Improving SEO and Finding Keywords with Semrush
A simple experience
A few months ago, I decided to try Semrush to explore new keywords for Bonetflix. Before this, I used tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest. However, I was curious if Semrush (it has a 7-day free trial) could give me better insights and ideas for improving my SEO strategy.
One thing I liked about Semrush is its feature that shows keyword SEO difficulty. This isn’t something you typically get with Google Keyword Planner (you get SEM difficulty), and from what I’ve read, the keyword difficulty in Ubersuggest isn’t always accurate.
Analyzing Competitors' Backlinks
The first thing I did was research the backlinks of my competitors. I started with sites like “bestflix.es”, “flixboss.co.uk”, “flixboss.com” (which has over 15 subdomains), and “netflixguiden.se”. Interestingly, these sites all seemed to be part of the same network, with each one focusing on a different language.
Bestflix had around 600 backlinks, many of which were low-quality. However, even though these links are low quality, they still helped boost the domain rank. I also realized that these sites have a clear business model — they include affiliate links to VPN services. The idea is that if a movie isn’t available in your country, you can watch it using a VPN from another country. This seemed a clever way to monetize their traffic.
While digging deeper, I came across various websites that sell backlinks. I noticed they were low-quality links with a domain ranking close to 0. These included:
www.permanentbacklinks.com (around 200 backlinks)
I’m still unsure about the impact these backlink services might have on a site’s ranking, as most appeared to be low-quality links. The consensus is that low-quality backlinks can hurt your site more than they help, but it was interesting to see that services like these exist.
I also looked into the backlink profile of “decine21.com”. I was impressed by their strategy of backlinking more than 5000 actors from Wikidata. Although many of these links were “no-follow,” the sheer volume of linked data could provide a big boost to the website’s authority.
Another interesting trend I noticed was several “blogspot.com” backlinks sites like this one. It’s something I haven’t seen before, but it seems another paid scheme.
Discovering New Keyword Ideas
After diving into the backlinks of my competitors, I shifted focus to low-competition keyword research. One common trend I noticed was that people often search for variations of “MOVIE_TITLE Netflix” to see if a particular movie is available on the platform. For instance, people search “Is MOVIE_TITLE on Netflix?” quite frequently.
With these search insights, I added a new header section to each webpage that answers whether a movie is available on Netflix. This change boosted the impressions on my website almost immediately. But I’m not aware why declined the following month, maybe ranks were still affected by the Bonetflix App removal from Google Play.
In addition to keyword research, I decided to make some tweaks to the actual content on my site. I used AI tools like ChatGPT to rewrite descriptions for about 10 different movies on my website. I was hoping these changes would further boost the ranking of those pages, but interestingly, there weren’t any significant improvements.
Brainstorm for new ideas
I decided to get into new keywords to see if some of these got me ideas for new projects. I searched for generic keywords like: “AI,” “API,” “best,” “buy,”“sell,” and “vs,” etc. These searches gave me the idea to explore affiliate programs. Some of the most searched affiliate programs include:
- Amazon (specific to each country)
- Walmart
- Lulemon
- Home Depot
- Addidas
- Lego
- Sephora
- Temu
- Farfetch
- Nike
- Shein
- Twitch
- Samsung
- Crocs
- Puma
- Expedia
- Shopify
- Canva
- TikTok
- Apple
- eBay
- Etsy
- Under Armour
- Costco
- Disney
- Hubspot
- Rakuten
- Google Workspace
- Tripadvisor
- Semrush
- Zara
The list is a little long, but I felt those were equally important. Affiliate programs can be a good way to monetize your website. However, keep in mind that some programs require you to have a certain amount of traffic before you can join. For example, I tried to apply for the Semrush affiliate program, but I wasn’t accepted because my newsletter didn’t have enough traffic.
As a full stop, I was surprised by the number of keywords related to sex that we search for, nearly every word has a combination of words related to sex.
Trying a new idea
Another discovery I made was related to a Spanish keyword, “viagra comprar,” which means “Viagra buy.” This keyword had a search volume of about 6,600 per month and a very low keyword difficulty score of 9. I decided to test it out by creating a landing page with the domain viagracomprar.com, I put it online & voilà:
The page didn’t show up on Google at all. This taught me an important lesson: even if a keyword has low difficulty, you still need quality backlinks for your site to be visible on search engines. After realizing this, I will delete the website in the following days and move on.
Conclusion
If you’re just starting a website, I recommend trying out Semrush. They offer a 7-day free trial, which is enough time to extract valuable insights for your SEO strategy. However, I wouldn’t suggest paying for the full plan unless your site has a lot of traffic.
Not every idea will work, but each experiment gives you valuable lessons for your future projects.
Very insightful post, thanks David!