Keywords are the common terms that people search for in the search engines. In order to get traffic from the search engines, especially the big daddy of them all – Google, you’re going to want to make sure you’re writing about what people are searching for.
Researching keywords is pretty easy and there are several tools you can use online, but the most common and popular is known simply as Google adwords keyword tool.
Google adwords keyword tool was originally designed to give advertisers an idea of how many searches are performed monthly for particular terms in order to figure out whether or not they want to spend their dollars on that particular term and show up on adsense ads. However, when we create a website we can also use this same tool to help determine what content to write and make sure we’re addressing the things that people are actually looking for online.
Google adwords keyword tool can be found here, and is free.
An example of using the adwords keyword tool.
Say that you’re a builder in Milwaukee.
By entering in common terms for your business you can get a good idea of how many people (a rough estimate) are searching for services that you offer. The image below shows search volume based on common related keywords.
As you think of keywords try to think of things you customers may search for. Although you are creating a specific website and may not even show volume for things such as “pipe replacement in seattle” that may be something a few people a month do search for, and if one of those searches turns into a client it could be thousands in your pockets.
Researching keywords gives you an idea of the best keywords for your site, but isn’t the end all be all.
We recommend that you make sure to write about the keywords you find in the adwords keyword tool, but also about common things your customers and clients encounter everyday. You’ll be surprised what people are searching for online.
In all a lot of this is common sense, and as we progress on creating your site we’ll talk more about ideas for writing content. As a small business owner it’s important to at least hit the most important keywords such as “your service in your city” to at least get visible to potential customers.
Check out the adwords keyword tool and perform a few searches to see what you get for your area.
