We all know that keywords are a vital tool for our online businesses and digital marketing. Whether it’s for optimizing our websites for search engines (SEO) or extending our social media reach, keywords are so important!

So why don’t we have a better handle on keywords? With constant algorithm updates and new keyword search tools, it’s only getting more and more confusing! So I want to tell you exactly how to master keywords for SEO like a pro.

Know Your Target Audience

You’ve probably heard this before – but that’s because it’s SO important!  Before you do anything keyword-related, you first need to fully understand and know who exactly your target audience is. Once you have nailed down who your target audience or ideal client is and what makes them tick, then you can start moving into keywords.

Keyword Research

Okay. Now that you know exactly who your target audience is, you should be able to start your keyword research based on what their search queries (keywords) will be and what type of content will resonate with them most. Remember you should know exactly what your audience is looking for!

Basically, what topics are your target audience searching for that you would want your business to show up at the top of their search list? Knowing these things will help you conduct thorough keyword research that will help your target audience reach their ultimate goal.

That’s why it’s SO important to know exactly who your audience is!

Now, keyword research can tell you a lot of things, including which keyword phrases are being searched for and how popular each keyword phrase is. You can find this information out by using several SEO tools. It helps to try them all and see which SEO tool works best for you, but my personal favorites are MOZ and SEMrush.

When you search keywords or phrases, you should be able to find out their monthly search volume. This is critical for understanding how important (or how searched for) these topics are to your audience. Because you want to provide the answers to your audience’s questions, right? I know I do!

For example, my target audience has a high search volume for “website design”. So I would use this keyword phrase and brainstorm more phrases that are related to this topic. My brain dump would look something like:

• Website design tools
• Website design templates
• How long should a website design take
• How much does a website design cost
• Website designers
• Website builder
• And so on

You get the picture. Once you have a solid set of keywords and phrases, you can categorize them into associated topics. And once you have these topics, you can focus on and create content that aligns with your target audience’s searches.

I love using the Google search bar to brainstorm and find related search terms. Once you type in your keyword or phrase into the search bar, scroll down to the bottom of the page for suggested keywords or phrases. This really helps me discover keywords that I wouldn’t have thought of before!

Diligent keyword research can help shape your overall content strategy so that it directly serves your target audience’s needs and provides them exactly what they are searching for! And that, my friends, is what SEO keywords are all about.

Having a good keyword balance

Ok. so you may have heard of long-tail keywords and short-tail keywords. If not, here is a quick example: a short-tail keyword might be “website designer” while a long-tail keyword might look something like “how to find the best website designer”. A long-tail keyword is much more specific than the other and likely easier to rank in search engines. If you need a more in-depth look into long-tail and short-tail keywords, check out this awesome post.

Because short-tail keywords have a higher search volume, the competition is higher! With long-tail keywords, your audience is searching for specific topics and are more likely to click on pages that answer their more specific queries. Which can definitely be a great thing – and much easier to utilize in order to start ranking for SEO purposes.

But it’s important to have a healthy mix of short and long-tail keywords. Long-tails will get you some easy searches, while short-tail may take a little more work to rank in SEO – but it’s still definitely worth it!

 

It’s also important to keep on top of high and low-volume trends in your keywords using tools like Google Trends to watch keyword fluctuation. This has been SO helpful for me to focus on topics that have a high search volume within my own range of topics. And hopefully, it helps you, too!

So, yes, keywords are tricky and a little hard – and you definitely need to utilize external tools to analyze keywords and trends. But I promise it’s so worth it to invest the time and energy into your SEO strategy! Your business will thank you for it.

Have questions or need help? Contact me here. I am happy to assist with any questions about SEO, keywords, website design, and branding!