpredictable.

Then we have keyword difficulty,

which is also one of the most important metrics

you wanna take into account

when deciding what keywords to target.

The higher the number, the more difficult it will be

to rank for that keyword.

So in the next step we're gonna be filtering out

all of these difficult ones,

so we only see the keywords that we actually have

a chance for ranking with a new website.

Obviously if you have a website that has a higher authority,

then you can also go for keywords that are

a bit more difficult to rank for.

But in the beginning, if you have a new website,

it makes no sense to try and go for keywords

that are difficult or even very hard to rank for,

just because it is gonna be virtually impossible for you

to rank for them.

So you will not get any traffic,

even though the volume of this keyword is quite high.

Then we have CPC, which stands for cost per click.

This will give you an idea about

what advertisers are willing to pay per click

to show their website to people who type in that keyword.

So you probably know that when you type in something

on Google, let's say AI tools,

then there's always these sponsored posts

that are at the top and also sometimes in the middle.

And, for example, Semrush, because it says sponsored,

are paying to appear here at the top of the search results.

And if I would click on here,

they would probably pay around $2.20

for just getting the click onto their website.

Usually that also shows you how valuable that keyword is.

So for the keywords that are more likely

to convert into customers,

those keywords usually have a higher CPC,

which means advertisers are willing to pay more

to appear for those keywords.

And then we have competitive density.

This gives you an idea about

how many advertisers are trying to show their website

for this keyword, and the higher the number here,

the more advertisers there are,

so the higher the competition.

And then under SERP features we can see about

how many SERP features there are for this keyword.

So for example, for AI tools,

we are not only seeing these regular website results

in the search, we also see things like people also ask,

or when we scroll further down we can see related searches.

Sometimes you also have videos from YouTube

or like shopping things on the right side,

and these are called SERP features.

And in general, the more SERP features you have here,

the less real estate there is on the page

for your regular website that you wanna rank.

So that's makes it a bit harder

to rank on the first page or higher on Google,

because there are all these SERP features in between.

But I wouldn't worry about this too much to be honest.

Then we have the number of results shown for that keyword,

and at the end we can see when the last time was

that Semrush updated these metrics.

All right, so now that we understand

what all of these metrics mean,

let's go ahead and find some keyword opportunities.

Now the first thing I would do is set some filters,

because right now we have a lot of keywords

that are very hard to rank for.

We can see that here under KD.

Like I said before, for a new website with low authority,

it's gonna be almost impossible to rank for these keywords.

So what I would do is just go to the filters up here

and then under KD I would start with the very easy keywords.

So from zero to 14% for the KD, just click here,

and then it will filter out everything

that is not very easy.

So now let's go through these keywords.

The first one is why is auto blogging AI

the best AI writing tool?

This is kind of a weird keyword

because it's just focused on auto blogging AI.

This looks like a campaign they have done

and you can also see that here in the trend,

this traffic spike here.

So I would say it doesn't make sense to target this keyword

because one, there's the spike,

and now there's probably very little traffic,

if anything at all.

And also it doesn't make sense based on the intent

because unless you own the website auto blogging AI.

So I would not put this on my list.

Then we have Keewee AI tool.

Here, we can see in the trend

that this was very popular for a time

and then now the trend kind of died down.

So I would probably also not target this keyword.

So let's move on to the next one.

We have Oxolo AI video generator tool, also the spike.

So I'm just trying to avoid anything

that has like this spike, and now it's probably dead.

So let's move on to maybe this one, AI remove closed tool.

So this definitely looks interesting.

- Okay.

- [Simon] Because an AI remove closed tool

is probably something that is pretty new,

and we can also see that here,

the demand for that keyword has just increased

in the last few months.

And if this actually does work,

then it's probably something that people

will continue to look for also in the future.

So if you would have like a website

that actually offers this kind of tool,

or a website or a blog that talks about different AI tools,

then it might make sense to actually target this keyword

and like let's say make a list of

different AI remove closed tools,

and be early here in the trend for this keyword.

So I would definitely put this on my list.

So what I would do is just click on the plus icon here

and then we're gonna create a new list

and I'm just gonna name this AI Tools, and then click here.

