Having trouble finding the right keywords for an abstract topic

[IamKovacs]

Hello,
My website is about cultural exploration - foreign cultures. (the people, their art, food, music, places, etc.)
By volume, the word culture is referred to other kind of cultures: company culture, city culture, etc.

Also, the people who are actually interested in exploring other cultures - be it food, art, music, travel diaries,
etc. usually do not actually type in "Cultural Exploration".

How should I target my keyword? Do a bunch of secondary targets that cover specific? Or just use the word and keyword that are naturally related to the content and hope that google figures out who the right people to direct there?

[IamKovacs]

I see, so for example:

Foreign Authors
Foreign Singers
Travel Diaries

I think it's getting closer, but i don't think people still search for Foreign Author per say. They just look for an author, or, who happens to be Foreign. It's not possible to distinguish based on these keyword the targeted sub-group, I think.

All this made me think. Given that this is about exploration, somehow I need to get the right people with the right mindset on the site, and by EXPLORING, they will see content and choose what interests them. So the site would be kind of a cultural discovery tool.

Let's take a Persona, for example: all I know is I want to see something interesting about other cultures or the world, I don't know if it's going to be an author specifically, a new song form malaysia, or an explanation of head bobbing in Indian culture.  I am curious and want to find something interesting.

How would one target keywords (or plan an SEO, Social Media Strategy) for that?  Would you still apply your above suggestion of making a list of what would fall under it and create categories with key-word rich category urls, etc. ?

I almost feel as if it's better to do content marketing: have cool posts shared elsewhere ( or guest post) that will lead the right kind of people back to the site. What do you think?

[EGOL]

I think that you are on the edge of enormous volume.

I would divorce myself from the word "culture" and focus on some element of culture and how it is experienced.

Sites like TripAdvisor and LonelyPlanet have made millions from these types of topics.  If you can pull this off superbly with best-on-the-web content you might be able to blog for a few years and cash out for a seven digit paycheck.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/chile/santiago