Keywords are one of the most important aspects of SEO, and are quite often overlooked.
In simple terms, keywords are words and phrases that people input into Google to find what they are looking for – to find your business. If you haven’t added those keywords to your website, potential customers won’t find you.
If you’re on the hunt for a fresh cream cake in Killarney, my bet is that you’d type that into Google.
To increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERP) and attracting warm or hot leads to your website, you need to use relevant keywords in your content.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? Yet 90% of websites don’t show up on search results because they aren’t using SEO.
Are you one of those 90%?
If that’s a yes, you’re not alone!
By now we know we need to use keywords, but how do we know which ones to use?
Say hello to Keyword Research!
Keyword research is the process of finding the most relevant keywords and phrases for your business.
To throw a spanner in the works, you don’t always want to use the keywords with the highest search volume – this is the amount of time a particular keyword is searched for in a set time frame.
This might seem counterproductive, but hear me out. Generic keywords are usually searched for more often – higher search volume – but are more competitive, i.e. you are trying to outrank a greater number of other websites. This greatly reduces your chances of showing up on Google search results.
More specific keywords or phrases will have a lower search volume, but the people who do find you are more likely to convert as you provide exactly what they are looking for.
Let’s return to the scenario of selling fresh cream cakes in Killarney. If you just have cake as your keyword, you’ll probably be lost on Google. Even if you have fresh cream cake as your keyword, people in Donegal might find you but won’t convert as you’re too far away. Having best fresh cream cakes in Killarney as your keyword means fewer people find you, but those that do have found what they’re looking for – and your chances of making a sale increase.
Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience; what are they looking for that you provide?
Understanding your customers and the keywords they are searching for is essential to ranking on search engines.
The more you can “niche down” your keyword, the more qualified your website visitors will be.
Which would you prefer 100 visits to your website and 0 purchases, or 20 site visits with 10 purchases – and maybe the email address of a warm lead that downloaded your freebie?
There are lots of Keyword Research platforms on the market, and most are very expensive – SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz.
I’d recommend using Ubersuggest.
Ubersuggest has a free version where you can do three (3) keyword searches per day. They also offer a 14-day free trial, which is great if you have time to do lots of research all at once.
The paid version has loads of other cool features, I’ll do another blog on this in the future. (Subtle plug to subscribe to my newsletter so you’ll get notified).
Glossary:
Traffic volume: the number of people searching these keywords
Difficulty: how hard it is to rank for keywords on a scale of 0-100. 0 being the easiest.
How to do a keyword search on Ubersuggest
Hypothetically, you’re a wedding photographer in Kerry and you want this to be your homepage keyword. Meaning if your ideal client types ‘wedding photographer in Kerry’ into Google, your website shows up near the top on the search results page.
Let’s check how easy or difficult it is to rank for this keyword.
The results from the Ubersuggest keyword search for wedding photographer in Kerry are:
* 140 Search Volume. This means 140 people searched for this keyword in the previous month.
*17 SEO Difficulty. This means that it is relatively easy to rank for this keyword. You should aim for keywords with an SEO Difficulty of under 25-30. The lower the better.
The search volume graph can be useful for products or services that tend to have trends throughout the year.
For example, traditionally there are a lot of engagements around Christmas, which results in a spike in search volume for wedding suppliers in January & February.
If we compare our original search results with those for ‘Wedding Photographer’, you can see that search volume is much higher.
Although the SEO Difficulty is still below 30, you need to consider who will land on your website. If you’re in Kerry, it’s unlikely that a couple in Donegal or Sligo will consider you.
If they land on your homepage and immediately rule you out due to geographical location, this can have a negative impact on your future ranking.
Google wants to give people what they are looking for, if they are spending mere seconds on your website, Google will think that your site does not match that keyword. The longer people spend on your website, the more credible search engines think you are.
In the next example, we searched for Yankee Candles in Tralee. You’ll see that the search volume is zero (0), this doesn’t mean people aren’t searching for this but the volume might be too low for Ubersuggest to get an accurate reading.
This long-tail keyword has a low SEO Difficulty which means it should be relatively easy to rank for if you sell Yankee Candles in the Tralee area.
Having a low, or zero, score for search volume is not necessarily a bad thing – ask yourself, would my ideal client/customer search for this?