And now this keyword is on the AI Tools list.

Then the next one is AI illusion tool.

This also could be interesting, we have a KD of one,

so it should be absolutely no problem

to rank this very high on Google.

We have a pretty consistent traffic volume

and we have a traffic volume of

110 average searches per month.

So it's probably gonna be difficult for you to decide on

what traffic volume is gonna be worth it

for you to target the keyword.

This really depends on a few factors.

First, if you have a new website,

then you probably have to go for low volume keywords

like low volume, long-term keywords

because the other ones are just gonna be too difficult

for you to target.

And you wanna build up some traffic just using,

just going for low competition keywords

to build up your authority.

And then slowly over time you can also go for keywords

that have higher volume,

that have also higher keyword difficulty.

And it also depends on your industry.

So for some industries, each customer or each client

is gonna be worth a lot.

So even if you could just get, let's say,

50 clicks on your website per day,

but then one of these clicks converts into a customer,

you maybe already make like a thousand or $2,000

from that customer.

So it's already gonna be worth it for you

to still target low volume keywords.

So as long as you do get some clicks

and you think it's worth it for you in terms of

how likely this viewer or this visitor will be

to convert into a customer,

then it definitely makes sense to target that keyword,

if the intent is there,

if the intent will most likely lead to a conversion.

So I would just also put this one on my list.

So we just wanna continue to go through these keywords

and add all the ones that we think

it might be worth ranking for.

At some point you probably wanna stop

because the volume's just getting lower here,

the lower we go, because it's sorted by traffic volume.

And if you have a hard time finding keywords

that have a decent volume

in the very easy keyword difficulty category,

then you can just change this from very easy to easy

and then just go up to find keywords

with a higher traffic volume.

And something you can do to find

even more different types of keywords

is to change up the seed keyword here at the top.

So something I would do is just go to Google

and then type in the general category,

or my first seed keyword,

then scroll down and look for related searches right here.

So here you can see Google gives us

different types of things

people are typing into the search bar

that is related to our topic.

So for example, AI tools for writing

or AI tools for students.

Let's maybe, for example, use this one.

So let's go back here, then type in AI tools for students

and then click on search.

And this will give us a completely new list.

Then we can also clear this filter here

so we can see the entire list

that is specific for AI tools for students.

So this was the first of two keyword research methods

I'm gonna show you.

So on the first one, we just used the keyword magic tool,

and now in the second one we're gonna use our competitors

to find keyword opportunities.

And we're gonna use the Keyword Gap tool

under the competitive research tab.

So let's click on Keyword Gap.

And then here we want to type in our own website's domain.

So as an example, I'm just gonna use the Semrush website,

so semrush.com, and then we want to add some competitors.

So here, Semrush already gives us some options

for our competitors.

So I can just choose them here based on this list.

If you wanna get a larger list of competitors

for your specific website,

what you can do is go to the Organic Research tab,

open this up in a new tab,

and then you just wanna type in your domain here.

So again, I'm just gonna type in Semrush, click on search,

and then we just wanna go to competitors right here.

And here, when we scroll down,

we can find a list of our top competitors,

and that's based on the amount of similar keywords

that both our website and the competitor websites

are ranking for.

So let's go back to the Keyword Gap tool

and then just enter some competitors from the list

that Semrush provides us with.

So Ahrefs.

Let's maybe add this one as well.

And then also this one.

And then click on compare.

And then here we wanna scroll down to the keyword list.

And now this is gonna show us keywords

that us and our competitors are both ranking for.

So for example, Google Search Console, we,

or in this case Semrush,

is ranked number five for this term.

And then Similarweb ranked number 79, 19, 8 and 32.

So what we wanna do is find keywords

that all of our competitors are ranking for,

but we are not ranking for.

And we can simply filter those keywords

by clicking on missing, the missing filter here.

And now we can see, for example, Amazon Affiliate Program,

all of our competitors are ranked for this keyword

and this actually has a high volume,

but we aren't even ranked.

So it might be a good idea for us to target this keyword

because all of our competitors are ranking for it,

which makes the chances of us ranking for it

a lot higher as well.

