SEO

Influencers Drive Global B2B Content Marketing Success

Published

10 months ago

July 12, 2023

Influencers Drive Global B2B Content Marketing Success

With the mountain of competition in B2B, establishing trust with potential buyers is no easy feat.

Unlike in ecommerce, where transactions are typically swift, and purchases are at far lower prices, B2B sales cycles are lengthier and involve much higher stakes.

With endless opportunities to choose from, community has become more crucial than ever, as people search and check social media but ultimately rely on trusted peers for advice when making important business decisions.

So how can B2B businesses ensure their content stands out and gets noticed – and most importantly, trusted – by their target audience?

This is where influencers, or subject matter experts (SMEs) in the B2B realm, play a pivotal role – particularly in the context of expanding to international markets that speak multiple languages.

By harnessing the reach and reputation of well-known SMEs in the local markets, B2B companies can amplify their international content marketing efforts, ensuring that their message resonates with diverse international audiences.

Over time, SME collaborations enable B2B companies to cultivate a strong community around their brand, which then drives inbound leads and growth across international markets.

Why Involving Local Influencers & SMEs In International B2B Content Marketing Campaigns Is Crucial

Extensive research plays a hefty role in the B2B buying process, in that:

B2B buyers complete up to 70% of their research prior to even contacting a sales team.
87% of B2B buyers say online content has a major or moderate impact on vendor selection.
78% of B2B referrals create viable customer leads for the business.

What do all three of those points have in common?

B2B buyers are looking for a trustworthy source to confirm information found during their research.

As such, partnering up with SME influencers is key to building up this crucial brand trustworthiness, especially if you’re a global brand expanding into diverse international markets worldwide.

In fact, up to 86% of B2B brands have reported some measure of success with highly targeted influencer marketing.

But selecting the relevant influencers for the right market is key for content to resonate with local target audiences.

For example, a highly knowledgeable SME from New York City is unlikely to have much sway or influence if you’re targeting customers in Tokyo, on the other side of the world.

This is because:

An English-speaking influencer has little effect on a primarily Japanese-speaking audience.
Perceptions towards B2B products and services vary by location because buyers’ needs differ by region.
Cultural tendencies of buyers in niche markets have significant sway over purchase decisions.
If influencers lack shared cultural values with the local target audience, their recommendations will fall flat on that audience.

How To Identify And Build Relationships With Local B2B Influencers And SMEs

So, how do you identify the right SME collaboration to expand the authority of your own business in a new market? And how can you build a relationship with them in order to incentivize the SME to collaborate with you?

Let’s now take a deep dive into the process.

Step 1: Research People Who Matter To Your Local Target Audience

It all starts with researching who your audience cares about. A free tool like SparkToro is one of the easiest ways to get started.

Based on your search filter, SparkToro identifies who your target audience follows and trusts as a source of credible information.

You can then curate lists of relevant SMEs for the market you’re looking to expand to, which should ideally also include lesser-known yet still highly credible SMEs whose audiences tend to be more engaged.

To give you a concrete idea, here’s an example of a SparkToro search for a company that provides consulting services and a SaaS tool for document automation. Its goal is to expand into the German market.

I set the filter for “my audience frequently talks about,” typed in “document automation,” and selected Germany for the location.

SparkToro then summarizes the list of influencers, websites, and lesser-known destinations that earn engagement with that buying audience:

Screenshot from SparkToro, May 2023

In this case, there is a mix of English-language and German-language influencers and relevant publications. Ideally, you’ll want to focus on gaining credibility within the local language, so SparkToro is the just starting point.

You’ll then need to dig deeper into what and who is relevant to contact, as well as invest time into building relationships with SMEs, depending on the relevance of their followers.

Step 2: Identify Ways To Involve Them That Require Little Effort On Their Behalf

Once you’ve conducted the research and identified the relevant SMEs to collaborate with within the local market, the next step is to determine how best to approach them.

Keep in mind that the most effective outreach strategy is one that makes it as easy as possible for SMEs to see the value in a partnership. Don’t just beg for their time and offer up nothing in return.

For example, you can offer for them to attend a panel discussion on a highly relevant topic for their industry and local market.

