8 Steps to Keyword Ranking That Land You on Page 1

A very common question that we have seen around is, “how to choose best keywords for SEO?”  And when you don’t know how to look for relevant keywords with high volume, you will eventually miss out on potential traffic and search engine rankings. Choosing the right keywords is one of the most important steps in creating a successful SEO strategy. Keywords are the bridge between what people are searching for and the content you provide.  Here is a well-researched step-by-step guide to help you improve keyword ranking. Continue reading and learn some actionable SaaS SEO tips and how you can boost your SEO performance. 

Why Keyword Selection is Important for SEO Success

Keywords control how well your content connects with your target audience. Focusing on the right keywords not only boosts your organic search rankings but also improves your average click-through rates and ensures your site provides a good user experience. By understanding search intent and using relevant keywords, your website becomes more noticeable. Using irrelevant or overly competitive keywords can lead to a waste of your efforts and resources. If your target audience can’t find you or if you’re focusing on keywords that are beyond your reach, your online visibility will eventually start decreasing, and your content will fail to give results.

Step #1: Define Your Goals and Audience

SEO without clear goals is like moving forward without a destination. Before selecting keywords, understand what you’re trying to achieve:

• Do you want to drive more organic traffic?
• Are you aiming for leads or sales?
• Do you want to dominate a specific niche?

Know Your Target Audience

To select effective keywords with good search volumes, you must know:

1. Who is your audience? Are they startups, established SaaS agencies, or digital marketing companies?
2. What are their pain points? What challenges do they face, and what solutions does your website offer to cater to their problems?
3. How do they search online? What are their search terms and phrases?

Responses to these queries are your goals to work on. This way, you can improve keyword ranking efficiently. You need to identify your main services and products and understand who your potential customers are and what they are looking for. 

Step #2: Start with Seed Keywords and Brainstorming

Seed keywords are broader terms that represent your market. Around these keywords, you join more related keywords and plan your content marketing strategies. For example, a SaaS company offering project management tools might start with seed keywords like “project management,” “task tracking,” or “team collaboration.” Then, they might expand by adding more keyword ideas linked to these terms.

But how can you expand your seed keywords?

It is simple! Here is how you can easily expand on your seed keywords and optimize your SaaS marketing strategy:

1. Use Keyword Research Tools

Keyword Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMrush can help you identify relevant keywords, observe search volumes with new trends, and find keyword variations.

2. Analyze Existing Keywords

Use Google Search Console to find out what keywords a site ranks for and what your site is lacking. You must also focus on terms that bring in organic search traffic and expand on them.

3. Brainstorm Internally

Collaborate with your team to list keywords based on customer questions, product features, and industry trends. Actionable Tip: Use forums, social media platforms, and tools to discover what real people are talking about for your industry.

Step #3: Use Competitor Analysis to Uncover Opportunities

Competitor analysis involves studying the keywords your competitors rank for. It plays a major role in identifying gaps in your strategy for choosing keywords. Your competitors’ success can aid you in exploring potential issues in your site and help you discover keywords that should be targeted.

Steps to Analyze Competitors

Here is how you can do a successful competitor analysis to identify your weaknesses:

1. Perform a Keyword Gap Analysis

Use SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to find keywords your competitors rank for, but you don’t. These tools will assist you in identifying gaps. Target those primary and secondary keywords to create relevant content and improve keyword ranking.

2. Study Their Content Strategy

Look at the structure of their blog posts, landing pages, and product descriptions. Try to understand their framework and content format. To fully use this information, you must find ways to incorporate their strategy into your particular field while keeping your originality intact. Learn about new opportunities to improve your existing content, and make sure to differentiate it from others.

3. Check Their Backlinks

Dig in competitor backlinks to identify high-authority websites that are linking to them. This will help you build an efficient link-building strategy and also give you a chance to add links in your content for better content marketing. Pro Tip: Focus on overlooked keywords your competitors may have missed and create content around them.

Step #4: Focus on Long-Tail Keywords for Quick Wins

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that typically have lower competition but higher conversion potential. Once you explore their potential and learn how to use them in your content marketing strategy, you will boost your online search visibility greatly. 

Benefits of Long-Tail Keywords

• Easier to Rank For

These words have less competition compared to broad terms and are usually easy to rank keywords.

• Higher Conversion Rates

They attract users closer to making a purchase decision. This is possible because of long chain keywords, as they potentially work as search engine ranking keywords.

• Match User Intent

These keywords usually match the search terms of potential customers and their specific needs or questions.

But how do you find long-tail keywords?

Finding long-tail keywords might sound overwhelming. But don’t worry, we have got you covered. Here are some steps that can help you get your hands on highly converting long-tail keywords:

1. Google Autocomplete

Type a seed keyword into Google and note the suggestions. This is an easy yet effective way to look for popular keywords. 

2. Forums and Q&A Sites

There are social news platforms where people have discussion threads, such as Quora and Reddit. Here, you can learn about common queries related to your service. 

3. Keyword Tools

Use keyword research tools like Ubersuggest or AnswerThePublic to generate ideas and convert your existing SaaS SEO strategies to gain a competitive edge.  Example: For instance, instead of using “SEO tools,” target “best SEO tools for small SaaS startups.”

