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Last week, we discussed why SEO is essential for your business and how ranking well on Google can help you achieve consistent, sustainable growth. This week, Victoria breaks down the first step of implementing a successful SEO strategy: choosing the right keywords.
By the end of this episode, you’ll understand exactly how to choose the right keywords for SEO so you can get your website in front of people who are actively searching for your products, services, and content.
What are keywords?
Keywords are the ideas and topics that define what your content is about. In terms of SEO, they’re the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines.
As a small business, you want to include relevant keywords on your web pages and in your content (e.g. blog posts) so that you can get your website and content in front of potential customers who are specifically looking for products, services, and content like yours.
Back in the day (the 1990s and early 2000s more specifically), search engines scanned web pages and articles specifically looking for keywords. As a result, copywriters would “keyword stuff,” meaning they would put their keyword on a page as many times as possible so search engines would display their web page first.
Today, search engines rank content based on relevancy, quality, and authority. In other words, Google tries to rank the most helpful, relevant, reliable websites first—regardless of how many times a keyword is included. So, if you want your site and content to rank well, think quality of content—not quantity of keywords.
Keywords are the bridge between what people are searching for & the websites & content Google ranks.
This does NOT mean that keywords don’t matter. With Google’s current algorithm, keywords are what link a user’s search to your website and help Google determine what kinds of searches you can help its users with.
As a result, if you’re spending time or money building a website or creating blog posts but you aren’t taking the time to choose and use the right keywords, you’re doing yourself—and your business—a huge disservice.
You see, Google’s goal is to provide users with the most relevant, helpful, and trustworthy information for their searches. And, keywords are the bridge between what people are searching for and the websites and content Google ranks.
When Google crawls your website—meaning when Google looks at your site to understand it and add it to its database—it looks at what keywords you use so it can better understand what your website and content are about. Without keywords, even if you’ve created incredibly helpful content, Google is less likely to know what searches your site should rank well for.
For example, let’s say you run a landscaping business and you write a great blog post about low-maintenance plants. If you don’t include a relevant keyword like “low-maintenance landscaping ideas” or “best plants for easy yard care,” Google won’t necessarily know that your post is a perfect match for people searching for those terms.
If you aren’t utilizing keywords, you’re losing business.
Basically, by not using keywords or by not utilizing the right keywords, you’re limiting the reach of your website and content.
Your site might include the exact information or offer your ideal client is looking for, but if Google can’t understand what a web page or piece of content is about and connect it to what people are searching for, your dream customers may never find your content. They may never find your business, which means lost business and opportunities for you.
In short, keywords help Google—and other search engines—understand the relevance of your website, webpages, and content, which increases the chances of your site and content ranking well.
How to Choose the Right Keywords for SEO
Keywords are important. But, how do you choose the right keywords? How do you know which keywords will help your site rank well and your business grow?
Let’s get into this step by step.
1. Think like your ideal client.
To identify strategic keywords, start by brainstorming the phrases, questions, or problems that you think your ideal client is typing in the search bar in relation to your products, services, or content.
For example, if you own a coffee shop in downtown Indianapolis, your clients are probably searching for things like “coffee shops in downtown Indianapolis” or “drive-thru coffee in downtown Indianapolis.”
Your goal is to focus on “search intent”—the reason why your ideal client is searching for something. So, what problem is your ideal client trying to solve? What specific information are they looking for?
Whether you’re trying to determine keywords for a blog post or web page, write down all the phrases that come to mind. Chances are, these terms or phrases will make great keywords.
2. Use keyword research tools to expand your list.
Once you’ve brainstormed a few ideas, you’ll want to expand your list using keyword research tools.
There are countless online tools available. Some are free; some come with hefty price tags.
If you’re handling your own SEO, we don’t necessarily recommend dropping hundreds of dollars on SEO tools. While the data they offer can be helpful, chances are, these tools are more robust than you need, making them a waste of money.
Some of our favorite free keyword research tools include:
- Google’s Keyword Planner
- Answer the Public (Free for a limited number of searches per day)
- Moz Keyword Explorer (Free for a limited number of searches per day)
- Ubersuggest (Free for a limited number of searches per day)
Plug in the initial keywords you brainstormed into these tools. They’ll, then, suggest additional keywords you might not have thought of.
3. Focus on long-tail keywords.
Whether you’re trying to determine which keywords to use on your website or what keyword to use for a new blog post you’re working on, it’s crucial to understand the difference between “head keywords” and “long-tail keywords.”
What are “head keywords”?
Head keywords are broad terms like “landscaper” or “coffee shop.” These kinds of broad keywords are incredibly competitive because there are so many landscapers and coffee shops in the world and because these are very general.