But obviously we wanna make sure

that these keywords make sense in terms of our SEO strategy.

So maybe something that would make more sense

is something like how to find keywords on a website.

And then here again, you can see, for example,

Ahrefs is ranked number two, but we are,

we don't have any rank.

So Semrush probably doesn't have even any content

around this keyword.

And because this phrase is actually quite relevant

for an SEO tool like Semrush,

I would say it definitely makes sense

to think about creating content around this keyword.

So we can also rank just like our competitors

and potentially get some more traffic

and also new customers.

Now we're gonna take a quick break to thank our sponsor,

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All right, so now that we have a few keywords

that we might want to target,

it's time to do some further research and find out

how to optimize our content

so we have the highest chance of ranking for those keywords.

So first let's go to our keyword list

by heading over to the keyword manager.

Then let's go to the AI tools keyword list.

And here we find all of the keywords

that we have added to this list.

So as an example, I'm just gonna use this one here,

AI tools for real estate agents.

So to do some further investigations,

let's click on this keyword

and this will open up the keyword overview

for this keyword we have just clicked on.

And then here at the top we can see the same metrics

that we have already seen in the keyboard research process.

So we have the U.S. traffic volume, the global volume,

the keyboard difficulty, the trend,

and also the other metrics right here.

But what we wanna do is you wanna scroll down

and go to SERP analysis.

So this basically shows you what Google actually shows

when people type in that keyword.

And here you can see the top 10 pages

that are visible on Google when people search this term.

So what we want to look at here is

what kind of websites are actually ranking

for this keyword currently,

and then also at these metrics here at the right side.

So here we have the page or the page authority score.

This just means on how authoritative

the URL or the website is, which is currently ranking.

So the higher the score, the more authority this site has.

This is based on the amount of links going to this site,

the amount of traffic this site gets,

and the amount of organic search results this site has.

So currently the top website ranking for this term

has an authority score of 16, which isn't that high.

Then we also have websites

that have authority score of even zero.

So this definitely tells us that we have a chance

of ranking for this term, even though,

even if we have a new website that we just started.

Then we also wanna look at referring domains.

This means how many different websites

are linking to this specific page that is a ranking.

So the top page currently has two,

or has four backlinks from two different domains linking

that is put to this page.

And then we can also see the second one has

22 different domains linking to the page.

And then we have these ones which have zero backlinks

linking to the page.

So again, we can see that even if we don't have

a lot of backlinks, we can still rank on the first page.

So this gives us a good overview of the top ranking results,

but we want to take a closer look at these search results

and see if you can find some patterns

of what's actually ranking for this term on Google.

So let's open up a new incognito browser window

and then type in the target keyword.

And then here, let's see if we can find some patterns.

So at the top we have

11 Must Have Real Estate AI Tools Every Realtor Needs.

Then we have AI tools, or AI for Real Estate Agents,

9 Tools to Keep Up With the blah, blah, blah.

Then we have nine powerful AI tools.

So the first thing that I notice here is that

usually we have a list.

So we have 11 tools, we have nine tools, we have nine tools,

we have eight, 53, eight.

So what seems to work here for this keyword

is just giving a list of the best AI tools.

That's already very valuable information

because this tells me

that usually people click on these list posts.

Then next we also want to click on each of these pages

that are at the top, and just see how they are structured,

how they structure their content, so this looks like a,

just a simple blog post where they just list

all of the different tools,

with some images and some further information.

Then on the second page, it's kind of the same.

We have just a list of all the different tools.

So again, this gives me a good idea about

how to structure my content

to have a high chance of ranking for this term as well.

And now I'm gonna show you another Semrush tool

that will help you optimizing your content

for your target keyword.

So let's go back to our tools.

And then under On Page and Tech SEO,

let's click on SEO Content Template.

Then here, let's enter our target keyword

and click on create content template.

And then here, Semrush gives you a few more recommendations

when it comes to creating the content for this keyword,

based on the top results that are currently ranking.

So I would look at the key recommendations here.

So first we have the semantically related words.

