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I use my Twitter account https://twitter.com/lauregg to follow SEO & marketing news and curate interesting Tweets I find on my Medium.

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Advanced Keyword Optimization: Researching Topics and Creating Content that Ranks

by Laura Ferruggia, Marketing Strategy Director

If you’re serious about SEO, it’s important to understand how to research keywords and create content structured around them. Content is one of the most powerful ranking factors for Google, and if your website is a helpful resource for information-seekers, your chances of being discovered through a search engine increase.

In our marketing department, we use a variety of tools and methods to aid in keyword research, and our content team understands the importance of strategically placing keywords in information-rich content. I created this guide for anyone looking to drive more organic traffic to their site. In it, I’ll go over the basics of researching and using keywords.

Acquiring backlinks can give your content an added boost, but high quality content can actually rank and gain rich snippets even without a strong backlink profile. This is especially true if you are able to target long tail queries and provide information that is absent from your competitors’ websites.

If you are interested in building a stronger backlink profile, I’ve also published a guide to link building that you may want to check out, but here we’ll focus on keyword research and strategy.

So, let’s get started learning about how to research keywords and use them in your content!

Tools and Tactics for Keyword Research

Keyword research is not an exact science, and your approach may change based on the website and industry. There is no best way to do keyword research that will work for every situation. However, there are certain processes that are commonly used, and a combination of these tactics should result in successful keyword research.

As you perform research, your goal should always be to find keywords relevant to your target audience. Certain keywords that are tangentially related to your subject matter may have very high volume, but you shouldn’t waste your time going after them if they would drive the wrong users to your site.

Your keyword research is likely to differ a bit based on the type of content you are creating or optimizing. While blog posts are typically targeted at those who are doing research and seeking information, the core pages of your website that describe your services are meant for users who are further down the funnel and may be ready to contact you. For this reason, blog articles will generally be the main area where you incorporate long tail keyword phrases whereas the focus keywords for core website pages are likely to be shorter phrases. We recommend identifying a three-word phrase as the focus for a webpage, and I’ll delve into that more in the section on keyword strategy for webpages.

After we go over tactics and tools, we’ll dive deeper into keyword strategy and implementation for webpages and blog articles, but first, let’s cover methods for conducting keyword research.

Read more of Laura Ferruggia’s keyword research article on the Miles Technologies blog.

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The Essential Guide to Links for SEO [+10 Actionable Link Building Ideas]

Link building is as relevant as ever for today’s digital marketers.

In fact, you could say content and backlinks are the most important aspects of any SEO strategy.

Today you’re going to learn everything there is to know about backlinks. As a bonus, I’ll even share 10 of my link building techniques that are working right now.

Let’s get started incorporating link building into your marketing strategy.

Tools and Tactics for Keyword Research

Keyword research is not an exact science, and your approach may change based on the website and industry. There is no best way to do keyword research that will work for every situation. However, there are certain processes that are commonly used, and a combination of these tactics should result in successful keyword research.

As you perform research, your goal should always be to find keywords relevant to your target audience. Certain keywords that are tangentially related to your subject matter may have very high volume, but you shouldn’t waste your time going after them if they would drive the wrong users to your site.

Your keyword research is likely to differ a bit based on the type of content you are creating or optimizing. While blog posts are typically targeted at those who are doing research and seeking information, the core pages of your website that describe your services are meant for users who are further down the funnel and may be ready to contact you.

Read more of Laura Ferruggia’s link building article on the Miles Technologies blog.