Here’s an example of how you might contact an SME for collaboration via LinkedIn or email:

Image created by author, May 2023

This type of message prompts a response from SMEs for a few reasons:

They know they’ll be advertised without paying.
They don’t have to spend tons of time preparing, especially as it’s a panel discussion, so their time commitment is minimal.
They have a chance to network with and learn from well-known people within their industry, bringing back benefits for their personal and company brands.

Step 3: Nurture Relationships And Provide Ongoing Value

Finally, once you connect with an SME and convince them to collaborate together, you want to maintain and deepen that working relationship, because this increases the chance of future collaboration opportunities.

In fact, if the relationship becomes a strong one, the influencer is likely to refer your B2B business to their network, or even come back to you themselves as a customer.

This is actually the long-term strategic value of such partnerships because it directly impacts high-quality inbound lead generation.

Ways to strengthen ongoing relationships with SMEs include:

Regularly engaging with their own content, such as by commenting on or sharing their updates to support their efforts and keep your brand top-of-mind as they continue producing new content for their own audience.
Offering to mention them and/or link to their content in future content you create.
Offering to meet up for a coffee at in-person conferences and get to know them.
Develop a partner referral agreement so you both can refer potential customers and generate inbound leads.
Continuing to collaborate on marketing efforts together where both brands are promoted.

How To Apply B2B Influencer And SME Data To Both Global & Local Content Marketing Efforts

Now that you’ve got the process in mind, what are some direct examples of how to apply SME collaborations across content marketing efforts?

I’ll cover this in further detail in the below section for various types of content marketing applied both globally and locally.

Panel Discussions & Co-marketing Webinars

As mentioned in the message example from the how-to section above, panel discussions are a highly effective method for beginning engagement with SME influencers because they require little to no preparation time for the participants.

Plus, in nearly every market, industry titans enjoy conversing with their fellow experts to share insights and recommendations to listening audiences.

Panel discussions can be both live or virtual events, but regardless of the format, they’re a great resource that elevates the authority of your own brand to your audience due to the SMEs who attend.

Global Approach

To give an example that works globally, here’s an example of a live panel discussion about the secrets of successful influencer marketing and content creation.

Screenshot from The NAMM Show, May 2023

This topic applies globally because it’s a question that brands all over the world struggle to answer.

When applied to your own content strategy, ideally, the SMEs invited to such a discussion should come from multiple markets, particularly those that you plan to expand into internationally.

An important point to note: global in-person events should be treated as annual affairs.

Creating a one-time event that pools together the biggest influencers in an industry is a special occasion, so it’s not something to do regularly, as they come with higher resource costs for both you and the participants.

Local Approach

When applying the concept of a panel discussion within a local market, you can go much smaller in scale and ideally virtually, which provides more flexibility to create recurring panel discussions throughout the year.

Start by selecting a topic that is relevant to the local market and the target audience.

For instance, if you’re an IT company and are targeting German businesses, you could host a panel discussion on “How German Companies Can Finance Digital Transformation” (but in the German language equivalent).

Then, use your SparkToro account to identify the biggest German influencers in the IT industry and invite them to participate in a special panel discussing tips to scale digital transformation across Germany.

Here’s an example from a similar event:

Example for financial collaboration with influencer

Screenshot from germany-finance.com, May 2023

By hosting a panel discussion with local SMEs who speak German, you present valuable insights to your buying audience in Germany in that localized setting and context.

You can then deepen relationships with key players that your target audience already follows, and follow up by creating localized content that resonates with those same local market buyers to guide them further on their buying journey with your brand.

Whitepapers

Whitepapers are one of the most valuable resources in B2B content marketing when they include original data and information that isn’t available anywhere else.

You can make whitepapers with unique data by gathering information from SMEs.

Plus, SMEs typically appreciate being cited in whitepapers because their personal brand is attached to that in-depth report, which automatically elevates their own standing and credibility with their followers.

Global Approach

A global approach to this strategy is to select a topic that has a more universal appeal.

Again, digital transformation is a subject that impacts brands all over the world, so creating an in-depth whitepaper on the topic has global appeal – but only if it’s backed with information from highly credible SMEs.

A great example is the “Data and Digital Transformation: Insights From Shipping Leaders” whitepaper created by S&P Global Market Intelligence. It includes insights from six of the leading SMEs from various international markets.

