Ayoooooooo Reader,

Have you ever been curious about OTHER people's *best* SEO keywords?

Like which ones are bringing them traffic to their website???

Because it's possible to find out 👀

Most of the time when people start diving into SEO, they wanna see what keywords their own site is ranking for, or being associated with. And ya duh, that's step one.

BUT WE CAN GO DEEEEEPER BABYYYYYYYY.

Because of sneaky lil' SEO tools, we can see what your competitors are ranking for too. Which gives you a HUGE shortcut for your own SEO strategy, and can inspire some seriously helpful content,.

NOTE: This is public information, we're not actually doing anything sneaky. But it makes me feel like Harriet the Spy when I think about it like this, ok? lmao

When I say "Competitors" for SEO, it might not be who you think tho...

For SEO specific competitors, I'm talking about websites/brands that are showing up for the KEYWORDS you want to rank for.

Not necessarily people with the same offers, branding, or business model as you.

Because Google doesn't see your industry like YOU DO.
It’s ranking the pages it thinks are the BEST match for a search.

So your *real* SEO competitors, are basically whoever is already on page 1 for a keyword you wanna target.

Even if you’ve never heard of them before.

For example, I'm an SEO Consultant (obviously lmao), so you'd think, my only *real* competitors are SEO Consultants. But that's not true.

Sometimes they are, because they're also trying to show up for the "SEO Consultant" related keywords, but sometimes my competitors are tech review blogs, marketing agencies, affiliate websites, web designers, business coaches, copywriters, etc, because all these people TALK ABOUT SEO, so search engines rank their content for similar things as me.

See what I'm saying here?

Why this matters so much?

Because if you’re only looking at your “business competitors” you're probably missing out on some helpful SEO data & ideas.

So with competitors, think WIDER then *just* who offers the same solutions as you.

Think more in terms of TOPICS/CONTENT.

This can be a bit of a mind fuck when you first start thinking about it lolol

How to Find Your SEO Competitors:

Google some shit lol

No but really, sometimes that's all it takes. Get into a Google rabbit hole.

Go to Google and type in a keyword you're thinking about targeting or a keyword you want to increase visibility for. Notice the organic search options that show up (not the ads!)

Who's website shows up?
​Which PAGES show up? Home page, About page, Service page, Blog post?

Just by taking note of this, you're ALREADY starting to better understand Google's algorithm, because you're working backwards.

These are the websites + pages that Google THINKS are the best solution for the keyword you typed in.

Interesting, right?

Now what do you DO with those competitors URLs?

Run them through an SEO tool!

Using an SEO Tool to See Competitors Data

Right now, there isn't a better way to see competitors data WITHOUT using an SEO tool.

Why?

Because you don't have access to their Google Search Console or their Google Analytics. So you need to rely on 3rd party data to see some things.

You *can* prob prompt AI to find out some things, but they won't have accurate search data & extra metrics for the competitors.

Which tool can you use?

Obviously, my first choice is Semrush (and you can use the free version if you'd like! It'll allow you to see a competitors top 10 SEO keywords, per domain).

The other 2 really solid options are Keysearch & Ubersuggest.​

Wanna see *exactly* how to do this?

I created a YouTube tutorial that walks through my process on how to do this with Semrush (the overall process will be similar for other tools, obviously their dashboard & numbers will be different. But this video will help you learn how I think about these things too!)

Inside of Semrush, you can pop in a competitor’s website & see:

• The keywords they rank for
• The pages bringing in traffic
• And even an estimate of what that traffic would cost if they paid for ads for that traffic

(which is always a fun lil' reality check on how powerful SEO is lol)

​👉 Watch this YouTube video where I walk through it step-by-step​

NEWSLETTER SPONSOR -- This newsletter is sponsored by Erin Kelly Erin Kelly — founder of MemberVault — asked 16 creators (including me!) to pull back the curtain on exactly what grew their email lists recently. Aka not advice that was relevant in 2015. What actually worked, recently, for real people. The result? Absolutely NOT 400 hours of videos to watch lolol, but instead, a free library (in WRITTEN FORMAT) you can browse at your own pace — and people are walking away knowing exactly what they want to try next, without feeling buried in homework. It includes an invite to try MemberVault for free, for 30 days, so you have somewhere to put your new idea into action right away. (I've had 2 people email me with all the FOMO that they missed this, and the answer is NOPEEEEE, it's still free to sign up & binge!) >> CLICK HERE TO GRAB FREE ACCESS

✅ Action step(s) for this week:

Go watch this YouTube tutorial first (even if you don't use Semrush!)

Then:
👉 Google one keyword you’d love to rank for
👉 Pick one website showing up on page 1
👉 Run that domain through Semrush, Keysearch, or Ubersuggest​
👉 Write down 3 keywords that actually make sense for your business

(If you don't find any keywords that you like from that domain, choose another one! Rinse + repeat till you find some juicy data. This is what I do for a LOT of my clients).

Then ask yourself:

• Do I already have a page for any of these?
• If not, should one of these become a blog post, service page, or product page?

That’s it.

You don't have to build your entire SEO strategy today.

But you CAN collect one useful insight to inspire your next SEO move...

// NOTEWORTHY FINDS & UPDATES

✅ FREE Marketing Measurement Playbook I know data isn't always *sexy* but it's helpful as fuck. ...annnnnd it can also be overwhelming as fuck lolol My good friend, Rebecca from Three Groves Marketing specializes in helping business owners understand the data behind their business so you can make smart decisions, that bring in an ROI. She created a FREE Marketing Measurement Playbook that will help you discover which marketing metrics *actually* matter for your business. I'm not an affiliate for this, I just wanna share about Rebecca because she's my GO TO for all things Google Analytics, tracking, and sifting through data. ​Get the free Marketing Measurement Playbook here →​

🔎 Google Algorithm Update Rolling Out Google is currently rolling out 2 algorithm updates back to back. The first one was around tightening up spam (hopefully to get rid of some of the BS), and the next one is a core update which can usually shift some things. Core updates involve broad changes to Google’s ranking systems. It's gonna take around 2 weeks to finish rolling out. BUT, why should you care? What's important? The good rule of thumb is if you see your traffic, rankings or numbers dropping during this time DON'T DO ANYTHING. Sounds counterintuitive, but you can actually make shit worse bc a lot of the time, for website's that have done the foundational work, things can bounce back on their own. ​ ​Learn more about the Core Update here →​

📸 FREE AI ALT Text Generator Tool Incase you missed last week's email, I created a FREE SEO tool for you!!! It's an AI tool that helps you generate quick, easy & helpful image ALT text in seconds. No sign up or account needed. Just upload your image, give the tool some context, include your keyword if you have one, and then choose from 3 image ALT text options. If you scroll own the page a bit, I've ALSO included helpful information on what ALT text is, why it's important, and an example of a good one so you can make sure yours is similar. This tool is available to the public so feel free to use it, save it, share it! (I've already gotten great feedback on it too hehehehe) ​Click here to use the free image ALT text generator tool →​

Stay curious,

-- Mariah Magazine

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