Author: Mordy Oberstein
Having a strong focus topic is becoming increasingly important for driving organic traffic from Google to your website. What’s more, establishing your focus topic helps to both refine your site’s overall identity and your target audience.
One way to approach this journey towards topic and audience refinement is to choose the right focus keywords for your website.
This is why we’re proud to partner with SEO toolset provider Semrush to give Wix users the data they need to better establish the focus of their websites.
To make the most of these new capabilities, this article will walk you through:
An overview of the Semrush integration within Wix
For those unfamiliar with the platform, Semrush is a leading provider of SEO-related data. In short, the platform helps you better understand your digital presence as well as that of the competition.
The partnership we’ve established with Semrush focuses on the keyword research data it provides and integrates that data into the initial SEO Setup Checklist (formerly known as the SEO Wiz) found inside the Wix dashboard.
We’ll explore the available data in more detail shortly, but first, here’s a quick look at the information you can access via the integration:
As we’ll soon see, this data can enable you to refine the core topics (referred to in the SEO Setup Checklist as “keywords”) that are used as part of the foundational SEO setup for your Wix website.
By refining the core topics (again, more commonly referred to as “keywords”) you give your site a better chance to rank on the search engine results page (SERP), target qualified traffic, and ultimately bring in more revenue.
Once discovered, these core topics (or “keywords”) can then be used to complete the SEO Setup Checklist, as optimizing things like the SEO title tags for your foundational pages (homepage, about page, etc.) will require you to use one of your core keywords (when done via the Wix SEO Setup Checklist; this is not a requirement if you are optimizing via the Wix Editor or other parts of the Wix dashboard).
Simply put, the workflow when using the Semrush integration in conjunction with the Wix SEO Setup Checklist looks like this:
01. Refine your core keywords using the Semrush integration
02. Select your core keywords
03. Implement your core keywords as laid out in the SEO Setup Checklist
In the next section, we’ll take a look at how, exactly, to get started with this process.
Before we move on, though, you should know that you do not need to pay to access the Semrush dataset—Wix site owners have limited access for free (more on this later).
Connecting your Wix account to the Semrush integration
When utilizing Semrush integration data as part of your Wix SEO Setup Checklist (and beyond) the first thing you need to do is connect your Wix account to Semrush.
To do this, you need to access the SEO Setup Checklist via the Get Found on Google option in the Wix dashboard (within the Marketing & SEO section of your left-hand navigation panel). As you proceed through the checklist, you’ll be guided to an option to utilize the integration to choose your core keywords.
If you have already started this process, then simply click the edit button within the SEO Setup Checklist to modify your current keyword selection.
In either case, to access Semrush data, you’ll be prompted to establish a connection between Semrush and Wix.
Once the connection has been established, you’ll be able to search through Semrush’s database for applicable keywords.
There are two things to be aware of here:
01. You can add a maximum of five keywords to your SEO checklist.
02. If you are using the free version of Semrush, you will have the ability to run 10 keyword searches in a 24-hour period. If you already pay for Semrush, your access is dictated by your Semrush subscription.
Getting started with Wix’s Semrush integration
Now that your Wix site is connected to Semrush, how do you go about using the tool?
Let’s first explore the data that is available to you so that we can get into a few actual use cases.
For starters, the Semrush data works according to geolocation. That means you will get access to focus keyword ideas and data that are specific to a particular country. This is very important because the results can, in many cases, differ drastically depending on the country you select.
With a country selected, you’re ready to get started searching for keywords to utilize within your SEO Checklist Setup (and beyond).
To get started, search for a term that is closely associated with the core product, service, or topic that your site focuses on.
For example, if my site sells ceiling fans, I might start by searching for the terms ceiling fans (we’ll soon see why we need to refine this term in order to choose an effective focus keyword):
As you can see above, Semrush returns a slew of data. Let’s quickly look at what we have here (which will, in turn, show us why need to dig a bit deeper before selecting a focus keyword):
Volume — This gives us an estimate of how often the keyword is searched for on Google each month.
Trend — This shows the changes to the monthly search volume over time.
Difficulty to rank — A composite metric that estimates how hard it would be to rank for the keyword given the competitive landscape on the Google SERP.
Search intent — The intent associated with why a user would search for that particular keyword. Search intents can include informational, navigational, commercial and transactional queries (read our post on keyword and user intent to learn more).