In the same manner that S&P Global Market Intelligence has done here, ensure in your content strategy that the SMEs included for global content also appeal to your international target markets.

Local Approach

When it comes to the local approach, the main difference from the global is that you want to target the analysis and present the whitepaper findings within the context of a regional point of view.

Paralleling the global subject matter, you can create your own whitepaper explaining the ideal digital transformation journey for the shipping industry in one particular market.

As an example, let’s use the Port of Los Angeles, which continues to struggle with supply chain issues in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Your whitepaper can answer many of the questions that have ground supply chain businesses in Los Angeles to a halt by inviting SMEs with experience managing those ports to contribute information.

Although the example is in English, the concept applies across markets that speak other languages, too.

With a more localized approach, you gain specific insights to publish in your content and establish your brand as a thought leader in that particular market.

This also increases your opportunity to build relationships with key local players and generate leads and referrals from the target buying audience.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a heavily growing medium for B2B content marketing.

By collaborating with influencers and SMEs on a podcast, you can tap into their expertise and reach new audiences through audio content that millions of people stream throughout their busy days.

Global Approach

When building your podcast, start by identifying global influencers and SMEs with a strong following in your industry.

For example, if you’re an HR consulting company, you could collaborate with a senior HR specialist.

Choose a topic that would be of interest to both the global audience and the local influencers.

For instance, you could create a podcast episode on “The Future of Work in a Post-Pandemic World.”

You can follow examples from the HubSpot team that manages their podcast, “Culture Happens.” In this particular episode, they discuss the future of remote work.

You can even reach out to those same presenters and invite them to participate as guests on your own podcast discussing the topic in a similar but unique manner.

Through this collaboration, you tap into their wider audience, build your brand credibility, and generate new leads and referrals through your podcast.

Local Approach

The localized podcast approach involves identifying SMEs who have followings in particular markets and that speak the language that your business intends to target.

For instance, to localize the podcast example from above for France, you could do an episode around “Streamlining New Employment Regulations Around Remote Work in France” and invite an HR specialist from the French market to speak about their experience with handling these changes.

This helps you build a loyal following in concentrated local markets, which translates into higher volumes of inbound leads that grow your business internationally.

Collaborate with SMEs to Win and Global and International Content Marketing

In the highly competitive world of B2B, where trust and reputation are paramount, leveraging the expertise and influence of SMEs is a powerful strategy.

As you strive to make your mark in international markets, remember that collaborations with trusted and local influencers can help your content shine, resonate, and ultimately drive success in your B2B endeavors.

Over time, these partnerships with SMEs not only help you create valuable and trusted content but also cultivate a strong community around your brand.

By providing informative and practical content, you can position yourself as a B2B industry thought leader and trusted source of knowledge.

And most importantly, by tapping into the networks of global and local influencers, B2B businesses can drive inbound leads and foster growth in international markets.

More resources:

Featured Image: Chay_Tee/Shutterstock

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Related Topics:B2B Content Drive Global influencers Marketing seo success

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SEO

Why Google Can’t Tell You About Every Ranking Drop

Published

10 hours ago

May 14, 2024

Max

Why Google Can't Tell You About Every Ranking Drop

In a recent Twitter exchange, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, provided insight into how the search engine handles algorithmic spam actions and ranking drops.

The discussion was sparked by a website owner’s complaint about a significant traffic loss and the inability to request a manual review.

Sullivan clarified that a site could be affected by an algorithmic spam action or simply not ranking well due to other factors.

He emphasized that many sites experiencing ranking drops mistakenly attribute it to an algorithmic spam action when that may not be the case.

“I’ve looked at many sites where people have complained about losing rankings and decide they have a algorithmic spam action against them, but they don’t. “

Sullivan’s full statement will help you understand Google’s transparency challenges.

Additionally, he explains why the desire for manual review to override automated rankings may be misguided.

Two different things. A site could have an algorithmic spam action. A site could be not ranking well because other systems that *are not about spam* just don’t see it as helpful.

I’ve looked at many sites where people have complained about losing rankings and decide they have a…

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 13, 2024

Challenges In Transparency & Manual Intervention

Sullivan acknowledged the idea of providing more transparency in Search Console, potentially notifying site owners of algorithmic actions similar to manual actions.

