Having certain words or phrases on your website and blog helps the Google bots find your site when someone types those words or phrases into the search bar.
It makes sense doesn’t it?
But still there’s a heap of mystery, magic and out-right lies that are spread about having these keywords on your website.
As I talked about in my blog ‘A quick guide to SEO in 2020’, being found by your tribe using Google searches takes more than just using a few scattered words throughout your site.
How to use keywords and phrases on your website and blog
Before we dive into which free tools I recommend for small businesses who want to manage their own SEO, I just want to touch on how you can best use keywords and phrases on your website and blog.
1. Research your tribe until you know them like your own face. You know how they speak, what words they use, what their problems are, how they describe these problems, how they describe what they want to be like. This gives you the words to use on your website and blog that they would type into a search engine like Google Chrome.
2. Use these words in headings and page titles, but don’t stuff them in everywhere you can. Keep the use of these keywords and phrases natural. If your page isn’t an easy read your tribe will do a runner and your time-on-page will drop (that negatively affects your SEO).
3. Think synonyms. Yes, Google algorithm is a very intelligent beast. It searches not just for the word typed into the search bar, but also similar words.
4. Answer questions using keywords and phrases. Google provides answers. Having keywords and phrases written in a ‘how, why, where, what, when’ format will help your page be found.
The trick to effective keyword research is to know what your tribe are searching for.
Which, if you’ve got an excellent profile of your tribe you shouldn’t need a keyword research tool for anyway.
Why use keyword research tools?
Because sometimes they highlight words and phrases you might not have thought about.
They can show you what your competition is doing.
If you’re thinking ‘counseling’ and your tribe is searching for ‘coaching’ it shows you a more accurate word to use to get them to your page.
The most productive use of keyword research tools is to find long-tail key words (or key phrases)
People don’t just search for one word. People are generally searching in what they actually want to find. No more are people searching ‘weight loss’ but now they’re more specific, searching for ‘low carb weight loss’ or ‘intuitive eating dietitian near me’.
People type what they speak, and now days are using voice commands too.
My top 5 free keyword research tools
1. Google AdWords: Keywords Planner
Really still is number one. Set up an account. You don’t need to set up an ad to use the keyword planner. Here’s how to set up a Google Ads account and use the keywords planner. Choose the ‘discover new keywords’ tab and enter a search term. You’ll get a heap of information on keywords to help workout whether to use ‘counseling’ or ‘coaching’.
2. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest used to give you more keyword research, top content ideas and competitor trackers on the free version if you signed in with your Google account. But no more. Even so, for small businesses you get more than enough insight that’s easy to use to help develop SEO and human-friendly content.
3. Buzz Sumo
Buzz Sumo lets you see what’s trending on the web, social media, YouTube and more. You can search based on your query, or just sit back and see what’s trending that you can hook your content into! Use the ‘health’ filter on the Discover tab.
Answer the Public gives great question-based topics for what people are searching for based on Google searches. If it’s all too overwhelming, you can download the information in a spreadsheet and save it on your computer. A GREAT resource for the new answer-based Google algorithm, BERT.
Google Trends shows you what’s trending at the moment. You can look back over the past 24 hours or 12 months. See popular times of the year to post on certain topics, see related topics and related queries. Make sure you set it for where your tribe live.
Blogs and SEO
Blogs are a great way to grow your business through creating SEO and human-friendly content that answers questions, shows your expertise and hits up the best keywords.
Learn more about planning your best blogs and writing them quickly (so you can spend time doing your business rather than marketing it).
Join the Confident Business Blogger Facebook community
Become a Confident Business Blogger with the Confident Business Blogger online course