In this example, the first keyword option suggested by Semrush, ceiling fans, is searched for around 110K times per month, labeled as hard to rank for, with a trend that might indicate some seasonality (i.e., the dip in the Trend could reflect fewer searches depending on the time of year, which makes sense as who needs a fan when it’s cold out?).
So, while trying to get your site to rank for ceiling fans is alluring because so many people search for the keyword each month it is, all things considered, not the best place for you to start as it is extremely difficult to rank for.
If you search the keyword on Google (which you should always do when planning your content), you will see all sorts of eCommerce juggernauts, from Home Depot to Amazon to Wayfair, ranking for the keyword.
As it stands now, the average site would be highly unlikely to rank for a keyword such as this and, at minimum, this would take a very long time to achieve (and, all other things being equal, only after a gargantuan amount of effort).
If this is the case, how then do we use the Semrush data integration to choose the right focus topics/keywords?
How to effectively use Wix’s Semrush keyword research integration
The idea when choosing a focus keyword is that it should be exactly that—focused. Targeting an extremely broad (and therefore competitive) keyword with thousands upon thousands of searches a month is not usually very focused.
The sites that rank for these kinds of keywords (keywords like ceiling fans) have been operating in their respective industries for a long time and are leaders within the space.
If that’s you, then great—you can certainly optimize your page’s title tag, headers, body content, etc. to target a broad keyword like ceiling fans. (For the record, an optimized page is not one that is written for search engines—your content should be written for users first.)
However, for most sites, this kind of keyword is probably out of reach and might be something worth revisiting as the domain gets stronger.
Dig deeper into keywords and topics with Semrush
In the meantime, you can use the Semrush integration to dig deeper and find the right focus topics (again, I say topics over keywords because it’s not about a word per se, but how your site targets a topic overall).
In our case, we need to ask ourselves if the site has a specific focus or point of differentiation from other sites selling ceiling fans. Perhaps the site focuses on designer ceiling fans or a specific type of ceiling fan, for example.
In such a case, I might research the keyword designer ceiling fans:
While the search volume is not anywhere near the 110K seen for the head term ceiling fan, it is a far more attainable keyword, with a search volume of 720 and a “medium” difficulty to rank.
What’s more, it’s a far more targeted keyword that speaks directly to the target audience.
Creating a home page that focuses on this segment of “ceiling fan” is more likely to produce qualified leads and not just rope in users from Google who are bound to be uninterested in the product itself, as most folks searching the term ceiling fans are likely looking for the typical product, not a designer edition of it.
Let’s say, however, that you’re not exactly sure of the unique angle you should take. Alternatively, you can scroll through the initial results Semrush offers to see if there is a more targeted phrase that speaks to your business.
For argument's sake, let’s assume your site mainly sells outdoor ceiling fans. While not an “easy” keyword to rank for, the term outdoor ceiling fan is far more attainable (and speaks to the business itself) while presenting a very nice search volume of 14,800 searches on Google per month:
Still, a quick search on Google shows the same authority juggernauts dominating the SERP:
It’s hard to compete for the term outdoor ceiling fans when a huge retailer like Lowes and the manufacturer itself (in this case, Hunter) are dominating the rankings.
So, what now?
Dig deeper.
In this case, I would see if there is something unique about the outdoor fans this business sells, or if they are trying to sell these fans to a particular audience.
Perhaps the site is focused on commercial customers. If so, Semrush already offers a topical suggestion that fits with industrial outdoor ceiling fans:
Yes, roughly 500 people search for this term per month, not 15K. However, it is far more attainable to rank for and far closer to what our fictitious ceiling fan website actually offers (meaning that the site is more likely to produce sales, not just pull in traffic, when ranking for this keyword, all other things being equal).
A quick Google search shows that, while big players like Amazon and Home Depot are still ranking, the SERP is also peppered with more niche sites as well:
This tells us that ranking for the keyword, while not exactly easy, is feasible. Thus, targeting the term industrial outdoor ceiling fans with content that speaks to the topic on your home page, in your headers, in your title tag, etc. makes good sense and is a keyword to add to your list within the SEO Setup Checklist.
There is one more quick point to make here: While you can use the Semrush integration to choose core topics/keywords to utilize in your Wix SEO Setup Checklist, you don’t have to use it that way. Rather, you can use the Semrush integration simply to find good topics to write about, either via a product page or even a blog post.
