Throughout my extensive experience as an SEO professional, I’ve undertaken a significant amount of keyword research. This task is undoubtedly foundational in any SEO journey. And like numerous digital marketing experts, I’ve often wished for a better way to get through this process. As we journey into the AI era with technologies like ChatGPT, some predict that traditional keyword research might be on the brink of obsolescence or automation. But I believe we’re not quite there yet. Hence, I’ve developed the “Golden Metric” to aid fellow SEO aficionados and in-house digital marketers in speeding up this endeavor.
Necessary Tools:
The Golden Keyword Research Metric:
Amidst the plethora of advice from peers, diving deep into online resources, and assessing tools that claim to perfect SEO keyword methodologies, I realized that the methods are often subjective and can vary greatly. This observation propelled me to devise a data-based metric, championing objectivity — introducing the “Keyword Opportunity Score.”
The Keyword Opportunity Score is uncomplicated at its core. Analogous to how we ascertain CTR (clicks ÷ impressions = CTR), the Keyword Opportunity Score employs the search volume ratio, dividing it by the keyword’s associated difficulty. This enables us to spot keyword opportunities that have a high search volume while having low difficulty. Although this equation has further intricacies, know that they have been integrated into the script I crafted.
Applications of the Keyword Opportunity Score:
Refinement of Client Keyword Research — During keyword exploration for clients or your enterprise, it’s recommended to zero in on keywords already in your ranking portfolio, be it at position 10, 51, or 100. Elevating these pre-existing keywords and fine-tuning them on-site can spur more prompt and pronounced improvements. The Keyword Opportunity Score aids in making the identification of such keywords even more streamlined.
Discovery of Fresh Keywords — It’s not a given that you’ll instantly rank for all chosen keywords. Especially when delving into bottom-of-the-funnel keywords, they tend to have a heightened difficulty depending on your industry. However, with the Keyword Opportunity Score, you can discern potent keywords that resonate with your bottom-of-the-funnel SEO game plan without compromising rankings due to formidable keyword difficulty.
Optimization Leveraging Competitor Analysis — Beyond refining your client’s keyword blueprint, the Keyword Opportunity Score can be wielded on competitor keyword insights. This grants a competitive advantage, spotlighting immediate victories and avenues to outpace competitors in the SERPs.
How to Use the Keyword Opportunity Score Template:
I designed this tool for ease of use. Remember, the more data you submit in the raw keyword upload, the longer the processing time. The maximum upload is up to 3000 rows for raw data.
- Make a copy of the sheet.
- Open SEMrush.
- Navigate to the “Organic Research” tab and input the domain you’d like to analyze with the tool.
- Proceed to “Positions.”
- Apply any desired filters to the data.
- Click the “Export” button (avoid exporting over 3000 entries).
- With your exported data, return to the Google Sheet → “SEMrush Keyword Data Import” tab → click File → Import → select the SEMrush Export File → Append to Current Sheet (you might need to remove the first duplicated row).
- Allow a minute for the Google Sheet to process. All results will appear in the “Best Opportunities” tab.
- For more insights, the “All Metrics Overview” tab provides details on every URL in the raw export, showing the most promising keyword opportunities based on pre-existing rankings.