However, he highlighted two key challenges:

Revealing algorithmic spam indicators could allow bad actors to game the system.
Algorithmic actions are not site-specific and cannot be manually lifted.

Sullivan expressed sympathy for the frustration of not knowing the cause of a traffic drop and the inability to communicate with someone about it.

However, he cautioned against the desire for a manual intervention to override the automated systems’ rankings.

Sullivan states:

“…you don’t really want to think “Oh, I just wish I had a manual action, that would be so much easier.” You really don’t want your individual site coming the attention of our spam analysts. First, it’s not like manual actions are somehow instantly processed. Second, it’s just something we know about a site going forward, especially if it says it has change but hasn’t really.”

Determining Content Helpfulness & Reliability

Moving beyond spam, Sullivan discussed various systems that assess the helpfulness, usefulness, and reliability of individual content and sites.

He acknowledged that these systems are imperfect and some high-quality sites may not be recognized as well as they should be.

“Some of them ranking really well. But they’ve moved down a bit in small positions enough that the traffic drop is notable. They assume they have fundamental issues but don’t, really — which is why we added a whole section about this to our debugging traffic drops page.”

Sullivan revealed ongoing discussions about providing more indicators in Search Console to help creators understand their content’s performance.

“Another thing I’ve been discussing, and I’m not alone in this, is could we do more in Search Console to show some of these indicators. This is all challenging similar to all the stuff I said about spam, about how not wanting to let the systems get gamed, and also how there’s then no button we would push that’s like “actually more useful than our automated systems think — rank it better!” But maybe there’s a way we can find to share more, in a way that helps everyone and coupled with better guidance, would help creators.”

Advocacy For Small Publishers & Positive Progress

In response to a suggestion from Brandon Saltalamacchia, founder of RetroDodo, about manually reviewing “good” sites and providing guidance, Sullivan shared his thoughts on potential solutions.

He mentioned exploring ideas such as self-declaration through structured data for small publishers and learning from that information to make positive changes.

“I have some thoughts I’ve been exploring and proposing on what we might do with small publishers and self-declaring with structured data and how we might learn from that and use that in various ways. Which is getting way ahead of myself and the usual no promises but yes, I think and hope for ways to move ahead more positively.”

Sullivan said he can’t make promises or implement changes overnight, but he expressed hope for finding ways to move forward positively.

Featured Image: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock

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SEO

56 Google Search Statistics to Bookmark for 2024

Published

21 hours ago

May 13, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

56 Google Search Statistics to Bookmark for 2024

If you’re curious about the state of Google search in 2024, look no further.

Each year we pick, vet, and categorize a list of up-to-date statistics to give you insights from trusted sources on Google search trends.

Google has a web index of “about 400 billion documents”. (The Capitol Forum)
Google’s search index is over 100 million gigabytes in size. (Google)
There are an estimated 3.5 billion searches on Google each day. (Internet Live Stats)
61.5% of desktop searches and 34.4% of mobile searches result in no clicks. (SparkToro)
15% of all Google searches have never been searched before. (Google)
94.74% of keywords get 10 monthly searches or fewer. (Ahrefs)
The most searched keyword in the US and globally is “YouTube,” and youtube.com gets the most traffic from Google. (Ahrefs)
96.55% of all pages get zero search traffic from Google. (Ahrefs)
50-65% of all number-one spots are dominated by featured snippets. (Authority Hacker)
Reddit is the most popular domain for product review queries. (Detailed)

Google is the most used search engine in the world, with a mobile market share of 95.32% and a desktop market share of 81.95%. (Statista)
Google.com generated 84.2 billion visits a month in 2023. (Statista)
Google generated $307.4 billion in revenue in 2023. (Alphabet Investor Relations)
63.41% of all US web traffic referrals come from Google. (SparkToro)
92.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps. (SparkToro)
Only 49% of Gen Z women use Google as their search engine. The rest use TikTok. (Search Engine Land)

