SEO practice with free tools 1-2
Now, let’s do SEO practice with free tools taking an example of a random organization such as Black Hills State University (BHSU). This is a university whose potential customers are high school students. If the organization needs to write an article targeting these potential customers, what should be the best keywords?
Practice 1
First, as you have done before, you will use a combination of THEHOTH andAhrefts Free Keyword Generator to identify popular keywords from your competitors.
Let’s begin by identifying a high-potential keyword. First, go to THEHOTH (https://www.thehoth.com/search-engine-rankings). Enter a competitor’s website address into the search bar. For this example, we’ll use University of South Dakota (USD) considering its geographical proximity to Black Hills State University.
Check the rank, volume, and results as you did before. Then, identify keywords with a low number of search results but a good search volume (and high rank or fast-rising rank). In our case, ‘myusd’ is the lowest ‘# of Results’ but we know it is a web system only designed for students in the school. You can scroll down the results but you will find most keywords are relevant to the current students at USD. The keywords with low ‘# of Results’ are more likely to be searched by the current students not prospective ones.
Some keywords seem more relevant to visitors or prospective students than current students. One set of keywords that’s not specific to USD is ‘south dakota university’ as visitors to the web may be interested in any universities in South Dakota. Let’s try ‘south dakota University’
Now, let’s find a keyword idea for ‘south dakota university’ that can easily rank on Google. Go to Ahrefts Free Keyword Generator (https://ahrefs.com/keyword-generator) and enter ”south dakota university ‘ into the search bar as you did before. Focus on lower keyword difficulty (KD): The lower the KD, the easier it is to rank. Here you can see three sets of keywords with ‘Medium’ KD but two of them are not so much relevant to the organization of our interest. As new students are likely interested in ‘tuition, it would be a better idea to go with ‘south dakota university tuition’.
Let’s expand our idea. Considering that potential new students are interested in tuition, ‘tuition support’ is worth trying for keyword ideas. Enter this phrase into the search bar. You may need to try other keywords until you get satisfactory ones. Here, you find ‘tuition support’ is KD with easy (low KD) though its search volume is low.
From this practice, you identified one promising keywords ‘Tuition support’
Practice 2
Next, as you did before, you can leverage trendy keywords using a combination of Google Trends and Ahrefts Free Keyword Generator.
Let’s start by identifying a trendy keyword. Go to Google Trends (https://trends.google.com) and enter a keyword. For this example, we’ll use tuition’ as promising new students are concerned about it. The results show that the search trend for ‘tuition’ has a seasonal trend.
The results also show that ‘tuition’ has been searched for most in Massachusetts over the last 12 months. According to Related topics, you can see the names of universities. You can also find Related queries that are rising. Among the five top fast-rising queries, let’s explore ‘how much is the average college tuition for 4 years’ which seems to be more relevant than other ones.
Now go to Ahrefts Free Keyword Generator and enter how much is the average college tuition for 4 years ‘ in the search bar. Check for keyword ideas with lower keyword difficulty (KD) and higher volume. However, the result is not so much satisfactory. Let’s try various keywords such as ‘Average college tuition’, ‘Average university tuition’, ‘Black Hills State University tuition’, and so on.
After trying various keywords, ‘Black Hills State University tuition’ could get an acceptable result. Now you can create content that uses ‘Black Hills State University tuition’ as keywords. You may try relevant keywords such as ‘scholarship’ and repeat the whole steps.
You may also try the following steps if you think 1) the keywords ‘Black Hills State University tuition’ are too specific to be exposed or attract broader potential customers (or prospective new students) and 2) more focus on them in South Dakota. Let’s try ‘Scholarship’ in South Dakota.
First, enter a search keyword: Scholarship. Then, click ‘South Dakota’region on the map. Next, check the rising keywords. You can find ‘scholarship finder careeronestop’. Let’s try these keywords at Ahrefts Free Keyword Generator.
Enter the keywords: ‘scholarship finder careeronestop’. Now, you got the result but KD is not available and the search volume is also low. What should you do?
Let’s go back to the Google Trends result page. Then, Let’s try the ‘Top’ query instead of ‘Rising’. Then, you can find ‘scholarships’ is the top query. Let’s try it at Ahrefts Free Keyword Generator. Enter ‘scholarships’ into the search bar.
Now, you have a more satisfactory result. Easy and Medium KD with 1,000 to 10,000 search volume!! You can create content that uses the keywords identified above.
Finding from Practice 2: you identified four promising keywords: ‘Hispanic scholarship fund’, ‘Coca Cola scholarship’, ‘Excelsior scholarship’, ‘Scholarship definition’
Practice 3
Lastly, you can use Keyword suggestions from Google Ads in combination with Ahrefts Free Keyword Generator. The process is the same: Start by going to Google Ads (https://ads.google.com). Click Tools, then Keyword Planner, and Discover new keywords. This time, try ‘tuition’ ‘scholarship’ and‘ financial aid’. Finally, click ‘Get results’.
The process is the same: Click ‘Add filter’ and select ‘Keyword’, then ‘Text match’ – this finds keywords that match the text you entered. Click apply. Next, click ‘Top of page bid (low range)’ and enter $1 to filter out keywords without commercial value.
Then, you can see various keywords suggested.
Let’s find a keyword idea for all the suggested keywords that can easily rank on Google. Go to Ahrefts Free Keyword Generator and enter each set of keywords into the search bar sequentially.
After trying all the keyword sets, the following six keyword sets were identified.
From Practice 3, you identified six promising keywords: ‘discover student loans’, ‘Mohela student loans’, ‘Private student loans for bad credit’, ‘Which statement best describes how federal student loans are different than private student loans’, ‘What is a parent plus loan’, ‘Direct parent plus loan’
