One of the best free SEO tools out there is the MOZ Keyword Explorer. This tool offers website owners valuable insight into which keywords they should try to target. It can also show where your website ranks for certain keywords and how well it’s doing against the competition. In this blog post I’m going to provide a quick overview of this extremely helpful tool and teach you how to get the most out of it!
The “Search by” Options
The Keyword Explorer offers a number of different ways to see how well your site ranks for certain keywords. You can search four different categories to begin analyzing the results: Keyword, Root Domain, Subdomain and Exact Page.
Keyword – If you believe that your website is ranking well for a specific keyphrase and want to verify that it actually does, you can search for it specifically within the search bar. The results should give you the monthly volume that a particular keyword search brings in traffic-wise and also suggest some similar words to integrate into your site for even more of an organic search boost.
Root Domain – Want to get an overview of all the keywords which are currently bringing in traffic organically? Search by root domain, or simply type your main URL into the search bar. Here, you can also compare your website with other competing sites to determine which keywords they outrank you for and where you might have an opportunity to outrank them. Even if you don’t have any direct business competitors, you can still use this awesome tool to compare your site with others that are similar. This can draw inspiration for which keywords you should start integrating within your content.
Subdomain – Curious how a particular section of your website is getting accessed? Narrow your search to a specific subdomain in order to see which keywords are bringing visitors to those pages in particular. This can be extremely helpful for optimizing the words and phrases which you are integrating into those specific sections of your site. If you run a shop page, this can be helpful in coming up with new keywords that you likely aren’t targeting on other parts of your website.
Exact Page – Perhaps you just wrote a really powerful blog post that is suddenly getting an influx of organic traffic. By searching for the exact URL of that blog post, you can find out which keywords people are searching for that leads them to your article, plus how far down the search results individuals need to go to come across your website. Some careful tweaking can help you inch your way higher up returning search results, or it can simply show you where there may be more opportunity for similar content.
Search Limits
Free accounts are limited to 10 queries per month, so be thoughtful with every search you perform. Also, take advantage of the ability to export the information you pull as a CSV file whenever possible, so you can keep prior searches in an easy to access file instead of wasting your searches by pulling the same information time and time again.