58.67% of all website traffic worldwide comes from mobile phones. (Statista)
57% of local search queries are submitted using a mobile device or tablet. (ReviewTrackers)
51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their smartphones. (Think With Google)
54% of smartphone users search for business hours, and 53% search for directions to local stores. (Think With Google)
18% of local searches on smartphones lead to a purchase within a day vs. 7% of non-local searches. (Think With Google)
56% of in-store shoppers used their smartphones to shop or research items while they were in-store. (Think With Google)
60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results (e.g., “click to call” option). (Think With Google)
63.6% of consumers say they are likely to check reviews on Google before visiting a business location. (ReviewTrackers)
88% of consumers would use a business that replies to all of its reviews. (BrightLocal)
Customers are 2.7 times more likely to consider a business reputable if they find a complete Business Profile on Google Search and Maps. (Google)
Customers are 70% more likely to visit and 50% more likely to consider purchasing from businesses with a complete Business Profile. (Google)
76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day. (Think With Google)
28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase. (Think With Google)
Mobile searches for “store open near me” (such as, “grocery store open near me” have grown by over 250% in the last two years. (Think With Google)

People use Google Lens for 12 billion visual searches a month. (Google)
50% of online shoppers say images helped them decide what to buy. (Think With Google)
There are an estimated 136 billion indexed images on Google Image Search. (Photutorial)
15.8% of Google SERPs show images. (Moz)
People click on 3D images almost 50% more than static ones. (Google)

More than 800 million people use Google Discover monthly to stay updated on their interests. (Google)
46% of Google Discover URLs are news sites, 44% e-commerce, 7% entertainment, and 2% travel. (Search Engine Journal)
Even though news sites accounted for under 50% of Google Discover URLs, they received 99% of Discover clicks. (Search Engine Journal)
Most Google Discover URLs only receive traffic for three to four days, with most of that traffic occurring one to two days after publishing. (Search Engine Journal)
The clickthrough rate (CTR) for Google Discover is 11%. (Search Engine Journal)

91.45% of search volumes in Google Ads Keyword Planner are overestimates. (Ahrefs)
For every $1 a business spends on Google Ads, they receive $8 in profit through Google Search and Ads. (Google)
Google removed 5.5 billion ads, suspended 12.7 million advertiser accounts, restricted over 6.9 billion ads, and restricted ads from showing up on 2.1 billion publisher pages in 2023. (Google)
The average shopping click-through rate (CTR) across all industries is 0.86% for Google Ads. (Wordstream)
The average shopping cost per click (CPC) across all industries is $0.66 for Google Ads. (Wordstream)
The average shopping conversion rate (CVR) across all industries is 1.91% for Google Ads. (Wordstream)

58% of consumers ages 25-34 use voice search daily. (UpCity)
16% of people use voice search for local “near me” searches. (UpCity)
67% of consumers say they’re very likely to use voice search when seeking information. (UpCity)
Active users of the Google Assistant grew 4X over the past year, as of 2019. (Think With Google)
Google Assistant hit 1 billion app installs. (Android Police)

AI-generated answers from SGE were available for 91% of entertainment queries but only 17% of healthcare queries. (Statista)
The AI-generated answers in Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) do not match any links from the top 10 Google organic search results 93.8% of the time. (Search Engine Journal)
Google displays a Search Generative element for 86.8% of all search queries. (Authoritas)
62% of generative links came from sources outside the top 10 ranking organic domains. Only 20.1% of generative URLs directly match an organic URL ranking on page one. (Authoritas)
70% of SEOs said that they were worried about the impact of SGE on organic search (Aira)

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Check out more resources on how Google works:

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SEO

How To Use ChatGPT For Keyword Research

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2024

Max

Anyone not using ChatGPT for keyword research is missing a trick.

You can save time and understand an entire topic in seconds instead of hours.

In this article, I outline my most effective ChatGPT prompts for keyword research and teach you how I put them together so that you, too, can take, edit, and enhance them even further.

But before we jump into the prompts, I want to emphasize that you shouldn’t replace keyword research tools or disregard traditional keyword research methods.

ChatGPT can make mistakes. It can even create new keywords if you give it the right prompt. For example, I asked it to provide me with a unique keyword for the topic “SEO” that had never been searched before.

“Interstellar Internet SEO: Optimizing content for the theoretical concept of an interstellar internet, considering the challenges of space-time and interplanetary communication delays.”