These are just keywords

that you might want to include in your content.

Then we have backlinks.

We're gonna talk more about backlinks later in the video,

but these are just similar websites

that you might wanna reach out to and get backlinks from

pointing to your content.

Then we have readability.

This gives you an average readability score

for the top 10 search results.

This just means on how hard it is to read the text.

On average, we have a score of 50 here,

and when we go to the table of what this means,

we can see 50 to 60 means it's fairly difficult to read,

or even college level difficult to read.

So this just gives you an idea on

what is currently working for the top ranking results.

And usually you want to keep about in the same range.

And later I'm gonna also show you

how to check your content on what your readability score is,

so you can adjust accordingly.

And then lastly, we have the text length.

This is actually one of the most important things

you wanna consider when creating content for the keyword,

is that you hit about this amount of words.

You don't want to go too much above or too much below

because this is what's currently working the best.

So we wanna make sure to have a,

let's say blog post that has around 1,400 words.

This would be optimal.

Great, so now we have some guidelines

when it comes to creating content for our target keywords.

Now I want to show you the Semrush Writing Assistant,

which is gonna help you to stay in those guidelines

when actually creating the content.

So on the left-hand side, let's come to Content Marketing

and then let's click on the SEO Writing Assistant.

And then we already have the keyword here

because we have created an SEO template for this keyword.

So let's click on quick check.

And then here we can just paste in our content

to see what recommendations we get from Semrush

for us to optimize our content for our target keyword.

So just as an example, I'm gonna go to one of these results

that came up for my keyword,

and I'm just gonna paste the content that they have

to see if we get some recommendations here for their page.

So let's just go back here and then paste that in.

And then we can see here on the right side

that they're doing a pretty good job,

so they have a 7.8 out of 10.

The SEO is pretty good, readability is pretty good,

tone of voice is good,

but the originality could definitely be improved.

Now what I would do here is then start

and just click on each of these categories.

So let's start with readability,

and then just go through the list down here.

So here, first of all, we have the readability of 43.9,

and it should be a 50 or around 50.

So it's actually pretty good, it's pretty close to 50.

Then this should definitely be improved.

So we want to have a bit more content here

because the target would be 1,431 words

and we only have 1,078.

So I would definitely make this content a bit longer

to hit this word count right here.

Then we can scroll down, title issues,

we have no issues here.

Then we should split long paragraphs,

rewrite hard to read sentences, and so on.

So again, just go through the list

and make sure you fix these issues.

The same thing with SEO,

just click on SEO and then look at all of these things

that Semrush recommends and fix these issues.

Now I'm gonna show you how to set up position tracking

for your target keywords, so you can always stay updated on

what your current ranking is in the Google search results.

So to do that, we're gonna come over here

under keyword research and go to position tracking.

Then here, just type in your website's URL.

So I'm just gonna use the website of Semrush

and then click on set up tracking.

Then under location, I'm gonna set it to the United States

and click on continue to keywords.

And then here we can now enter the keywords

that we want to track,

or we can also import them from a file.

So just as an example, I'm gonna enter a few keywords

and then click on add keywords to campaign.

Then they will be shown down here.

And now if you leave this option ticked,

then you will get a weekly email

updating you about your current ranking for these keywords.

So let's click on start tracking.

And now the ranking for the keywords that we have added

will be tracked for our website,

and we can see all kinds of data here.

So under overview, you can see the average visibility

for all of our keywords,

the average position for the keywords.

So what we wanna look at is basically just at the position

and also if something has changed.

So if we lose a position,

then we probably want to look at why that is.

Maybe we need to send some more links to that page,

or we need to optimize the content in a certain way.

So that's just something you need to keep track of

because that's eventually where your traffic is coming from.

Now I wanna show you how to find the keywords

that your website is already ranking for,

but you're not at the first position on Google yet,

which means you could potentially get a lot more traffic

if you were to optimize your pages and rank higher,

or even rank on the first position of Google.

Because let's take a quick look at this study

that backlingo.com has done,

which shows us how much of the traffic the first, second,

and third, until the 10th position,

is getting compared to the other positions.

