Let’s talk about keywords. These are the words your target audience types into their favorite search engine, e.g. Google, to look for a variety of information. If you have that information on your website, they may very well stop by.
Keywords are the cornerstone of any SEO strategy.
Keywords and Key Phrases
Before we go any further, I think it is important to note that we’re not talking about single words here.
For example, you’re not going to rank for “butter,” even if you are a dairy farmer and that’s what your customers are looking for. Go ahead, type “butter” into a search engine. How many hits do you get? I got 714 million!
Instead, what you want to go after are longer key phrases (a series of words). Doing so helps the search engines better understand what you are looking for.
For example, let’s say you are a small dairy farmer who sells fresh milk at the farmers market and you’ve been hearing people say they are interested in figuring out how to make butter.
A key phrase you may want to look at for a blog post or informative article could be “how to make butter at home with fresh milk” or “is butter or margarine healthier?”
Type one of those into the search engine and you should see that the number of hits is greatly reduced as compared with only entering “butter.”
Another example is if I’m blogging about SEO (search engine optimization). I may use a phrase like “best way to find targeted keywords” or even “how to discover what people are searching for online.”
That may help me find people interested in a training program or a short guide to help them find out what their customers and readers are looking for.
How To Find These Keywords
The next question is of course where you find those keywords. How can you find out what your target audience is typing into their favorite search engine?
Start with a list. Write down every word or phrase you can think of related to your business that you think people might use when referring to or looking online for your business, products and services. How many did you come up with? 100? 1,000?
Use Google
From there you have options. One of your best and free tools is Google. Start to enter one of your keywords and see what the auto-fill options are.
Use your list and search each term. Scroll down to the bottom of the first search results page. You will see a list of related searches.
Add those to your list of keywords and key phrases and choose several that make sense for you and the type of content you want to create.
Use Keyword Tools
Another option is to use a keyword tool. If you use Google AdWords, or have at least an AdWords account, you can use Google’s free tool which gives you quite a bit of information on search volume and the likes.
Some keyword tools are free, while others require a subscription. Here are a free other options:
What To Do With Keywords
Use your keywords and key phrases where it makes sense in the title and content of your blog posts, articles, video descriptions, and the likes.
Use variations of your main keyword within the content. Google is pretty smart. It knows synonyms.
Don’t force it. Always write for your reader first, search engine second. Don’t overdo it, but help both your readers and the search engines understand what your content is about.
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