Although I want to jump into my LinkedIn profile and update my title to “Interstellar Internet SEO Consultant,” unfortunately, no one has searched that (and they probably never will)!

You must not blindly rely on the data you get back from ChatGPT.

What you can rely on ChatGPT for is the topic ideation stage of keyword research and inspiration.

ChatGPT is a large language model trained with massive amounts of data to accurately predict what word will come next in a sentence. However, it does not know how to do keyword research yet.

Instead, think of ChatGPT as having an expert on any topic armed with the information if you ask it the right question.

In this guide, that is exactly what I aim to teach you how to do – the most essential prompts you need to know when performing topical keyword research.

Best ChatGPT Keyword Research Prompts

The following ChatGPT keyword research prompts can be used on any niche, even a topic to which you are brand new.

For this demonstration, let’s use the topic of “SEO” to demonstrate these prompts.

Generating Keyword Ideas Based On A Topic

What Are The {X} Most Popular Sub-topics Related To {Topic}?

Screenshot from ChatGPT 4, April 2024

The first prompt is to give you an idea of the niche.

As shown above, ChatGPT did a great job understanding and breaking down SEO into three pillars: on-page, off-page & technical.

The key to the following prompt is to take one of the topics ChatGPT has given and query the sub-topics.

What Are The {X} Most Popular Sub-topics Related To {Sub-topic}?

For this example, let’s query, “What are the most popular sub-topics related to keyword research?”

Having done keyword research for over 10 years, I would expect it to output information related to keyword research metrics, the types of keywords, and intent.

Let’s see.

Screenshot from ChatGPT 4, April 2024

Again, right on the money.

To get the keywords you want without having ChatGPT describe each answer, use the prompt “list without description.”

Here is an example of that.

List Without Description The Top {X} Most Popular Keywords For The Topic Of {X}

You can even branch these keywords out further into their long-tail.

Example prompt:

List Without Description The Top {X} Most Popular Long-tail Keywords For The Topic “{X}”

chatgpt keyword research prompt longtail keywords

Screenshot ChatGPT 4,April 2024

List Without Description The Top Semantically Related Keywords And Entities For The Topic {X}

You can even ask ChatGPT what any topic’s semantically related keywords and entities are!

chatgpt keyword research semantic intent

Screenshot ChatGPT 4, April 2024

Tip: The Onion Method Of Prompting ChatGPT

When you are happy with a series of prompts, add them all to one prompt. For example, so far in this article, we have asked ChatGPT the following:

What are the four most popular sub-topics related to SEO?
What are the four most popular sub-topics related to keyword research
List without description the top five most popular keywords for “keyword intent”?
List without description the top five most popular long-tail keywords for the topic “keyword intent types”?
List without description the top semantically related keywords and entities for the topic “types of keyword intent in SEO.”

Combine all five into one prompt by telling ChatGPT to perform a series of steps. Example:

“Perform the following steps in a consecutive order Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, and Step 5”

Example:

“Perform the following steps in a consecutive order Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4 and Step 5. Step 1 – Generate an answer for the 3 most popular sub-topics related to {Topic}?. Step 2 – Generate 3 of the most popular sub-topics related to each answer. Step 3 – Take those answers and list without description their top 3 most popular keywords. Step 4 – For the answers given of their most popular keywords, provide 3 long-tail keywords. Step 5 – for each long-tail keyword offered in the response, a list without descriptions 3 of their top semantically related keywords and entities.”

Generating Keyword Ideas Based On A Question

Taking the steps approach from above, we can get ChatGPT to help streamline getting keyword ideas based on a question. For example, let’s ask, “What is SEO?”

“Perform the following steps in a consecutive order Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, and Step 4. Step 1 Generate 10 questions about “{Question}”?. Step 2 – Generate 5 more questions about “{Question}” that do not repeat the above. Step 3 – Generate 5 more questions about “{Question}” that do not repeat the above. Step 4 – Based on the above Steps 1,2,3 suggest a final list of questions avoiding duplicates or semantically similar questions.”

Screenshot ChatGPT 4, April 2024

Generating Keyword Ideas Using ChatGPT Based On The Alphabet Soup Method

One of my favorite methods, manually, without even using a keyword research tool, is to generate keyword research ideas from Google autocomplete, going from A to Z.