Step #5: Assess Keyword Difficulty 

Keyword difficulty is a metric that indicates how hard it is to rank for a particular term. To mark your website high in ranking algorithms, you should not ignore keyword difficulty as a metric when planning your content. 

How can you check keyword difficulty?

Here are two methods which can help you get an idea about how difficult your keyword is:

1. Use Keyword Research Tools

Ahrefs and SEMrush are two examples of keyword research tools that provide keyword difficulty scores. You can use these scores and focus on low-difficulty, high volume keywords. This is an easy but productive way to frame relevant content which converts. 

2. Analyze Top-Ranking Content

Once you find keywords with a low difficulty score, you now need to check the existing content for these target keywords. Observe the quality, length, and format of currently ranking content for your target keyword.

[Bonus] Checklist 

Look for answers to the questions below in your current content format and try to incorporate those solutions into your content marketing strategy for a better ranking position. 

• Can you create better content than what’s ranking?
• Are there gaps in competitor content?
• Do you have the resources to compete effectively?

Check out our SaaS SEO checklist and learn how you can Google-optimize your website.

Step #6: Validate Keywords with Search Intent and SERP Analysis

Search intent explains the purpose behind a user’s query. Common types of keyword intent include:

• Navigational Keywords: These keywords show that users are searching for a specific site or brand.
• Informational Keywords: Keywords that indicate users are seeking knowledge or looking for how-to guides.
• Commercial Keywords: Keyword phrases which show that users are comparing options before purchasing.
• Transactional Keywords: Such keywords usually mean that users are ready to buy or take action. Some buyer intent keywords also come under the category of transactional keywords.

Understanding and categorizing keywords based on buyer intent will help you identify their relevant positions in your content. This classification can aid in ideal keyword usage to boost your organic traffic. 

Analyze Search Engine Results Pages

To figure out your ranking factor on SERPs and what you are lacking in, you need to review the top-ranking pages for your keywords. This will help you identify weaknesses in your content, such as outdated information and poor visuals. Working on them will strategically reduce your bounce rates and improve search engine optimization. To better understand your ranking position, you can also check keyword ranking in Google Analytics and evaluate your average click through rates.  Pro Tip: Align your content with the dominant search intent for your keyword to improve keyword ranking. For a better understanding of keyword research, check out our SaaS Keyword Research Guide.

Step #7: Use Keyword Clustering to Optimize Content

Keyword clustering involves grouping similar keywords into a single content piece to target multiple search terms effectively. Clustering supports you in building content with new SEO tactics and upgrading your Google business profile. 

Steps to Cluster Keywords

Here’s how you can cluster keywords:

1. Identify and extract all primary and secondary keywords that relate to your content. 
2. Create a content outline that addresses all related terms and keywords. 
3. Design pillar content that targets the main keyword and subtopics to improve user experience by addressing multiple questions in one piece of content.
4. Use internal links to connect related clusters to form a framework for improved quality of content. 

Let’s take an example:

If you are targeting “SEO tools,” you can cluster it with related terms like “best SEO tools,” “affordable SEO tools,” and “SEO tools for SaaS.” This way, you can create high-quality content that ranks for multiple terms. Learn more about the importance of SEO content for B2B SaaS companies.

Step #8: Regularly Update and Refine Your Keyword List

Search behavior and trends change, making it necessary to review and adjust your keyword strategy. Staying relevant and aware of the changes in the SEO market gives you an upper hand in conversion rates.

How can you keep your list of keywords updated?

To answer that, here are 3 ways in which you can keep your keywords list up-to-date:

1. Use Google Analytics to monitor keyword performance and flaws in rankings.
2. Add seasonal or trending keywords to gain an advantage on new opportunities.
3. Remove keywords that are not performing well so that you can focus on which keywords are relevant and what new to add. 

[Bonus] Checklist

Not sure when to refine your list? Answer these 3 questions in our checklist and you will get your answer: 

• Are you ranking for your target keywords?
• Have new opportunities come across?
• Is your content still aligned with search intent?

Wrap Up

Keyword research is an ongoing process that requires regular analysis, refinement, and adaptation to changing trends.  When you prioritize keyword selection, you focus your efforts where they matter most. By matching your content with your searcher’s needs, you ensure that search engines recognize your website as a valuable resource. It’s not just about ranking higher – it’s about contributing to the value of your content as well as delivering the best to your audience. Not sure where to start? Stratigia is here to help you improve keyword ranking and drive organic traffic. Contact us now! 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

1. How to rank for a keyword fast?

Focus on long-tail keywords, optimize your on-page SEO, and create high-quality content that addresses user intent.

2. How to improve keyword ranking in Google?

To improve keyword ranking in Google, make sure to update your content regularly, use internal links, and prioritize keywords with clear search intent.

3. How to choose the right keywords for SEO?

Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush, analyze search volumes, and prioritize low-difficulty, high-relevance keywords.

4. How to choose the best keywords for SEO?

Choosing the best keywords is essential for SEO. You must focus on primary keywords for traffic and secondary ones for niche-specific visibility.

5. What keywords do I rank for?

Check Google Search Console or tools like SEMrush to identify the keywords your site currently ranks for.