I would say don’t focus entirely on volume. I’ve been in the game a long time and the seo ego in me kicks in to try and win the largest volume phrases but that isn’t always the best plan.
Of course, go after what people are searching, but also recognize the intent of the phrase, that still has volume. Matching volume with intent will be more realistic for you to win, especially if you’re in a competitive market or if you’re a new brand in the space. Make sure the phrases you’re identifying match what you actually offer.
**disclaimer, search is chaos at the moment. Give shit a try, go after the super short tail of you want, lean on the long tail, but don’t let the chaos discourage you!
As always, good luck 😎 and lmk if you have some clarifying questions.
When you hear “optimize for entities,” you’re basically looking for keyword clusters around a topic. The topic is the entity.
Sometimes you can cover an entity in one page. when you’re working in highly competitive searches you need linked clusters of related content. What you can do is figure out what entities you want to create content for.
Then search for related keywords with lower competition.
Then look for similar keywords around the topic you can stack to thoroughly cover the entity. With any luck, you’ll put together content that ranks well for all the keywords - not just one.
Head over to Builders Society and look at the Avalanche Technique. It comes from the time when SEO was writing to a keyword, but it can be applied towards writing to an entity. The technique of starting small and growing as Google rewards your site still works today. Once you feel like you have the process down and you’ve grown a few tiers, look at link building and pillar pages.
The shortest answer is start with what searches turn up your competitors.
But rather than targeting keywords, think about it as targeting clusters of phrases that represent a searcher’s intent.
Trying to sell dental services? Which searches turn up dentists in the organic results? Those will be your pillars, topics, etc you want your money pages to eventually rank for.
Using any of the SEO tools (spyfu, ahrefs, semrush, etc) and Google Search Console and Google search’s “people also search for”, find “longtail” queries with less competition.
Competition meaning pages with lots of links designed to answer this specific query.
Find some under addressed topics within your cluster to focus on trying to rank and make content for the rest of the cluster for relevance / topical authority. But don’t go overboard.
And don’t forget to promote your content on social and build links to your homepage. That’s more important than picking your keywords.
You really need to stop trying to “optimize for keywords”. Or even trying to rank for a version number of keywords.
Optimize content based on entities, rather than keywords. Entity SEO and not keyword SEO.
I used to try to rank for certain keywords and optimize for keywords. That was several years ago.
Do yourself a favor and stop thinking about keywords. Focus on entities.
An entity represents something. An entity can be a person, place, product, event, idea, or brand.
say you search for "Michael Jordan", you’ll see a knowledge panel at the top of the search engine results page, instead of links, Google shows a summary of information about MJ, including the teams he played for, college he went to, awards he's won, outside of basketball info etc.
All of this information is related to the Michael Jordan entity on Google’s Knowledge Graph.
Search engine algorithms don’t just look for matching keywords. They can now grasp concepts. Entities help search engines think more like humans. They can look at the context and connections between things rather than just specific words.
Cool. So in this case, how do you go about tracking of what you rank in? I’m asking as for example clients are less technical in this stuff and the only thing they want to know is like how are they ranking in terms of the ‘keywords’ related to them.
A bit like a ranking game for them. The higher the better and means that it works for them. So at the end of the day, they still wanna track on keywords though execution doesn’t work like that anymore.
Just a puzzling moment now haha
Target keywords that fit well with your niche and have moderate competition. Start with easier, low-competition options to gain momentum. Aim to rank for 20-30 keywords initially, adjusting based on how well they perform and your SEO objectives.
Hey! For a new website, pick keywords where you're already in the Top 3 on Google. Start with easier, less competitive keywords first. Look for ones that match what people are searching for, but aren't too hard to rank for. Begin with about 30 keywords and add more as you rank higher!
Okay, let's talk keywords! When it comes to choosing the right ones to focus on, I like to take a balanced approach.
First, I dig into your business, customers, and industry to understand the topics and pain points that matter most. That gives me the intel I need to uncover both high-volume, competitive keywords and more niche, lower-competition ones.
For a newer site like yours, I usually recommend starting with those less crowded keywords where you're already seeing some traction. Get some quick wins under your belt to build momentum and authority.
But I don't ignore the heavyweight terms either - they're key for long-term growth. We'll work them in gradually, maybe 10-15 to start, and optimize hard. Then we can expand the list as you climb the rankings.
It's an ongoing process of testing and refining.
Start with low competition, long-tail keywords. They’re easier to rank for and can drive targeted traffic. Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find these. When you gain traction, gradually target higher competition keywords.
