Step 1: Brainstorm
Think about the words you would use to describe your business, and about the questions or needs of your customers that it fulfils. How would someone ask for what you are offering? Consider synonyms and misspellings as well.
Bear in mind that people may not ask for your services in the same way as you describe them. You may sell ‘herbal infusions’, whereas most people would ask for ‘herbal teas’, and some might even request a ‘tisane’.
Even common words are often misspelt, and you may need to consider common misspellings – for example, ‘jewelry’ or ‘morgage’.
Step 2: Gather data
Two ways in which to gather accurate key phrase data are to survey customers and to look at your website referral logs.
Look to see what terms customers are already using to find you, and add those to your list. If they are already sending you some traffic, it is worth seeing if you can increase that traffic.
Step 3: Use keyword research tools
There are several tools available for keyword discovery, and some of them are free. Some tools will scan your website and suggest keywords based on your current content. Most will let you enter keywords, and will then return suggestions based on past research data, along with:
• Similar keywords
• Common keywords used with that keyword
• Common misspellings
• Frequency of the keywords in search queries
• Industry-related keywords
• Keywords that are sending traffic to your competitors
• How many sites are targeting your keywords
See Tools of the Trade for some tools that you can use.
Bearing in mind the factors that make a good keyword, you need to aim for the right mix of keywords. Low-volume terms with low levels of competition may be a good way to get traffic in the short term, but don’t be scared off by bigger competition in the high-value, high-volume areas. It may take longer to get there, but once you do, the revenue can make it all worthwhile.
It is a good idea to create a spreadsheet of the list of keywords, along with additional information about each one.
| Keyword or phrase | Search volume | Competition | Propensity to Convert | Value of Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel | 3,870 | 90% | 2% | $18 |
| Luxury hotels | 345 | 80% | 35% | $35 |
This will help you to choose the right keywords to target. These lists should be created for the whole website, and can then be broken down for each page you want to optimise.
