I’ve to confess that I did not begin with key phrase analysis. Firstly, as a result of I used to be simply writing about my journey experiences and did not assume quite a bit about search engine optimisation. And secondly, I wasn’t very skilled again then. I used to be nonetheless a civil engineer and was simply beginning to get to know the search engine optimisation business.
After a 12 months of running a blog with little site visitors, I made a decision to lastly conduct key phrase analysis — one thing I most likely ought to have achieved from the outset.
However it wasn’t straightforward. Due to COVID-19, no person was trying to find travel-related phrases. So, the search quantity in most search engine optimisation instruments was right down to zero. Many key phrases had been additionally lacking, with the one exception being “journey restrictions in XYZ.”
As an search engine optimisation supervisor, I needed to assume twice: Can I depend on this information? Is that this search quantity and key phrase set consultant of the long run? As a result of there’ll come a time once we journey once more.
I made a decision to make use of the key phrases to generate a subject concept that I may sort out. However not closely depend on sure key phrases and their precise search quantity.
That is when I discovered the subject of Interrail. One in every of my first huge journeys was touring Europe with Interrail, so the subject completely matched my previous travels. And I may nonetheless keep in mind all of the struggles we went by way of again then.
Interrail is a technique to journey round Europe with a single prepare ticket, however it may be extra advanced than it sounds. Each nation has completely different guidelines; some trains require additional reservations, and that you must make sure that a prepare goes from level A to level B, all whereas making an attempt to decipher varied completely different languages.
Since my weblog did not have a excessive Area Authority, my technique was to start out with long-tail key phrases, the place there can be much less competitors.
The primary article I needed to jot down was about routes you might soak up Italy with Interrail. It will cowl about 5 completely different attainable plans for exploring Italy by prepare. The primary key phrase for this text was “Interrail-Routen Italien” (German), which interprets to “Interrail routes Italy”.
It did not take lengthy to research the SERPs to search out the primary issues I’d face:
With each key phrase round Interrail, the primary few outcomes had been pages from the corporate Interrail itself (the primary model). Then, there have been some common web sites about touring round Europe by prepare. After that, there have been some well-established journey blogs that particularly targeted on Interrail.
Each website had a a lot greater Area Authority than mine did. My weblog had a Area Authority of round 2. And even much less. I hadn’t achieved any hyperlink constructing and was simply beginning to get my weblog on the primary weblog directories in Austria and Germany, corresponding to Trusted Blogs and Blogheim.
Interrail is a well-established model and web site with a Area Authority of 66. The primary web sites rating for the phrases had a Area Authority of 30-40. Which sounds little, however in German-speaking nations, that is the usual for well-established websites.
On high of competing with excessive authority web sites, once I appeared on the key phrase “Interrail-Routen Italien,” I did not resonate with any of the top-ranking pages. I used to be in love with my concept of providing 5 attainable routes for anybody who needed to journey to Italy by prepare, however I knew it was dangerous if nobody ranked for a key phrase like that.
I assumed that possibly my concept was too area of interest or possibly the search intent wasn’t what I anticipated. Possibly I ought to persist with what was working as a substitute of placing quite a lot of effort and time into one thing that may not repay.
I am undecided what I’d have really useful to a shopper at the moment, possibly to play it secure. However I’m my very own worst shopper, so I went for it anyway.
It turned out to be an ideal resolution and the breakthrough my journey weblog wanted. It additionally modified my strategy to search engine optimisation eternally.