Keywords – A Glimpse Into What Your Target Audience Wants And Needs

Let’s talk about keywords and keyword research. These are the words your target audience types into their favorite search engine to look for more information on topics you can help them with. Come to think of it, they’re also the words you type into Google when you’re looking for something. It’s the cornerstone of any SEO strategy.

Even though we all think of Google and Yahoo when we think about keyword research, it’s important to implement a good strategy for any platform.  Any selling platform or website that relies on search terms to bring relevant information to its users relies on some kind of optimization.

If you’re thinking of starting a new online business with your own website or are selling your products on Etsy, eBay, or anywhere else, good keyword research is crucial. Let’s see how you can make sure your business has what it takes to be found.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases

Before we go any further, I think it is important to note that we’re not talking about single words here. You’re not going to rank for “butter” for example, even if you’re a dairy farmer and that’s what your customers are looking for. Instead, what you want to go after are longer key phrases, referred to as longtail keywords, that give the search engines a better idea of what your audience is looking for.

For example, let’s say you’re a small dairy farmer who sells fresh milk to local grocers and you’ve been hearing people say they are interested in learning how to make their own butter. A keyword phrase you may want to use for a blog post or informative article could be “how to make butter at home with fresh milk” or something similar.

If I’m blogging about SEO and trying to find people interested in a course or a tool to help them find out what their customers and readers are looking for, I may use a phrase like “best way to find targeted keywords” or even “how to discover what people are searching for online.”

Keyword Research

The next question is, of course, where do you find those keywords? How can you find out what your target audience is typing into their favorite search engine?

It starts with a little brainstorming. Likely you know enough about your topic and niche of choice to come up with a list of several words and phrases that you think your readers may be using. From there you have options. One of your best and free tools is Google.

Start to enter one of your keywords and see what the autofill options are. Play with different terms and start making a list. Once you have that list, search each term and scroll down to the bottom of the first search results page. You will see a list of related searches. Add those to your list of keywords and key phrases and choose several that make sense for you and the type of content you want to create.

Another option is to use a keyword tool like Google AdWords. This is a free tool that gives you quite a bit of information on search volume and how competitive it is to try and rank, or be found for that term. Other paid keyword tools are also available.

Tools like Semrush are a great way to find relevant keywords along with the amount of competition they each have and it’s what I use. You want to be sure to focus on keywords that you can actually rank for. Meaning for a new website, for example, you want to be sure the keyword phrases you’re using are not being dominated by websites with a higher domain ranking. Semrush makes it easy to see what terms you are likely to be found for.

If you have a fashion blog and you want people to be able to find your article on skinny jeans, you want to make sure you use a phrase that is not so competitive that you’re competing with all the largest department stores and designers. Can you imagine selling soda using descriptive words like “cola” or “pop”? The giants like Coke and Pepsi most likely dominate those keywords. You might have a shot with the keyword phrase homemade birch beer from Virginia.

Competitor Keyword Research

Tools like Semrush can also show you what keywords your competitors are ranking for, so you can attack those same keywords. Take a look at their content and write something better to take their top spot! This is one of my favorite things to research. It lets me see what my competitors are up to and gives me ideas of the subject areas I should be targeting.

How to Use Keywords

Use your keywords and key phrases where it makes sense in the title and content of your blog posts, articles, video descriptions, product descriptions, etc. Don’t use them if they don’t fit or make sense. You want to always write for your reader’s experience first, and for search engine optimization second.

If you can use it in the title, and definitely use it within your content, multiple times or several variations of your main keyword within the content depending on length. Don’t overdo it by forcing keywords in every sentence, rather help both your readers and the search engines see what your content is about.

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