Screenshot from Google autocomplete, April 2024

You can also do this using ChatGPT.

Example prompt:

“give me popular keywords that includes the keyword “SEO”, and the next letter of the word starts with a”

ChatGPT Alphabet keyword research method

Screenshot from ChatGPT 4, April 2024

Tip: Using the onion prompting method above, we can combine all this in one prompt.

“Give me five popular keywords that include “SEO” in the word, and the following letter starts with a. Once the answer has been done, move on to giving five more popular keywords that include “SEO” for each letter of the alphabet b to z.”

Generating Keyword Ideas Based On User Personas

When it comes to keyword research, understanding user personas is essential for understanding your target audience and keeping your keyword research focused and targeted. ChatGPT may help you get an initial understanding of customer personas.

Example prompt:

“For the topic of “{Topic}” list 10 keywords each for the different types of user personas”

Screenshot from ChatGPT 4, April 2024

You could even go a step further and ask for questions based on those topics that those specific user personas may be searching for:

ChatGPT and keyword research based on persona

Screenshot ChatGPT 4, April 2024

As well as get the keywords to target based on those questions:

“For each question listed above for each persona, list the keywords, as well as the long-tail keywords to target, and put them in a table”

question and longtail and user persona using a table for ChatGPT keyword research

Screenshot from ChatGPT 4, April 2024

Generating Keyword Ideas Using ChatGPT Based On Searcher Intent And User Personas

Understanding the keywords your target persona may be searching is the first step to effective keyword research. The next step is to understand the search intent behind those keywords and which content format may work best.

For example, a business owner who is new to SEO or has just heard about it may be searching for “what is SEO.”

However, if they are further down the funnel and in the navigational stage, they may search for “top SEO firms.”

You can query ChatGPT to inspire you here based on any topic and your target user persona.

SEO Example:

“For the topic of “{Topic}” list 10 keywords each for the different types of searcher intent that a {Target Persona} would be searching for”

ChatGPT For Keyword Research Admin

Here is how you can best use ChatGPT for keyword research admin tasks.

Using ChatGPT As A Keyword Categorization Tool

One of the use cases for using ChatGPT is for keyword categorization.

In the past, I would have had to devise spreadsheet formulas to categorize keywords or even spend hours filtering and manually categorizing keywords.

ChatGPT can be a great companion for running a short version of this for you.

Let’s say you have done keyword research in a keyword research tool, have a list of keywords, and want to categorize them.

You could use the following prompt:

“Filter the below list of keywords into categories, target persona, searcher intent, search volume and add information to a six-column table: List of keywords – [LIST OF KEYWORDS], Keyword Search Volume [SEARCH VOLUMES] and Keyword Difficulties [KEYWORD DIFFICUTIES].”

Screenshot from ChatGPT, April 2024

Tip: Add keyword metrics from the keyword research tools, as using the search volumes that a ChatGPT prompt may give you will be wildly inaccurate at best.

Using ChatGPT For Keyword Clustering

Another of ChatGPT’s use cases for keyword research is to help you cluster. Many keywords have the same intent, and by grouping related keywords, you may find that one piece of content can often target multiple keywords at once.

However, be careful not to rely only on LLM data for clustering. What ChatGPT may cluster as a similar keyword, the SERP or the user may not agree with. But it is a good starting point.

The big downside of using ChatGPT for keyword clustering is actually the amount of keyword data you can cluster based on the memory limits.

So, you may find a keyword clustering tool or script that is better for large keyword clustering tasks. But for small amounts of keywords, ChatGPT is actually quite good.

A great use small keyword clustering use case using ChatGPT is for grouping People Also Ask (PAA) questions.

Use the following prompt to group keywords based on their semantic relationships. For example:

“Organize the following keywords into groups based on their semantic relationships, and give a short name to each group: [LIST OF PAA], create a two-column table where each keyword sits on its own row.

Screenshot from ChatGPT, April 2024

Using Chat GPT For Keyword Expansion By Patterns

One of my favorite methods of doing keyword research is pattern spotting.

Most seed keywords have a variable that can expand your target keywords.

