Ever wondered why your biggest competitors outrank you on Google, even though your website clearly states what your business does? The answer: keywords.
As a digital marketing agency who specialise in delivering first-class SEO strategies, keywords are part of our everyday. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about keywords and why are they so important?
What are keywords?
Put simply, keywords are what people are searching for in search engines. From certain words and phrases, to specific questions, keywords define the intent of someone’s search query.
Why are keywords important?
As a business, keywords are hugely important for ensuring your website appears in search engine results pages (SERPs) when people search for the keywords or phrases that are relevant to your products or services. Not only do you want to appear in SERPs, you want to be right up the top so you’re the first thing your audience sees.
To stand a chance of being near the top of the results, you need to include relevant keywords and phrases at strategic points throughout your website. For example, if you’re an accountant that specialises in small businesses, you need to have the words “small business accountant” (and similar variations) on your website to start appearing in those search results.
This might sound simple, but it’s just the start. Other factors, from the speed and security of your website to the number of links you have throughout your site, play a part in influencing your search performance.
What are long tail keywords?
Some keywords are obvious (like “small business accountant”), but it’s those obvious keywords that are the hardest to rank for, as everyone will have the same idea – so there will be heaps of competition.
For that reason, it’s also beneficial to find long tail keywords. These are keywords that may be searched for less often, but are much more specific – and therefore easier to rank highly for.
For example, any small businesses on the hunt for a new accountant might also be searching for information on how to register for VAT, or even more specific questions like “How does VAT MOSS work?”.
Identifying these long tail keywords and creating high quality, useful content around them will help make your business discoverable to people who are in need of your services. This has become more important than ever with the emergence of Google’s AI Overview feature.
How to find keywords
Keywords and the way people search are changing all the time – which is why keeping on top of your website’s SEO continues to be vital to being found online. There’s no simple way to find relevant keywords; you will need to do a bit of investigative work to unearth them. There are a few tools that can help.
Google’s Keyword planner
Google’s Keyword planner is one of the free tools offered within Google Ads. It can help you find some of the broad keywords at the start of your search. It’s less useful for long tail keywords, but it can help you find alternative words and phrases you might not have thought of.
Google autocomplete
Once you have your broad keywords, you can use Google autocomplete to find more detailed questions. Simply type search terms into Google and it will automatically show you suggestions for related searches – which you can keep clicking on to get more and more specific terms.
Also pay attention to the questions under “People also ask” for further insights.
Moz
Another useful tool is Moz, a keyword research tool. Simply sign in, type a search term into Moz, and you’ll get tons of suggestions for potential keywords.
How to use keywords
It’s not a good idea to “stuff” keywords into your content here, there and everywhere and just hope for the best. Instead, focus on creating useful content around each term.
The best way to ensure you use keywords effectively is to incorporate them into a carefully planned digital marketing strategy.