What are “long-tail” keywords & why are they more effective?
Long-tail keywords are more specific phrases that more closely mirror what your audience is actually typing into search bars.
These keywords typically have three or more words and are less competitive, making them easier to rank for. They’re also more likely to match your customer’s search intent, which makes it more likely for your ideal customers to find your site and content so that they can do business with you.
For example, instead of just using “landscaper,” which is a head keyword, a long-tail keyword might be “best landscaping companies in Indianapolis.” And, instead of “plants,” which is also a head keyword, a long-tail keyword could be “plants that do well in full sun.”
Long-tail keywords are powerful because more than 70% of all Google searches are long-tail. So, by optimizing your web pages and content for these phrases, you’re making it much more likely for your ideal clients to find you.
4. Evaluate search volume & competition.
Once you have a list of potential long-tail, focus keywords, you need to evaluate them by looking at their search volume, which is how many times keywords are searched for on a monthly basis.
As you assess your keywords, your goal is to find the sweet spot between where your keywords have enough search volume to bring in traffic but not so much competition that it’s impossible to rank.
As a general rule of thumb, aim for keywords that have between 100 to 1000 searches per month. These are low enough to give you a fighting chance at ranking well and high enough that they’ll bring in traffic.
It can also be strategic to go after low-hanging fruit, which are keywords that have 10-100 searches per month. You may not gain a ton of traffic from these keywords; however, the traffic you do get will be genuinely interested in your offerings or content.
You can use Google’s Keyword Planner as well as the other keyword tools we discussed to find the search volume for each term you want to explore.
5. Avoid keyword cannibalization.
As you research and choose keywords, you need to make sure that every blog post or web page has its own unique focus keyword. You don’t want to optimize two different pages for the same focus keyword because these pages will end up competing with one another. This is what Google calls “keyword cannibalization,” and it can confuse search engines about which pages to rank well.
So, if you’ve already used a focus keyword on one of your pages, you’ll need to find a different one for your new page.
Now, don’t worry if you run into this issue. Chances are, you can tweak the keyword for your new page or post just slightly. For example, if you’ve already optimized for “best lawn care services in Indianapolis,” your new page or post could target “eco-friendly lawn care services in Indianapolis.”
So, make sure you don’t use the same focus keyword more than once. To do this, Victoria recommends keeping track of your keywords in a spreadsheet so that you can easily reference them.
Chances are, your web builder or blog will also tell you if you’ve used a keyword in the past. For example, if you have a WordPress blog and you install the Yoast SEO plugin, Yoast will tell you if you’ve used the keyword before.
After you’ve identified keywords, you have to know where to put them on your website.
Once you've chosen your focus keyword and any supporting keywords for a web page or blog post, you have to put them to work, meaning you have to put them in key places on web pages or in blog posts. Strategic keywords will only help you if you include them in the right places.
If you’d like to learn exactly where and how to add keywords to your website, check out our free guide: “How to Use Keywords to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO.”
Stop losing business because your ideal clients can’t find you.
Again, if you aren’t optimizing your website and blog posts with strategic keywords, you’re limiting your reach and ability to grow.
The process of choosing keywords might feel overwhelming, but that’s just because it’s new. Effective keyword research takes practice.
We firmly believe that you can learn how to identify and use strategic keywords. However, there are only so many hours in a day, and truthfully, using strategic keywords is just one small part of developing and implementing a successful SEO strategy.
If you don’t have to handle your own SEO, please know we’re here to help. With Treefrog’s done-for-you SEO service, we’ll create an SEO strategy for you based on your business goals and optimize your website for search engines—which includes conducting keyword research and getting them on your website for you.
SEO can do huge things for small businesses. So, don’t wait. Whether that means learning SEO yourself or investing in SEO services, make SEO a top marketing priority so you can stop chasing business, generate consistent leads, and experience sustainable growth and success.
Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- “Episode 167: Is SEO Worth It for Small Businesses?”
- Google’s Keyword Planner
- Answer the Public
- Moz Keyword Explorer
- Ubersuggest
- Yoast SEO Plugin
- “How to Use Keywords to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO”
- Learn More About Treefrog’s Small Business Marketing Resources & Services
- Join the Priority Pursuit Facebook Community
- Follow or DM Treefrog Marketing on Instagram
- Follow or DM Kelly Rice on Instagram
- Follow or DM Victoria Rayburn on Instagram
The Priority Pursuit Podcast is a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love.
You can find The Priority Pursuit Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Stitcher, and wherever you listen to podcasts.
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