Picking the right keywords for your business can mean the difference between you being found or being lost in the wave of other websites on Google. In this article we are going to go over some of the best tools available for you to plan your SEO keyword strategy.
SEO Keyword planning is the initial step that every website should take before creating a new webpage that they want to be found on search engines like Google. Before creating a webpage, blog or anything that you expect people to be able to search for and find on Google, ask yourself, what is the purpose of the webpage that I am building? Is it to sell a specific product? Is it to advertise my service? or maybe you just want people to be able to find and read your blog post. Whatever the case you need to find out what keywords people will be searching for to get to your site. This is where SEO keyword planning comes in.
Before we begin it is important that you understand what a keyword and keyphrase is. When we talk about keyword planning for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay Per Click (PPC) what we really mean is that we want to plan some "keyphrases". The difference here is simple. A keyword is a one word search term and a keyphrase can contain multiple words within it.
Think of the last time you searched for something on Google. Let's say you were trying to find surf lessons for your upcoming trip to Hawaii. What are you going to type in Google to find surf lessons? It probably looks something like "surf lessons in Hawaii", and when you get your Google results you will find a list of companies that offer surf lessons in Hawaii like these ones.
Now think what would happen if you had just typed in "surfing" or "surf lessons" you would get something that probably looks like this.
Keyphrases help the search engine narrow down what your webpage is about as opposed to a keyword. The important thing to note is that when we are talking about keywords we are really just talking about "keyphrases" because we will never plan a one word search term.
Before we get into keyword planning tools let's think of something someone might type in to find your webpage. It might be a something like our surf example above, "surf lessons in Hawaii." or it could be "SEO keyword planning", which is what someone might type in to find this blog post! Whatever it is, make a list of a few things that you would type into Google to find your business. Here is an example of my list for surf lessons in Hawaii.
If you are having problems brainstorming some keywords for your list. Ask yourself the following questions.
Once you have a list that you're comfortable with, it's time to use the magic of Google to find other related keywords.
What is the best resource for finding keywords that search engines like Google can find? You guessed it, it's Google. This is by far the easiest way to find out the best keywords for your business. Google is the largest database of search inquiries in the world! These guys know what people are searching for and have mastered the search algorithm to give people suggestions on what they are looking for. As a marketer we can use that algorithm to find the things that people are searching for that relate to our business. This is how it works.
Type in one of your listed keyphrases into Google. I am going to type in "surf lessons in Hawaii." Now before we press enter we are going to take a look at the autocomplete list that Google has provided for us. Here is my example.
Now you can take a look at all of the suggestions that relate to your business, it is likely that there are things among the autocomplete results that you haven't thought of and that match your business perfectly. Now, add those suggestions to your list. You should have a decent sized list at this point. Here is an example of mine with the new suggestions added.
To complete this step you will need a Google Ads account. If you don't already have one, watch this video to complete the next step.
Once in Google Keyword Planner, click into the box that says "Discover new keywords".
From here you can type in all of the keywords that you have written down into the keyword planner. Once you are done typing in one keyword you can press enter to type in the next one. You should have something that looks like this.
Press "Get Results" and Google will provide you with numberless keyword options! Add the ones that make sense for your website to your list. Remember that you don't want to add all of Googles suggestions to your list, but only the ones that relate to your business.
You should now have a large list of keyword ideas that you can use to optimize your website for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But you don't have to stop there. The internet has numberless tools that you can use for planning your SEO keywords. Here are a few you can use to continue to build your list.
Once you are done building up your list the next step is to research which keywords will provide you with the most traffic. Check out some of our other resources for SEO.
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