Finding Related Keywords

The keyword suggestions list you have generated thus far probably consists primarily of one to two-word terms, representing the most general topics your website is relevant for. These can be categorized as short-tail keywords. And while their often high search volume (or how many times the keyword gets searched each month) may make it tempting to target these, keep in mind that keyword difficulty might be prohibitive. 

In order to make sure that you rank well enough for your target audience to find your website, your content marketing needs to also incorporate some long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords contain more words in the keyword phrase, hence the “long tail.” While they may not get as many searches as one or two-word terms, long-tail keywords are necessary for your content-based marketing. 

First, long-tail keywords can help your online content avoid keyword difficult obstacles, since less volume typically translates to less competition. Second, and perhaps more importantly, targeting these keywords allows your content to be specific enough to reach users at a variety of points in the conversion funnel—from general interest in the industry to finding a specific solution to a niche problem. They also allow you to build full SEO pillars of content, or related pages that support each other and boost your website’s rankings overall. 

To expand on your list with searchers related to your starting keywords, you can use the keyword explorer functionality of a variety of SEO tools, including Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool and Ahrefs Keywords Explorer. Here’s a quick glance at what those tools show for the keyword “loans”: