Getting started with SEO begins with developing the topic clusters that you would like to focus on in your blog articles, social media posts, and other content you plan on producing for your audience.

How should you decide on your topic clusters?

Choose the products and/or services that your company specializes in.  Pretty simple...

Once you get your topic clusters in order, the next step is to find out which keywords you will want to use within your content.

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process marketers and business owners perform in order to find the search terms that people actively type into search engines to find solutions to their questions.  Conducting keyword research takes time but absolutely can make or break a great SEO campaign.

Performing this fundamental part of SEO can help you uncover search terms that your prospects and customers are regularly typing into Google that you might not have ever thought about.

Important Metrics For Analyzing Keywords

We're not just looking for keywords with a high search volume.  We want to look for keywords that are relevant and have low competition.  Working with keywords with low competition can help you rank faster for keywords with lower search volume to help you when you begin building on the higher competition - higher search volume keywords.

• Relevance - keywords that are relevant to your products and/or services.
• Competition - keywords that your direct competitors are not actively paying for with Google Ads and or ranking high in organic search rankings.
• Volume - keywords that have a sufficient amount of searches every month.

When these three things come together, you can really make an impact on your search rankings in the short term and build for a long-term effect.  Just remember, SEO isn't just a one and done.  You have to stay on it, continue to build, and maintain your rankings.

How To Get Started 

Start by making a list of your products and services that you want to begin developing an SEO strategy around.  You will want to focus on the most important topics that you want to rank for in the search engines.  

Once you have your topic clusters outlined, you'll want to find out the relevant and similar keywords around a particular topic cluster.

Here is an example:

Say your topic cluster is based around " inbound marketing".  You'll want to use a tool like SeRanking or Uberuggest to find the related and similar keywords.  If you don't have one of these SEO tools, I'd suggest getting one.  But if you do not want one you can simply use Google to give you some relevant keywords.

Do this by going to Google and starting a new search.  Type in your keyword and start your search.  Scroll down to the bottom and Google will give you up to 8 keywords or phrases that are relevant to your search.

The topic search terms related to inbound marketing:

• inbound marketing is
• what is inbound marketing
• inbound marketing versus outbound
• outbound vs inbound marketing
• definition inbound marketing
• inbound marketing definition
• hubspot inbound marketing certificate

Now that you have your relevant keywords, what do you do with them?

Post Initial Keyword Research

Once you have found the keywords that you want to rank for, it's time to start producing content and optimizing your website.  If you haven't run an on-page SEO audit, I suggest running one to see how your website ranks for your new terms.

Go through the pages that you currently have and optimize the pages around the new keywords.  Then it's time to either start a blog or create one.

It's important to conduct keyword research on a regular schedule.  If you can at least get to it once a quarter and develop a plan, you should be in good shape.  

If you are looking to get started with an SEO strategy and need some extra help, our team has been developing and implementing SEO strategies for almost a decade now with local and national success.  Contact us today or subscribe to our newsletter to keep getting our inbound marketing tips.