There are a ton of blog posts and how-to’s about marketing that will tell you that you need to focus on the right keywords—that you should strategically use keywords in order for your social media posts to get better views or for your website to have better SEO. But they don’t go into much detail telling you how to find which keywords to use! So, let’s discuss that now.
Since a keyword is essentially anything that someone types into a search engine when searching for things, they really aren’t as daunting as they initially sound.
The two main types of keywords are:
- short tail keywords (the 1-2 word broad topics) and
- long tail keywords (longer more specific search phrases).
Long tail keywords have much lower search volumes, but since they are more focused, they are usually what your target audience is looking for. These are the keywords that you want to zero in on for your business.
Now to start determining which keywords those are exactly, you’ll need to write down a handful of terms that describe your business. We’re looking for short tail keywords here so think more like broad categories that your business fits in to. A shoe store, for example, may write down: shoes, women’s shoes, men’s shoes, children’s shoes, and socks. Here is a free worksheet that I’ve created to help you with this.
Next, you’ll want to expand upon those broad categories. Try to think of every possible thing that people might search for that is relevant to your business. You can include short tail and long tail keywords in this list. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas here, start typing your broad categories into Google and see what options their autocomplete shows.
Then, copy and paste this list into searchvolume.io. This free keyword search volume tool will give you the average monthly web searches for up to 800 keywords at a time, though I don’t think you’ll need that many for what we’re doing here.
Please note that these are not annotated in a standard US format. When writing down the search volume you’ll want to change the decimal to a comma. For example, a search volume of 200.000 actually means 200,000.
After you’ve written down the search volume, sort that column Z-A to see which keywords have the most volume. Any keywords or phrases with 0 monthly searches are not worth focusing on. Even if they seem like they are a perfect description of your business, it doesn’t really matter because no one is searching for it. Instead, focus on the ones that are actually being searched for.
And when I say focus, I mean that when writing your website copy or making your Instagram post, use the exact phrasing that has viable search volumes for the best reach. You don’t need to stuff your copy full of these keywords, but if you’ve noticed that “website development for small businesses” has a higher search volume than “web development for small businesses,” you’ll want to fully spell out website every time you need to write that phrase.
As the title suggests, this is an art, not an exact science. We can use the statistics we have available to us to make the best possible choice, but when it comes right down to it, finding ways to connect with your target audience is much more effective than always using the perfect keywords. Of course, on the other hand, if your target audience can’t find you, then you won’t be able to connect with them at all. It’s a balancing act for sure and I hope you’ve come away from this at a bare minimum with more understanding about what your target audience is searching for.
All the best,
Ryanne Zender
Disclaimer: While marketing is based in part on statistics and psychology, it is not an exact science. Every business and market are unique. What may work for one business, will not necessarily work for another. There are no guarantees in marketing, and this post is for informational and educational purposes only and does not replace professional advice. You can check out the full list of disclaimers and disclosures here.
