Targeting the right keywords can have a huge impact on your SEO and organic traffic. It can also be very time-consuming. You could end up spending hours trying to find the right long-tail keywords to target. If you want to maximize your time, you need to 80/20 your keyword research. In order to rank on Google today, content is king. The more content you create, the more opportunities you have to rank for organic terms.

What is the 80/20 principle and why it matters

The 80/20 rule, sometimes referred to as the law of the vital few or the Pareto principle, states that 80% of the impact comes from 20% of the causes. That means that only a small portion of your efforts will produce a major portion of your results. Applying this rule to any marketing strategy is absolutely necessary. The goal is to focus on the big-impact stuff that produces 80% of your results. Here’s how to insert the 80/20 principle into your keyword research and content strategy.

Scan top blogs in an industry for category keywords

One of the best ways to get top keywords in just minutes without using a spreadsheet and analyzing data is to scan the top blogs in an industry category based keywords. These keywords are already crafted and curated for you. Furthermore, most sites will have a popular section that outlines their most popular content for you. You don’t have to do any other research to know that these topics are valuable keywords with a large enough volume to make them worth your time.

Use BuzzSumo to Check Top Content

Once you’ve researched a few of the top sites in your industry for blog content, you can then use BuzzSumo to discover which content is most popular. This will give you an idea of what people in your vertical care about the most. You can see the topics that they are showing the most interest in by checking out the forms of engagement and social shares. With this information, all you need to do is restructure the post to fit your own style and goals, and be sure to use that keyword.

Use Google To Explore your Own Content Ideas

Keyword research is great but has its drawbacks. When doing keyword research, you need to create content centred around that keyword. For the most part, bigger sites already dominate most of the top keywords. And oftentimes, keywords that you find are on specific, long-tail topics. You usually have to adjust your content to fit the keyword instead of writing about topics that you’re already an expert on. You can get around this by choosing which topics you are an expert on before doing keyword research, then use Google to get ideas.

Instead of messing around with a keyword research tool for hours, you get lots of detailed content ideas and common questions that people ask. This can automatically provide a structure for your content, giving you an idea of which terms you can rank for. If you scroll down to the bottom of Google, you get even more keyword data. You want to grab as many ideas as you can from Google when you want to write about a subject rather than gathering keywords that force you to write outside your comfort zone. Better content will convert with a weaker keyword more, than worse content for a stronger keyword.

Use the LSI keyword generator to outline your post

Once you’ve built some ideas using Google’s keywords, now is the time to get more data on popular terms. Researching long-tail keywords aren’t really that viable. Oftentimes, the topics are too specific. You’re only able to write a few hundred or a thousand words on it. That sort of content doesn’t fulfil a need or solve a problem. It isn’t long enough or in-depth enough. Long-form content ranks best on search engines because It includes almost everything on the topic. The searcher doesn’t need to go back to Google to find out more information. This is why LSI keyword generators are a great choice. LSI keywords are also big for helping add context to your content, giving you an even better chance to rank high.

Get Ideas From an Analytics On-site Search

You need to keep your existing audience engaged in creating amazing content based on searches from Google. If you can keep your existing audience engaged on your content, you have the opportunity to give it the necessary traction it needs to find huge success. Some of the best content to write is evergreen content. Evergreen content is when you write about content that continues to remain relevant for a long time. It’s content that your audience is always looking for.

One of the simplest ways to create it is by checking the on-site search report in Google Analytics. This gives you insight into topics that your blog visitors are already searching for. They are turning to you for content on these topics. When people are looking on your site for content that you haven’t delved into, it shows that they think you’re knowledgeable. They want to read your content and your take on the subject despite thousands of other articles already out there. If you want to cut out lots of time and focus on effective keyword strategies, tap into your on-site search keywords and write content on them.

Create a Comprehensive Post with Multiple Keywords

Majority of people think that you can’t rank a single page for multiple searches. This is simply not the case. This is why LSI, or semantic keywords, exist. They give you context and allow you to show content for multiple related searches. In order for this to happen, you have to create content that is all-encompassing. This happens with a method known as the Skyscraper Technique. With this technique, you find the best content with the best keywords and make that content even better. This will drive more links, increases traffic, and boosts your rankings. Cutting out the unnecessary content and focusing on producing more results with fewer hassle can have a big impact on the way you spend your time, run your business, and grow your traffic.

Conclusion

With all the changes that occur in the search engine world, keywords are still important when trying to drive organic traffic. Targeting specific keywords can help you get even more traffic and find better performance from your campaign. Finding good keywords with low competition can be challenging. Experts in an industry usually dominate most of them. It’s also difficult to find long-tail keywords. The ones that can boost your traffic with virtually no competition aren’t easy to come across.

With all the time that marketers spend on keyword research, you could have written multiple articles. Analyzing a spreadsheet of keywords weekly and then producing content isn’t optimal or ideal. You need to focus on the 80/20 rule with keyword research, eliminating all wasted time and spending time on what really matters.

You can start by scanning top industry blogs for categories and topic ideas in minutes. You can also add those sites into BuzzSumo to get their top performing content for inspiration. You can then use Google’s search data to get ideas for more content. Next, use the LSI keyword generator to create outlines for longer content. You can also gather on-site search data from Analytics in a few seconds to find topics that are trending with your audience. Lastly use the Skyscraper Technique, to produce an all-inclusive guide that can help you target all of your industry keywords.