If you want more people to visit your website, you need to know what keywords are, why they’re important and how to use them. So here is our ‘quick guide to keywords’.
Keywords are the words or phrases people might type into a search engine when they want information about your type of business.
If you want built-in cupboards for your home, what terms would you enter when searching online to find a company to do the job? “Fitted furniture business” “Made to measure cupboards “carpenter near me,” “bespoke woodworkers for fitted storage cabinets”. These are examples of keywords.
When you know what those keywords are, you can include them on your website and content, so you show up in their searches
Types of keywords
There are two types of keywords: short-tail and long-tail. Short-tail keywords are single words or short phrases. Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific and detailed phrases. A short-tail keyword might be “office furniture,” and in contrast a long-tail phrase, might be “fitted wood furniture for a home office.” It’s important to choose the right keywords so that Google will understand what your business offers, and point interested people in your direction.
How to choose the right keywords
You need to carry out thorough keyword research. This will help you understand the terms your target customers use, so you can use the same language in your content, and ensure find you rather than your competitors
Step 1: Start by listing your products or services and other important aspects of your business that people will be interested in. Then think about the words you would type into Google if you were looking for what your business offers and write them down.
Step 2: Do a Google search. Start typing the terms you’ve come up with into Google and note the autocomplete suggestions. These are the frequently searched terms. You can also get keyword ideas in ‘Related Searches’ and ‘People also Ask’ sections in the search results.
Step 3: Use a free tool like Google’s Keyword Planner. This will tell you how often people are searching for a keyword and how many other websites are trying to rank using the same term. This tool will give you suggestions for keywords and you can then expand your research from there to get a strong list to choose from.
Step 4: Be as specific as possible by including longtail and local keywords in your list. For example, instead of a single keyword such as “carpenter,” a longtail keyword might be “carpenter for bespoke fitted storage furniture”.
If your target audience is likely to be in a specific geographical area, you should also include location-based keywords like “carpenter in Horsham, Surrey” or “local carpentry firm near me.”
Incorporate your selected keywords
When you’ve done your research and settled on your target keywords, incorporate selected keywords into your website pages. They can be placed around your site, such as URLs, title tags, meta descriptions, headers, text and in image alt attributions. You can start producing content such as blogs and case studies too to include those keywords.
Warning: don’t overuse keywords
Overloading a website with keywords is known as “keyword stuffing.” Google will penalise your site for this. Google officially defines keyword stuffing as the practice of loading webpages with numerous keywords in an attempt to manipulate a website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
It is important to focus on a few essential keywords and make sure they read naturally in clear text. For a single web page, choose one primary keyword and a few secondary keywords―five is a good balance.
Do regular keyword research
Make keyword research an ongoing process to maintain the effectiveness of your words and phrases, and to keep up with trends and find new opportunities to meet customer needs and rank better in searches.
Read more about how Two Lizards can help with your keyword strategy to create an engaging and effective website that attracts the right visitors.