Podcast Summary: Ep 198 – Keyword Difficulty Explained the Easy Way
Released on October 30, 2024
Host: Faith Hanan
Title: Simple SEO and Marketing, Business Growth, Organic Marketing, Copywriting, Online Business, Blogging, Content Creation
Description: Faith Hanan, a seasoned Marketing Strategist, Copywriter, Christian Business Coach, and Barrel Racer, shares her insights on leveraging SEO, blogging, and copywriting to drive sustainable traffic and generate high-converting leads for online businesses.
Introduction to Keyword Difficulty
Faith Hanan kicks off Episode 198 by addressing a common challenge faced by entrepreneurs: understanding and effectively utilizing keyword difficulty in SEO strategies. She emphasizes the importance of simplicity in SEO, aiming to demystify complex terminologies and make SEO accessible to all business owners.
“Life is too short for overly complicated anything. And building your business should not take a rocket scientist brain to figure out the terminology involved.”
— Faith Hanan [04:15]
Defining Keyword Difficulty
Faith breaks down the concept of keyword difficulty in an easily digestible manner. She defines keyword difficulty as the measure of how competitive a particular keyword or phrase is, based on the number and strength of competitors aiming to rank for it.
“Keyword difficulty is simply how many people and how big of a business those people have are wanting to get found for a particular keyword or keyword phrase.”
— Faith Hanan [07:30]
The Audition Analogy
To further simplify the concept, Faith draws an analogy between keyword difficulty and auditioning for roles in a musical theater production. She likens high-difficulty keywords to lead roles that many actors vie for, while lower-difficulty keywords are comparable to supporting roles that can help build credibility and experience.
“Are you auditioning for the lead role? You know, is this keyword a lead role type of a keyword that everybody wants, or is this a nice supporting role that's going to help you build some clout...”
— Faith Hanan [09:45]
Faith shares a personal anecdote from her school days to illustrate the importance of securing supporting roles to build reputation and eventually land lead roles. This story underscores her point that targeting less competitive keywords initially can lead to long-term SEO success.
“I auditioned for Babes in Toyland and I got no speaking parts. I got a part in the chorus, and then I got the part as a tree...”
— Faith Hanan [12:00]
Evaluating Keyword Difficulty
Faith delves into the practical aspects of assessing keyword difficulty using SEO tools like Ubersuggest. She highlights the common mistake of relying solely on numerical difficulty scores and offers strategies to gain a deeper understanding of a keyword's competitiveness.
“A lot of people just look at that number and then they make their decision whether they're going to go for that keyword or not based simply on that number.”
— Faith Hanan [15:20]
Strategic Tips:
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Spy on the Competition:
Faith advises entrepreneurs to analyze the top-ranking competitors for their target keywords. By examining factors such as brand strength, backlink profiles, social shares, and domain authority, businesses can better gauge the attainability of ranking for a specific keyword.“Spy on the competition on what is actually who is actually ranking for that keyword... then you can actually get a good feel for whether or not this seemingly too difficult keyword is actually attainable for you to rank with.”
— Faith Hanan [18:10] -
Set a Keyword Difficulty Threshold:
For those seeking a general guideline, Faith suggests aiming for keywords with a difficulty score of 60 or below. This threshold helps smaller businesses target keywords that are challenging yet achievable without the extensive resources that major competitors might have.“If you just need a blanket answer, a place to start, try to stay at around 60 keyword difficulty or below.”
— Faith Hanan [22:40] -
Contextual Evaluation:
Faith emphasizes that keyword difficulty isn't a one-size-fits-all metric. Factors such as industry niche, domain authority, and existing content play significant roles in determining how difficult it will be to rank for a particular keyword.“It obviously depends on your industry and your domain authority and your street cloud and how much content you have created around that keyword already.”
— Faith Hanan [24:05]
Actionable Steps for Entrepreneurs
Faith outlines a step-by-step approach for entrepreneurs to effectively incorporate keyword difficulty into their SEO strategy:
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Identify Potential Keywords:
Begin by brainstorming keywords that are highly relevant to your business and have the potential to drive significant traffic. -
Assess Difficulty Scores:
Use SEO tools to determine the difficulty scores of these keywords, but don't rely solely on these numbers. -
Analyze Competitors:
Investigate the top-ranking sites for your chosen keywords to understand the competition's strengths and weaknesses. -
Select Balanced Keywords:
Choose a mix of high and low-difficulty keywords to build a robust and sustainable SEO profile over time. -
Implement and Monitor:
Optimize your content for selected keywords and continuously monitor your rankings and traffic to adjust your strategy as needed.
“Use the number as a guideline, but also spy out the competition... use your little God-given brilliant brain trying to figure out if a keyword is attainable for you to rank with.”
— Faith Hanan [26:30]
Promotion of Upcoming Free Live Training
Throughout the episode, Faith promotes her upcoming free live training session aimed at helping entrepreneurs 300x their website traffic in three simple steps. She highlights the value of this training, emphasizing actionable homework that promises substantial returns on the time invested.
“Inside the one-hour training, you're going to learn the best way to do keyword research for massive traffic growth... And you're going to learn the proven system to building a traffic-generating machine in two hours, a week or less.”
— Faith Hanan [01:05:00]
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Faith wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of understanding keyword difficulty and employing strategic approaches to SEO. She encourages listeners to apply the discussed techniques to enhance their website's traffic and generate more leads.
“Hopefully, this episode gave you some really tangible tips for better SEO and marketing to get more leads and more sales from your website.”
— Faith Hanan [01:10:00]
Additionally, she urges listeners to share the episode, leave reviews, and join her Facebook community for further learning and support.
“Share this episode with a friend and then just take 10 seconds and go leave a written review on Apple Podcasts. That is the very best way to help more Jesus-loving entrepreneurs scale their businesses...”
— Faith Hanan [01:12:30]
Key Takeaways
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Keyword Difficulty Simplified: Understanding keyword difficulty through relatable analogies makes SEO concepts more accessible.
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Strategic Keyword Targeting: Balancing high and low-difficulty keywords can build long-term SEO success.
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Competitive Analysis: Beyond numerical scores, evaluating competitors' strengths provides deeper insights into keyword viability.
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Actionable Insights: Implementing targeted SEO strategies can significantly boost website traffic and lead generation.
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Continuous Learning: Engaging in training and communities enhances knowledge and application of effective SEO practices.
Call to Action
Faith Hanan invites entrepreneurs to:
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Attend the Free Live Training: Learn the three steps to 300x your website traffic by signing up at faithhanan.com/300x.
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Join the Facebook Community: Connect, learn, and grow with like-minded entrepreneurs by joining her Facebook group.
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Explore Services: Visit FaithHanan.com for SEO, Marketing, and Copywriting needs.
Faith Hanan continues to empower entrepreneurs with straightforward, effective SEO and marketing strategies, ensuring that building a successful online business is within reach for everyone.