Choosing the right keywords you want to rank for are the backbone of successful online marketing. But how do you go about choosing keywords that are going to drive tangible growth and sales for your business?
The three main decision factors are: RELEVANCE, VOLUME and USER INTENT. Let’s go through each one to help you understand how they all play in part in coming up with a list of keywords that are right for your business.
Relevance
Keywords need to be relevant to the products and services you provide, and you need to have the content on your website to back it up. If there’s not enough content on your website relating to your keyword phrase, potential customers may find you, but then click away because they will think you are not relevant to their search query. Google’s algorithm will also need a clear indication about what keywords to rank you for – and this can only be achieved if you have relevant content around your chosen keyword phrase.
Think very specifically about what products and services you provide, what pain points you solve. Remember that your potential customers may search for their problem, rather than the solution.
For example, if you are suffering from fatigue or lack of energy you may search for ‘why am I feeling tired all the time?’ rather “zinc vitamins”.
In this case, you may have a blog article entitled “Why am I feeling tired all the time?” to drive valuable traffic and direct visitors to your zinc vitamins.
Think like your customer and identify what their pain points are and turn those pain points into potential keyword phrases.
Volume
The keywords you choose need to be searched for regularly, but are not too competitive so that they are achievable.
You can use keyword tools such as Ubersuggest to identify how frequently a keyword is used in Google. If you are just starting out with optimising your website for search engines, and you don’t have a lot of content yet, be realistic. Aim for a keywords that are searched for around 200-300 times each month. That way, you won’t be disappointed with your efforts and you have better chances of success.
If you are selling products on your website, the more specific you can be with your chosen keyword the better.
For example: there are millions of results for “high heel shoes”
but there are even less search results for “blue high heel shoes” and even less search results for “blue suede high heel shoes.”
Despite the fact that the volume of “blue suede high heel shoes” may be lower, you are more likely to achieve a higher conversion rate, because the buyer is clear about what they are looking for and you have the product/services relevant to their search.
The graph below shows how search demand and competition decreases the more specific you are with your keyword phrase. It also means a higher conversion rate because the traffic you get will be qualified and at the purchasing stage of the buying cycle.
User intent
When choosing keywords, it’s important to understand the intent of the user. What are they hoping to find when they type in the keyword phrase in Google?
For example if you type in “office cleaning” you may be looking for tips on how to clean your office and what cleaning products to use. However, if you searched for “office cleaning services” you are probably looking for a cleaner to do it for you.
Ask yourself, ‘If I wanted to find one of these products or services, what would I type into Google?’
The more that you can think like your customer, the better chance you have of choosing the right keywords.
Choosing keywords that drive growth and sales for your business requires continual testing with content, landing pages and keyword choice. It also requires consistency with the right content creation.
Book a FREE Discovery call with me so we can review your chosen keywords together.