“Keywords” and “Key-Phrases” in this article with refer to the words that your customers are using to find products and services like yours when they do a Google search. If you can rewrite the copy on your website (particularly your homepage) to include these keywords and key-phrases you may be able to improve your Search Engine Performance for those keywords and key-phrases. You might also like to consider advertising on those keywords or key-phrases.
Think about:
- What words do you use to describe your products or services?
- What words do other people in your industry use to describe your products or services? Your competitors, suppliers or dealers?
- What words do your customers (or your competitors’ customers) use to describe your products or services?
- What words do people who aren’t yet your customers use to describe your products or services?
Are they the same words or terms? Remember that people who don’t live and breathe your industry may use different words than the “correct” terms. They won’t be as familiar with brand names or product names (or conversely, they may only know the most popular brand names and not the more generic terms!)
Also try:
- Listening carefully to the way your customers talk: what are they asking for, what words are they using to describe your products or services? Make notes!
- Asking your customers, friends or acquaintances what words they’d use to ask about your products or services
- Looking at your competitors’ websites or marketing collateral. If they’ve done their research you might be able to benefit from that!
Group your keywords by the type of people who are likely to use them and think about what they’re looking for from you. Who do you want to target?
What’s next?
Once you’ve got a list of key words and key phrases you’ll want to hit the web to compare the search volumes on those terms.
The best place to look is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.
You’ll be able to use the Google AdWords Keywords tool even if you don’t have an AdWords (pay-per-click advertising on Google) account.
Need help with your keyword research? Web123’s specialised web copywriters can help.
Get in touch with us today.
Harman Family Chiropractic are a Chiropractor in Carlton, Victoria. As Carlton is quite close to Melbourne CBD Julie and Sam are interested in comparing search terms for “chiropractor Melbourne CBD” and “Chiropractor Carlton”. They suspect that more people will be searching for a chiropractor in Melbourne CBD rather than Carlton and want to re-word the copy on their homepage to try and get more traffic.
As you can see from the above results more people search for “Chiropractor Carlton” than Chiropractor Melbourne CBD. However, the search volumes for “Chiropractor Melbourne” are an order of magnitude higher than the more specific searches – and there’s about the same level of competition as on “Chiropractor Melbourne CBD”. There’s not a lot of competition on “Chiropractor Carlton” so Julie and Sam decide to try and optimise their site for “Chiropractor Melbourne” and “Chiropractor Carlton”.
Take note of the “Competition” column: the more competition there is, the more difficult it will be to rank well on that keyword or key phrase. The Competition here is the competition to advertise on this keyword or key-phrase: not to rank organically (ie appear in the main list without paying). For simplicity, let’s assume that the keywords and key-phrases that people are most interested in paying for are also the ones that it’s most difficult to rank on naturally.
Which keywords and key-phrases have the highest local search volume? Are they the ones you expected?
Which keywords or key-phrases have the highest competition? Are they the same ones?
From here you should have enough information to decide which keywords or key-phrases are worth optimising for (editing your content to include them) or advertising on.
Ideas:
- Think about the audience of each page or area of your website and use the appropriate keywords for that audience.
- Include your keywords and keyphrases in your blog posts or news articles.
Including your keywords and key-phrases in your website copy isn’t as easy as just stuffing them in over and over: your copy will still need to be readable and (most importantly) will need to sell your products or services! There’s not a lot of point getting a lot of visitors if they don’t take the next step. Check out our copywriting packages. We can also use your keywords in Blog Posts or Articles.
Whether or not you’re appearing in the natural search engine listings, it’s worth considering advertising using Google AdWords. You’ll pay “per click” and the price you pay for each click will be based on the competition level of the keyword or key-phrase you’re advertising on. If you’re the DIY type, we’ve got a PPC start-up package to get you going. If you want someone to take care of your advertising for you, we’ve got you taken care of with our Pay Per Click advertising services.