How to Determine Your Keywords

Quality content is your highest-earning, most successful employee. You don't have to pay out any commission, but you do need to look after your content to ensure it performs for you.

Copywriting and content marketing are a combination of creativity and science. Getting it 'right' means carefully selecting words that resonate with your target audience and compel them to act. Copwriting is business copy that convinces.

That said, writing good copy isn’t easy. In fact, it’s rather hard. It takes time, research, experience and know-how. Most people think they can write (and of course they can), but writing words that persuade a stranger to do something, simply through your words alone, is a tough gig.

The main goal of copywriting is to seductively sell your business to your target audience. Content writing is more about audience engagement and building your brand (a bit less about selling, basically). However, before you can lure prospective new customers you need them to find your website. Your website is your modern-day shop front. If your shop was on a busy high street you could be reasonably confident that an attractive shop window would lure footfall through your door. Sadly, there is no such footfall of ideal customers ‘wandering’ past your website. You need to direct them.

How is this done?

Great question.

Methods vary from the technical practices behind the scenes on your website to the ‘off-page’ approaches you might use to raise awareness and visibility of your site. For example, blogging, link-building, social selling, etc.

TIP: Don't miss a trick. Optimise on-page SEO by adding descriptions to your images, shrinking them (so that pages are not slow to load) and adding ALT tags so your images positively impact your SEO.

As you can see from the above image, if I type “hire a copywriter” into Google, there are several PPC (pay-per-click) adverts in the top SERP (search engine results page). These advertisements are paid for by a business so that they feature prominently. This particular strategy, done well, can be an effective way to boost awareness and drive traffic to your site.

Of course, it comes at a price and you will need to keep paying to keep featuring in those all-important top SERPs, but, organic content is almost 6 times as effective as paid content. Google is responsible for 94% of total organic traffic, so put simply – Google needs to become your new best friend.

Your keywords are the specific words that trigger your site when people enter them into Google and boost your sites SEO - making it easier for customers to find you and improving your ranking. Your keywords must be relevant and strategically placed across your website to optimise your site and get you on to the top SERPs.

Determining the right keywords (that your target audience will use) is vital. Empowered with this information you can optimise your content and drive customers to your site. It is one of the highest return on investment (ROI) SEO activities that you can do as a business.

There is no universal approach. It will vary based upon:

·        Your website

·        Goals and objective

·        Your resources, knowledge and budget

·        Your industry

So, what should you do?

1.      Define your niche and seed words

Describe your product or service in your own words. Brainstorm. Be logical. What terms and keywords will people use when they search for you? Type the term into Google. Does it find your competitors and similar businesses? Your seed words are the bread and butter of your product/site.

2.      Check what is already working

Data will steer strategic decision making and give you a real helping hand. What does your site already rank well for? Google analytics and Google search console are free tools and a mine of useful information. If your site isn’t ranking well for obvious keywords and seed words, it needs optimising and improving. If it is ranking for keywords and seed words then check your position, ranks and impressions. Keep using what works well and optimise pages that are under-performing.

3.     Research your competitors

Research really matters. When the competition is creeping above you that (of course) isn’t ideal. Consumers rarely search past the first page so ranking counts. Often your competitors can supply you with enough keywords to keep you very busy and improve your SEO. Type your seed words into Google. Who is featuring and for what? Where are you? If you scroll to the bottom of the first SERP on Google, you will find other searches/terms/keywords that were used. These are the terms your target market is using and they are right there to find for free. You are now in the competitive research loop. Be warned, hours may pass like minute during this period.

4.      Use clever plug-ins, like Yoast

Yoast (in WordPress) is the plug-in that will optimise your site (up to a point). Other clever ‘cheats’ and tools include SEMrush, Moz and Ahrefs. They will help you to cover off the basics and are great for any level of knowledge.

5.      Know your USP

If you aren’t writing your content with a strong understanding of what you offer, who would need it and why, then you are going to struggle. You cannot optimise poor content. Even with some solid keywords, once your target audience click, your content it is not going to resonate. Poor content is not going to meet their needs or win you any business.

I hope you found this helpful. If so, please like, comment and share. ?? 

If I may assist or you have any questions, please give me a shout... [email protected]