Here are a few examples of patterns:

1. Question Patterns

(who, what, where, why, how, are, can, do, does, will)

“Generate [X] keywords for the topic “[Topic]” that contain any or all of the following “who, what, where, why, how, are, can, do, does, will”

question based keywords keyword research ChatGPT

Screenshot ChatGPT 4, April 2024

2. Comparison Patterns

Example:

“Generate 50 keywords for the topic “{Topic}” that contain any or all of the following “for, vs, alternative, best, top, review”

chatgpt comparison patterns for keyword research

Screenshot ChatGPT 4, April 2024

3. Brand Patterns

Another one of my favorite modifiers is a keyword by brand.

We are probably all familiar with the most popular SEO brands; however, if you aren’t, you could ask your AI friend to do the heavy lifting.

Example prompt:

“For the top {Topic} brands what are the top “vs” keywords”

Screenshot ChatGPT 4, April 2024

4. Search Intent Patterns

One of the most common search intent patterns is “best.”

When someone is searching for a “best {topic}” keyword, they are generally searching for a comprehensive list or guide that highlights the top options, products, or services within that specific topic, along with their features, benefits, and potential drawbacks, to make an informed decision.

Example:

“For the topic of “[Topic]” what are the 20 top keywords that include “best”

Screenshot ChatGPT 4, April 2024

Again, this guide to keyword research using ChatGPT has emphasized the ease of generating keyword research ideas by utilizing ChatGPT throughout the process.

Keyword Research Using ChatGPT Vs. Keyword Research Tools

Free Vs. Paid Keyword Research Tools

Like keyword research tools, ChatGPT has free and paid options.

However, one of the most significant drawbacks of using ChatGPT for keyword research alone is the absence of SEO metrics to help you make smarter decisions.

To improve accuracy, you could take the results it gives you and verify them with your classic keyword research tool – or vice versa, as shown above, uploading accurate data into the tool and then prompting.

However, you must consider how long it takes to type and fine-tune your prompt to get your desired data versus using the filters within popular keyword research tools.

For example, if we use a popular keyword research tool using filters, you could have all of the “best” queries with all of their SEO metrics:

Screenshot from Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, March 2024

And unlike ChatGPT, generally, there is no token limit; you can extract several hundred, if not thousands, of keywords at a time.

As I have mentioned multiple times throughout this piece, you cannot blindly trust the data or SEO metrics it may attempt to provide you with.

The key is to validate the keyword research with a keyword research tool.

ChatGPT For International SEO Keyword Research

ChatGPT can be a terrific multilingual keyword research assistant.

For example, if you wanted to research keywords in a foreign language such as French. You could ask ChatGPT to translate your English keywords;

Screenshot ChatGPT 4, Apil 2024

The key is to take the data above and paste it into a popular keyword research tool to verify.


As you can see below, many of the keyword translations for the English keywords do not have any search volume for direct translations in French.

Screenshot from Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, April 2024

But don’t worry, there is a workaround: If you have access to a competitor keyword research tool, you can see what webpage is ranking for that query – and then identify the top keyword for that page based on the ChatGPT translated keywords that do have search volume.

Screenshot from Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, April 2024 Or, if you don’t have access to a paid keyword research tool, you could always take the top-performing result, extract the page copy, and then ask ChatGPT what the primary keyword for the page is. Key Takeaway

ChatGPT can be an expert on any topic and an invaluable keyword research tool. However, it is another tool to add to your toolbox when doing keyword research; it does not replace traditional keyword research tools.

As shown throughout this tutorial, from making up keywords at the beginning to inaccuracies around data and translations, ChatGPT can make mistakes when used for keyword research.

You cannot blindly trust the data you get back from ChatGPT.

However, it can offer a shortcut to understanding any topic for which you need to do keyword research and, as a result, save you countless hours.

But the key is how you prompt.

The prompts I shared with you above will help you understand a topic in minutes instead of hours and allow you to better seed keywords using keyword research tools.

It can even replace mundane keyword clustering tasks that you used to do with formulas in spreadsheets or generate ideas based on keywords you give it.

Paired with traditional keyword research tools, ChatGPT for keyword research can be a powerful tool in your arsenal.

More resources:

Featured Image: Tatiana Shepeleva/Shutterstock

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