One of my biggest downfalls as a blogger is ignoring stuff that intimidates me. I finally decided it’s time to face my fears and jump right in. Yes, it gives me anxiety, but after I started, I realized it wasn’t that bad. I regretted waiting this long after I seen how much it can benefit my site. For instance, I only recently started working on my email newsletter, site speed and SEO. With the downfall of Facebook, I needed to explore other sources of traffic. Today, I wanted to share info about SEO and more specifically, how to use SEMrush as a blogger.
This post contains affiliate links for things we use and love.
I was first introduced to SEMrush in the Bloggers Tell All group. They have a series of videos about SEO that are very detailed and will show you step by step what you need to do to improve your site.
How to Use SEMrush as a Blogger
What is SEMrush?
SEMrush is a tool that will change your life! Well, at least it will change your blogging life. It helps you find keywords to use in your posts and keeps a pulse on your site for SEO. It’s expensive, but soooo worth it. I figure it’s a business expense that I can write off. I’m a firm believer in investing in my business to make money. Like they say, you have to spend money to make money or make MORE money!
Check out all the ways SEMrush can help your blog!
1. Keyword research. When I’m planning a blog post, I’ll search SEMrush for keywords and find out what I should use in my post. For instance, I was planning to call my new recipe, Strawberry Loaf, but then I discovered that Strawberry Bread had more search volume. Because of my research, I changed the name of the recipe to the more popular term in hopes to rank for it. I also found secondary keywords to include in the post.
2. Track keywords. I use the Position Tracker to track the keywords that I’m currently working on. It shows me my rank on a daily basis so I can see if the changes I’m making are working.
3. Research competitors. I can check any site I want to see what they are currently ranking for and what position they are in.
4. Find my low hanging fruit. These are posts that are currently ranking, but not on page one. I made a list and am slowly implementing changes to hopefully improve the SEO of these posts.
5. See what a specific post is ranking for. I can plug in any URL from my site and find out what it’s ranking for and what position. This is very helpful as I update older posts and work on my SEO.
6. Find content for the post. You can quickly find out what questions people are asking about your topic and answer those in the post itself.
7. Figure out how long the post should be. SEMrush will give you the optimal word count the post should be for SEO. Usually, it’s quite long. Then, you know you how much to beef the post up in order to improve it.
SEMrush has a free trial and is worth checking out. I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of what it can do. It’s addicting!
Have you tried SEMrush?
