How to find SEO keywords you can actually rank for 

If you’re a content creator, chances are you know just how vital it is that your content actually gets seen.

You’re probably all too familiar with terms like “rankings” and “keyword research,” and that dang algorithm consistently keeps you on your toes. 

In the ever-changing world of SEO and logistics, you might even find yourself longing for the days when you could just create for the sake of creating! Can you relate? 

We hear this loud and clear—which is why your Interact team has your back! 

This article will cover our top two strategies for creating content that can actually rank against keywords, so you can ditch the endless rabbit hole of logistics and get back to what you do best—creating! 

Table of contents: 

• What’s a keyword and why is it important?
• Keyword difficulty 
• Traffic potential 
• Gathering ideas from your existing customers 

What exactly is a keyword, anyway?

As a content creator, you’re likely in it for the pure enjoyment of creating. Whether you’re a writer, videographer, or beyond, it’s less about the actual outcome and more about what you can contribute. 

And that’s great! But as a website owner, your content must be visible to an audience. What’s the point of creating content if no one will see it?! 

This is why having the right keywords on your page is vital. Keywords are the linchpin between what people are searching for and the content you are publishing to fill a specific need.

Your keywords should always be relevant to your content, but they should also be something your audience can easily search for and then be redirected to your website (or wherever your content lives.) 

Here is a simple way of looking at it: your keywords should boil your entire piece of content (blog, article, video, etc.) into a few specific words and phrases that are relatable to your audience. 

Your primary goal in ranking on search engines should be to organically drive traffic to your website—which is why establishing the right keywords is essential. This deciding factor will determine what kind of traffic you attract and ensure that you aren’t miscommunicating information or drawing in the wrong audience. 

Make sense so far? 

Keywords are as much about your audience as they are about your content because you might describe what you offer in a slightly different way than some people ask for it.

So, how do you ensure you choose the right words to attract the right audience to your website? Let’s look at our top two strategies for making this a smooth process. 

Keyword difficulty 

First of all, what does this term actually mean?

Keyword difficulty is also known as “SEO difficulty” or “keyword competition,” and it essentially means the process of evaluating how difficult it is to rank in organic search results. 

There are a few factors to consider when it comes to your keyword’s difficulty ranking. Here are a couple to keep in mind: 

• Domain authority 
• Content quality 
• Page authority 
• Mobile-friendliness 

To dive deeper, check out this awesome article on How Candy Motzek’s Quiz Ranked #1 on Google using high-ranking keywords. 

So, why is knowing all this so important? In short, your keyword difficulty is essential to the keyword research process. 

And in our experience, the less complicated you can make these keywords, the more successful they will be! 

One of the best ways to ensure your content ideation efforts are successful is by using a Google trends API. This can provide you with detailed data about keywords for deeper topic research.

Over the past ten years, our team here at Interact has worked hard to understand the ever-changing world of SEO—this strategy has been a game changer for high keyword ranking! 

Less is almost always more—getting your keyword difficulty down to ten or fewer will ensure you boost your rank in the search engine department. 

Check out the below video where our CEO Josh Hayman goes into detail on this. 

Knowing this little piece of information should save you time in the research department so you can focus on what you do best: creating! 

Now that you have this tip of the trade in your SEO tool belt, let’s look at traffic potential and why this is important to ranking higher keywords. 

Traffic potential 

Another long-standing strategy that has worked wonders when it comes to high keyword ranking is…

Drumroll please…

Traffic potential! Surprisingly enough, we’ve learned that this factor is more important than search volume. 

Here’s why: 

Traffic potential can be defined as the average amount of organic search traffic a page receives per month. So it’s less about link building and more about the actual quality of the content. 

Watch the below video where Josh shares a living example: 

We’ve learned that as long as the traffic potential is higher than 20 per month, you can pretty much count on some higher levels of organic traffic.

Why? Because we’ve found that, typically, the traffic you see driving to your website (AKA the potential) is often ten times higher than your traffic potential number. 

So, let’s recap: You’re now clear on the importance of keywords and why your content needs them. Plus, you’ve got two top strategies to get started on ranking against other keywords.

Now what? Let’s look at brainstorming epic keywords that will take your content to new heights! 

Lean on your existing customers 

Everyone knows the old saying, “The customer is always right.” And when it comes to the right keywords for your content, it still rings true. 

Your current clients and customers will always give the best insight into the workings of your business and inspire the best ideas for content. So consider it low-hanging fruit! 

Talking to your customers is really the only way to gather true, valuable information to help you optimize the workings of your business and create meaningful content that will attract the right people to your products and services. 

Sure, you can always lean on keyword research tools (HERE is a list of some of the top keyword research tools to get you started), but in our opinion, the customer is always the best place to source those ideas!