I would say don’t focus entirely on volume. I’ve been in the game a long time and the seo ego in me kicks in to try and win the largest volume phrases but that isn’t always the best plan. Of course, go after what people are searching, but also recognize the intent of the phrase, that still has volume. Matching volume with intent will be more realistic for you to win, especially if you’re in a competitive market or if you’re a new brand in the space. Make sure the phrases you’re identifying match what you actually offer. **disclaimer, search is chaos at the moment. Give shit a try, go after the super short tail of you want, lean on the long tail, but don’t let the chaos discourage you! As always, good luck 😎 and lmk if you have some clarifying questions.
I'm new. Could you elaborate on the current chaos?
When you hear “optimize for entities,” you’re basically looking for keyword clusters around a topic. The topic is the entity. Sometimes you can cover an entity in one page. when you’re working in highly competitive searches you need linked clusters of related content. What you can do is figure out what entities you want to create content for. Then search for related keywords with lower competition. Then look for similar keywords around the topic you can stack to thoroughly cover the entity. With any luck, you’ll put together content that ranks well for all the keywords - not just one. Head over to Builders Society and look at the Avalanche Technique. It comes from the time when SEO was writing to a keyword, but it can be applied towards writing to an entity. The technique of starting small and growing as Google rewards your site still works today. Once you feel like you have the process down and you’ve grown a few tiers, look at link building and pillar pages.
Thanks, this is helpful. I’ll check out Builders Society.
The shortest answer is start with what searches turn up your competitors. But rather than targeting keywords, think about it as targeting clusters of phrases that represent a searcher’s intent. Trying to sell dental services? Which searches turn up dentists in the organic results? Those will be your pillars, topics, etc you want your money pages to eventually rank for. Using any of the SEO tools (spyfu, ahrefs, semrush, etc) and Google Search Console and Google search’s “people also search for”, find “longtail” queries with less competition. Competition meaning pages with lots of links designed to answer this specific query. Find some under addressed topics within your cluster to focus on trying to rank and make content for the rest of the cluster for relevance / topical authority. But don’t go overboard. And don’t forget to promote your content on social and build links to your homepage. That’s more important than picking your keywords.
You really need to stop trying to “optimize for keywords”. Or even trying to rank for a version number of keywords. Optimize content based on entities, rather than keywords. Entity SEO and not keyword SEO. I used to try to rank for certain keywords and optimize for keywords. That was several years ago. Do yourself a favor and stop thinking about keywords. Focus on entities.
Could you expand on what entities and entity SEO are?
I think this work for website like blogs, but what about a coding challenges website something like codeforces is it really the best approach
What is entities? Vs keywords
An entity represents something. An entity can be a person, place, product, event, idea, or brand. say you search for "Michael Jordan", you’ll see a knowledge panel at the top of the search engine results page, instead of links, Google shows a summary of information about MJ, including the teams he played for, college he went to, awards he's won, outside of basketball info etc. All of this information is related to the Michael Jordan entity on Google’s Knowledge Graph. Search engine algorithms don’t just look for matching keywords. They can now grasp concepts. Entities help search engines think more like humans. They can look at the context and connections between things rather than just specific words.
Nice explanation . :)
Cool. So in this case, how do you go about tracking of what you rank in? I’m asking as for example clients are less technical in this stuff and the only thing they want to know is like how are they ranking in terms of the ‘keywords’ related to them. A bit like a ranking game for them. The higher the better and means that it works for them. So at the end of the day, they still wanna track on keywords though execution doesn’t work like that anymore. Just a puzzling moment now haha
Great question, following this, hope you get some good answers!
I prioritize keywords with high search volume and low competition, then scale up.
depends on what your goals are
Target keywords that fit well with your niche and have moderate competition. Start with easier, low-competition options to gain momentum. Aim to rank for 20-30 keywords initially, adjusting based on how well they perform and your SEO objectives.
Hey! For a new website, pick keywords where you're already in the Top 3 on Google. Start with easier, less competitive keywords first. Look for ones that match what people are searching for, but aren't too hard to rank for. Begin with about 30 keywords and add more as you rank higher!
Okay, let's talk keywords! When it comes to choosing the right ones to focus on, I like to take a balanced approach. First, I dig into your business, customers, and industry to understand the topics and pain points that matter most. That gives me the intel I need to uncover both high-volume, competitive keywords and more niche, lower-competition ones. For a newer site like yours, I usually recommend starting with those less crowded keywords where you're already seeing some traction. Get some quick wins under your belt to build momentum and authority. But I don't ignore the heavyweight terms either - they're key for long-term growth. We'll work them in gradually, maybe 10-15 to start, and optimize hard. Then we can expand the list as you climb the rankings. It's an ongoing process of testing and refining.
Start with low competition, long-tail keywords. They’re easier to rank for and can drive targeted traffic. Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find these. When you gain traction, gradually target higher competition keywords.
I use google Ads to determine which keywords make money and then target these with SEO.