So the first position on Google usually gets

27.6% of the traffic,

which is almost double what the second position gets,

and it's 10 times as much as the ninth position on Google.

So let's say we are currently sitting at position five

for our target keyword, but if you were to optimize our page

and maybe also send some more backlinks to this page,

then we could potentially end up in position one

and get over four times the traffic

that we have gotten before.

So improving your pages

that are currently sitting at position two

to about 15 for a specific keyword that is relevant to you

is one of the best ways how to spend your time and resources

in order for you to get more traffic to your website.

So now I'm gonna show you how to use Semrush

to find the keywords

where you are currently sitting at position two to 15

and where it might be worth it to optimize the pages

that are ranked at that position.

So let's head back over to Semrush

and then let's go to Organic Research.

Then here, type in your website.

I'm gonna use another one this time,

I'm just gonna use MailerLite

which is an email marketing platform.

Let's click on search.

From here, let's go to positions.

And then we can see the keywords

that currently are getting us the most traffic.

Now we can still see the keywords

where we are currently at position one,

so we want to filter those out by going to positions,

and then we're gonna do a custom range

from position number two to position number 15.

Let's click on apply.

And this gives us a list of all of the keywords

where we are currently at position two to 15.

And what I would do also is start with

the easy keywords first.

So let's go to keyword difficulty here

and then let's look at the very easy ones first.

And here, for example, we can see

for the keyword November newsletter,

this gets about 390 searches per month,

and we are currently at position three.

We can also look at the page

that is ranking for that keyword.

This is how it looks like.

So MailerLite actually has a blog post

about the 93 special events

to inspire your November newsletter.

So this is relevant to this keyword,

so it might be worth it to look at this page

and see if we can optimize something

or see if we can send some more backlinks

so we can get from number three to number one,

and potentially get a lot more traffic.

But now how do we know what we need to optimize on our page

to potentially boost our rankings?

Here is where I would use the Semrush On Page SEO checker.

So let's open this up in a new tab.

Then here we have to enter our domain.

So in this case this would be mailerlite.com.

Then United States is fine.

And then here we want to go to manually

and then enter the page we are trying to optimize.

So let's come back here

and let's say we want to increase our ranking

for this keyword, travel landing page.

Currently we are sitting at position six,

and this is the page that we are ranking for this keyword.

So let's copy the keyword

and then go back to the On Page SEO checker.

Paste in the keyword here.

And then we also wanna paste the page we want to optimize.

So that's this one.

So let's copy that as well and then paste that in here.

Then click on add page and collect ideas.

Then once it's done loading,

let's click on Optimization Ideas.

And then we wanna filter by the page we want to optimize.

So we can either enter the keyword here or the URL.

I'm gonna just paste in the URL here.

And then we can see here's the URL,

this is our target keyword,

and Semrush gives us four ideas of what we could optimize.

So let's click on four ideas

and then we get to the suggestions.

So MailerLite actually does a pretty good job

optimizing all their pages for SEO,

so there aren't too many suggestions,

but one thing that we could do on their content

is focus more on creating a more informative content.

So the competitors use long-form content on their webpages

which are ranking higher.

So this might be something to think about.

Then the content should be a bit more readable.

And then when we scroll down here,

we could add a few more related keywords

like landing page template or social proof.

And then we can also try and get

some more backlinks from these sites here.

You can also click on detailed analysis

to see some more information about

how many times the competitors who are ranking higher

are using specific keywords.

So it can really get into the details here

for these suggestions,

but it's definitely gonna give you a good guideline

of what you can optimize

in order for you to boost your rankings.

Now let's also look at a few backlink

and link building tools of Semrush.

You'll probably know that having high-quality backlinks

pointing to your website is very important

in terms of increasing your authority

in a specific industry,

and therefore also being able to rank higher

for more competitive keywords.

So the first thing I would do

is go to the Backlink Gap tool.

And here we can compare our backlink profile

with other competitor websites

to see if we need to spend some more time and resources

on getting backlinks, and also find some websites

we could potentially get backlinks from.

So first we want to enter your domain,

I'm just gonna use the MailerLite website again,

and then here we want to add some competitors.