For example, when searching for outdoor ceiling fans, Semrush came back with a suggestion to target the term 60-inch outdoor ceiling fan.
While I wouldn’t make such a specific product the main focus of my site, seeing that 390 people search for the product each month, that the term is transactional (meaning the intent of the searcher is to buy something), and that it’s an “easy” keyword to rank for, I would definitely create a specific product page if I offered such a product. I might even write a blog post about 60-inch outdoor ceiling fans!
The point is, you can use the Semrush data to either help you complete the Wix SEO Setup Checklist or just to find ideas about what to write about and target!
Finding the fight informational keywords and content focus
Let’s run through another example, this time focusing not on eCommerce content but on informational content (like a blog, etc). This time, let’s imagine our site is a gardening blog.
We might be tempted to run a keyword search for the term gardening through Semrush. If we do, this is what we’d get back:
The results include a lot of very high search volume suggestions that are either extremely hard to rank for or are just irrelevant to a gardening blog (or both).
Again, let’s focus our search: Does our blog talk about the history of gardening? Does it offer tips about gardening?
Assuming the latter, let’s run a search for gardening tips through the tool:
Now, the keyword gardening tips is most likely going to be very competitive and hard to rank for as it’s a pretty broad term that includes every variety of gardening tips. Instead, I would focus on one segment of tips.
Perhaps the blog has a focus on beginner content. In which case, the suggestion (shown above) for gardening tips for beginners would be a logical place to start as it still brings in a lot of traffic from search each month with a volume of 1K, but at the same time is not considered to be “hard” to rank for.
Again, it’s not just about topics and keywords to use as part of the Wix SEO Setup Checklist. Use the Semrush data to see what other topics your site could discuss. For example, if we now search for what became our focus keyword in gardening tips for beginners, we get some nice ideas for a few blog posts:
While they may not be the main focus of the site, a post on flower gardening tips for beginners and another on vegetable gardening tips for beginners could be a nice addition to this fictional site, and would reinforce the general focus around beginner gardening tips.
Alternatively, you could simply enter another aspect of the overall topic into the tool and find other content ideas.
In the screenshot below, I searched for gardening soil and got back the kernel of what might be a nice post on the difference between gardening soil and potting soil:
Again, the point is not to limit yourself to only using the Semrush integration for the pages associated with your SEO Setup Checklist. Use the tool to its full capacity by finding new topics to write about on your site.
And you can do all of this without ever leaving Wix.
Of course, you can use the full Semrush toolset as well and can upgrade your Semrush account directly within the Wix dashboard:
Coming full circle: Using your focus keywords in the SEO Setup Checklist
Before we wrap things up, I’d like to come full circle and explain what to do with the focus keywords you end up selecting via the Semrush integration.
For this, let’s use the term we decided on above: industrial outdoor ceiling fans.
For starters, if the site solely sells this sort of fan, we might create a title tag for the homepage along the lines of:
Industrial outdoor ceiling fans by Name of Business
You don’t need to go to the Wix Editor to do this, you can add it directly in the SEO Setup Checklist:
Along with that, I would be sure to include content on the homepage that broadcasts that this site focuses on selling industrial outdoor ceiling fans. To that end, I would either include an H1 or H2 header that discusses that the site sells that type of product, with at least a short paragraph further explaining what exactly it is that the site offers in this regard (for more on optimizing your homepage, watch our webinar on homepage SEO).
It’s also possible that industrial outdoor ceiling fans are just one type of product that I offer. Perhaps my site sells all sorts of industrial fans. I might then have a dedicated landing page or collection page honing in on industrial outdoor ceiling fans. In this case, I would optimize those landing or collection pages by doing the same—writing a title tag along with headers and body content that aligned with my products.
Lastly, I want to reemphasize that good content focuses on the user, not on having certain phrases in certain places. If you set your sights on creating well-structured content that is focused and speaks to a target audience, you’ll likely create content that follows SEO best practices as a natural result.
It’s all about quality content that makes the user’s experience as seamless and purposeful as possible. If you create content that aligns with that credo, you can’t go wrong.
Mordy is the Head of SEO Branding at Wix. Concurrently he also serves as a communications advisor for Semrush. Dedicated to SEO education, Mordy is one of the organizers of SEOchat and a popular industry author and speaker. Twitter | Linkedin