What Keywords Should I Use? How to Find the Best Keywords for SEO

The words you use on your website play a direct role in making it visible to your target audience.

When keywords are used correctly on your website, the people who are most likely to use your services and convert have an easier time discovering your company. Don’t believe us? Google “marketing company” and see if our marketing company shows up.

Now you may be asking yourself “what keywords should I use?” Don’t worry! Our digital marketing agency will explain:

• how keywords work

• why keywords are important

• what keywords are best to target

and provide you with some actionable tips to build a strong keyword strategy to implement on your website.

Why You Need to Find Keywords for SEO

The text that appears on your page titles, headers, links, and in the body of a page are all used by Google to assess your website and determine how it will rank for a search query. If your content is irrelevant, not helpful, or has low authority, chances are Google won’t be sharing your webpages.

Choosing one keyword over another can impact your website’s visibility, ranking, and how easy it is for people to find your website through search. 

3 Things to Consider When Choosing Keyword Targets

1. Popularity: The more people who search for a keyword, the more potential traffic you could drive to your website. However, popular keywords also are more competitive and difficult to rank for in SERPs. In some cases, it may make more sense to target less popular keywords because you have a better chance of ranking on page one.

2. Relevance: The keywords you use on your website need to be relevant to your brand, products, and services. They should also closely match the keywords in your ads.

3. Intent: Make sure you choose keywords with the right intent. For example, if you want people to buy products on your website, focus on keywords with this intent (i.e., “buy coffee online”).

Choose keywords that are a good balance between high volume, relevance, and intent. This will help you have a good mix of terms. Our digital marketing agency prefers to start with lower competition keywords to build authority before targeting the higher competition keywords.

How to Do Keyword Research 

• Think like your customers: Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. If you were interested in your business, which words and phrases would you use to search online? Compile a list of keywords based on your brand and each product and service you offer.

• Keep it relevant to your audience: Some keywords can be popular amongst many different groups. Make sure the keywords you select only apply to the audience you’d like to attract. For example, if you run a plumbing business that services commercial but not residential, you’ll want to add “commercial plumbers” as a keyword instead of just “plumbers” to avoid residential queries.

• Check out what your competitors are doing: Competing websites can provide you with some great insights into the types of keywords you should use. Check when and where your competitors use certain keywords on their websites. How are they ranking? Look at the biggest brands and also the sites that are ranking on page one. (Can you figure out what ours are?)

• Check out Google Trends: You can learn a lot about what people are searching for on Google Trends. It can tell you about popular searches in your industry. It can also provide you with information about whether the term is trending up or down. Many industries have competing terms that have similar meanings. It can be challenging to know which words to use. For example, in the insurance industry, you could optimize your website for “auto insurance” or “car insurance.” Both mean essentially the same thing. Use Trends to see which term is trending better. 

• Look at Google Auto Populate and Related Searches: When you search in Google, it will auto-populate other suggested searches. These suggestions can tell you about other related popular searches. Google Related Searches works in a similar manner. When you do a search, Google will provide you with a list of related terms at the bottom of the SERPs page. Add these to your keywords list to consider. 

• What Does the Data Say? The numbers do not lie. Check out Google Analytics and Search Console to see the top queries people are using to find your website. If there are specific terms people are using often to find your website, it’s a good indicator you should use the term on your website and optimize accordingly. 

Review Keyword Optimization Regularly

Optimization can change. Things change seasonally. Cultural and societal meanings change. New terminology emerges. The words used to search can change over time. Even if you have an established list of core keywords to use on your website, review them regularly to look for new terms to add to your website.

Our Toronto marketing agency knows firsthand what it’s like to have keywords change, it’s why we’re a digital marketing agency now instead of an internet marketing agency.

Want to get found on Google? The Marketing Garage is an award-winning Toronto digital marketing agency that has extensive experience in getting you fame, found, and fans with a mix of effective digital marketing strategies. We help businesses in many different sectors across North America fix their online marketing and branding. Our data-driven mix of SEO and online marketing process gets real results.