So I'm just gonna use some that Semrush is offering me here.

So let's lose this, this, and maybe get response.

Then let's click on Find Prospects.

Then here, let's first click on this dropdown arrow

for the charts, which will give us a nice overview

of how well we are doing compared to the competition.

So first of all, for the authority score,

you can see that most of the competitors

are roundabout in the same range.

Everybody's about 50 authority score,

with the exception of subscribepage.com.

They're quite a bit lower, so they have a lot of work to do

in terms of increasing their authority score

and getting more backlinks.

And under referring domains,

we can see how much MailerLite has been investing in

SEO and backlinks over the last 12 months.

You can just see how many more backlinks they have

compared to the competition.

So here we can already see

that MailerLite is doing an incredible job.

But what's really interesting is actually

the prospects for section here.

This shows us what websites

our competitors have backlinks from, but we don't.

So for example, forbes.com

is a very authoritative website, it has a score of 100,

which is insanely high, it's the highest one you can have.

And all of our competitors have backlinks from forbes.com,

but MailerLite has zero backlinks.

So this would definitely be a good opportunity

to get in contact with Forbes

and maybe talk to them about exchanging backlinks,

or what we would have to do

to get a backlink from this page.

And then we have another tool

to help you finding good websites to get links from,

which is this Link Building Tool.

So let's click on this.

Then here, let's enter our domain.

In this case, I'm gonna again use mailerlite.com.

Then just continue here.

And here we have some of the main competitors.

Let's click on start link building.

And here, once it's done analyzing,

we can click on prospects

and then look at all of the potential prospects

to get backlinks from.

Here we can also sort by prospects

based on keywords or also based on competitors.

So once you find or decide on who you want to contact,

you can just click on to in progress,

and then it will be kind of moved along in the process.

And you can click on in progress here.

And this shows you your list of all of the websites

you want to contact.

You can even contact them in the Semrush tool,

so when we click on contact here, you can connect your email

and then do all the communication through Semrush,

which will probably make it a lot easier for you

to keep track of your link building activities.

Now I'm gonna show you how to do a site audit

on your website,

which will show you all of the technical issues

that your website might have,

and that might be holding you back

when it comes to getting more traffic.

So let's come over here to the left side

and click on Site Audit in the On Page and Tech SEO section.

And then for our example,

I'm just gonna enter a random food blog that I found

called budgetbytes.com.

So let's click on start audit.

And then here we can limit the amount of pages

to check in the audit.

And to find out how many pages there are on our website,

we can just come over to Google,

and then we want to type in site:

and then paste in the URL, budgetbytes.com, hit enter,

and then Google will only show us the pages of our site

that we want to audit.

In this case, we have 4,170 results.

so we can go back to Semrush

and then make sure we have enough pages.

In this case, this would be 5,000 pages to check,

or just a little bit below, so that's fine.

And then let's click on start site audit.

Now, depending on the size of your page,

it's gonna take some time for the audit to be complete.

So we just wanna keep it running

and then come back in like half an hour once it's completed.

Then you should get to this page here

where you can see an overall health status of your website.

This website we've just crawled is currently at 82%,

so there's definitely some room to improve.

Semrush also found 17 errors, over 7,000 warnings,

and almost 20,000 notices that we need to look at

to find if there's something we need to fix.

So what we wanna do is come over to the issues tab

and then look at all of the issues that Semrush found.

So for example, under errors,

we can see we have seven internal links that are broken,

and we can click on those

and we can see exactly which of the links are broken.

And we should probably go ahead and fix those links.

Then we come back here and we can see the second issue

is that six pages return in a error message.

So we also wanna fix that.

And if at some point you don't know how to fix the issue,

or what the issue actually is,

you can just click on the why and how to fix it,

and then you can see an explanation about what the issue is

and how to fix this issue.

So it's definitely worth it to spend some time here

in the site audit section of Semrush,

to optimize your website's health

and therefore also your performance.

So I hope you'll learn something valuable

in this Semrush tutorial.

If you did, please give the video a thumbs up

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And don't forget,

if you don't already have a Semrush account,

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