Keywords rule the internet. You type them into search engines every time you look for something new and they’re practically the highlight of every SEO conversation. I talk about link building a lot and how you can use the keywords you have to create content that will give way to links from relevant websites. If you own a real estate company, you wouldn’t want your keywords to be about dating advice, would you? A site may link to your page because you wrote some valuable things about dating, but when it comes time to search for a real estate agency, the terms your customers use will not match up with your keywords.
My dating advice example is a bit extreme, but even keywords that seem relevant for real estate such as “apartment” or “house” may not work for you. For the small business, these words are too broad. These are merely the keywords you start with in order to build a much more relevant, detailed list of valuable keywords. When you come up with a list of these general terms, you can move on to finding specifics using tools like Google AdWords keyword tool (which is free!). If you need help finding general keywords, identify the terms your competitors are using or use your current analytics tools to learn which keywords customers are already using to find your site. It’s also important to use your own intuition at this stage. In the example I used, the top four keywords are a sample of general keywords used to describe a real estate company.
Once you have these keywords, you can move on to specifics. I used Google AdWords keyword tool to search for different combinations of the four general terms. Some of my searches are below.
I started with all four keywords, but when I changed it to only include real estate and New York, it yielded a different set of keywords. Once you do this a bunch of times, you can get an idea for what types of keywords would be perfect for you. When analyzing keyword results on AdWords, keep in mind that words with low competition are often too general to realistically use. For example, New York City has low competition for real estate because people who use this search term can be interested in a wide variety of topics. It’s also important to note that keywords that yield a high volume of searches are not always the best ones to go for. Try some with less monthly searches to serve a niche audience.
In my example, you can see that the keywords below the general four are some of the combinations I found using Google AdWords keyword tool. You may feel overwhelmed by the amount of keywords you find, so it’s important to flesh out the best ones and identify them as priority keywords. Once you have these, you can begin to use them on relevant pages on your site. Map out the best places to insert these keywords and include them in your online strategy.
If you’re having a hard time finding valuable keywords, you can run a pay per click campaign using Google AdWords to quickly test combinations that may work. This will cost you, though it may prove useful in the long run. PPC campaigns are a great way to test keywords, though it’s important to remember that testing is crucial no matter how you use your keywords. It’s important to note which keywords are performing better than others and adjust your strategy as you go.