The art and craft of SEO lies within knowing how to do keyword research and then having the experience and expertise to strategize the priority in which you tackle each keyword. The next step is knowing how to use the keyword list and applying it to an overall SEO strategy for a website and incorporating on-page optimization, link building, social and blogging.
Your quick wins will lie in spotting rare keyword opportunities with weak competition and high potential traffic. I say rare, because in this day and age pretty much every switched on business are doing SEO.
What does the “weak” in “weak competition” mean?
“Weak” is taken in relative terms compared with the other Total Competitors for each keyword. If the numbers range from 10,000 to 1,000,000, keywords around with 10,000 potential competitors have weak competition and keywords with 1,000,000 competitor web pages have strong competition.
Use this advice to shape your strategy because if those keywords aren’t a high priority to rank for, it would just be a waste of your time. If you find certain keywords for which you would like to get onto first page, start with those keywords that are already on the second page because it will be easier to rank. Once you’ve flagged these keywords as a priority you’ll start to focus on them and incorporate them into your on-page, content and linking strategies.
Once your keyword research has been completed, institute a keyword tracking program to help you track and trace your visibility trends. If at any point in the future, 6 months, 1 year, or more that you find your keywords to drop off the first, second, third (or more) pages, you will find that (most of the time) trying rank for these particular keywords again will take less effort (provided you have the right on-page and linking strategy) than trying to rank for a keyword you’ve never ranked for.
By following my disciplined and systematic approach you may have the advantage over competitors who are simply “winging it” and jumping straight into technical setup and writing blog posts. Having a methodical approach helps you see the bigger picture which will help you allocate your time and resources appropriately. Having a clear knowledge over the performance of your keywords will help you focus your time and efforts in ranking for the right keywords.