Business owners with a website are looking to get ahead of their competitors, and one way to do this is to search engine optimise your online presence with keywords.
Now I am not talking about keyword stuffing here, quite the opposite (you don’t want to be penalised), what I am talking about is the strategic use of keywords to gain more traffic to your website, this is also great for LinkedIn, your blog, and any other online presence you have that is searchable.
One tool that is great to use for this is to use a free keyword tool. This article is going to show you how to use the Google Adwords keyword tool.
The point of Google is to connect people with the right search terms so they can quickly find what they are looking and they track the data of what people are looking for, which means they can tell what is popular for different industries, and this is what makes the tool invaluable.
First up you need to create an account, however you don’t need to purchase any words, this post is just going to show you how to use it to boost the organic (free) traffic to your website by strategically placing the words and phrases that people are using to search for a business like yours online.
Step 1 – Create an AdWords account
Use your current Google or Gmail account to set this up and follow the steps.
Step 2 – Finding keywords
Once you have created your account and you are logged in you will see this screen:
From here start filling in the Find new keywords form with the product / service / area you would like to find out more about. Then press Get Ideas.
It is a good idea to be as specific as you can when choosing your keywords. If you need to go broad, the keyword tool can help narrow down your choices, and also provides similar suggestions.
Consider your business / industry and what you think that people might be searching for when they are looking for a businesslike yours. Better yet, ask your clients what they would search for.
Step 3 – Choosing keywordsThere are two key breakdowns that Google gives when they provide you with keyword suggestions:
- Competition
- Average monthly searches
Competition
This provides an idea of how popular a keyword is, based on the number of advertisers that purchase the keyword. It gives a good indication of what your competitors may be doing, those that are “high” could be harder to target for as they are more sought after by Adwords buyers.
Average monthly searches
This tells you the number of times (on average) people have searched for the exact keyword (based on the location and search network targeting you have chosen). It is averaged over a 12 month period.
Step 4 – Compiling and downloading your keyword list
Once you have the list that you need click on download list. Repeat this several times until you have compiled a list of 200 – 300 words. Then merge these lists into one excel document, remove the duplicates and sort by competition or average monthly searches.
Step 5 – Using your keywords
Once you have analysed your keywords and chosen you can use them. Place them in your website copy, use them when writing blogs, or add them to your LinkedIn profile. And remember, don’t fill your online presence with keywords, consider strategically placing them.
