Which keywords should you prioritise?
IN THIS ARTICLE, YOU'LL LEARN:
- Why SEO is a map to guiding target customers to your business
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The outcome of effective keyword research
- The power of the 'hidden gems': long-tail keywords
- To view on-page SEO as the foundation of your house
- That optimising different pages on your website for different keywords is like having multiple fishing lines in the water
- Why off-page SEO is your ecosystem for climbing the SEO mountain
First, a definition: SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the combination of techniques for unlocking your website's visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) so that your site appears near or at the top of Google (or whichever search tool you use) for the terms you want to be found for.
Second, how to do it: Simply put, it’s by improving your website's content, structure, and keywords to convey your site's relevance and expertise. Done effectively, the result is higher rankings and better visibility and ultimately more business for you.
The Map to Guiding Target Customers to Your Business Website
I always think it helps to see SEO keywords as the points on a ‘map’ that guide your target customers to your business, by making your website more visible and discoverable online. The keywords are the ‘signposts’ and ‘landmarks’ on that map. They’re the words and phrases that customers are searching for that will lead them to your business.
Placing your keywords in the right places, your content can act as ‘digital trellising’ to support and showcase your SEO keywords. With the help of these keywords, you can climb the mountain of search engine results pages (SERPs) and become the most visible business in your niche area.
As of 2023, research shows just how significant appearing on the first page of Google search results is for businesses to gain visibility and attract potential customers.
It's the top three positions that really matter. The data makes clear that the top three organic search results receive more than two-thirds (68.7%) of all clicks on the Google Search page. Even if your website has managed position number four, you’ll attract just 7.4% of clicks and even less (5.1%) if you’re at number five.
This highlights the importance of striving for a top spot on the first page to drive traffic to your website. That #1 organic search result is particularly valuable, receiving on average 19 times more clicks than the top paid search result.
Note, if you’re fortunate enough to achieve a featured snippet, they take the place of the #1 organic search result and have the highest overall click-through rate (CTR) at 42.9%. They’re the special boxes where the format of a regular search result is reversed, showing the descriptive snippet first. They can also appear within a related questions group (also known as ‘People Also Ask’).
“In fact, the #1 organic search result receives more clicks than results #3 - #10 combined. That makes those top slots really worth aiming for.”
The Outcome of Effective Keyword Research
Keyword research can feel like panning for gold in a river. But done effectively, the outcome is powerful. It’s like striking gold. Hitting this jackpot requires your discovering the ‘right’ combination of long-tail and medium-tail keywords that will attract the ‘right’ audience to your website.
To do this, start with your company’s value proposition and your ideal customer’s main pain points. Determine how you describe your offering, the key terms you want to be found for, and the actual terms your ideal customers would type in.
By this, I mean:
How do you describe what you are offering?
What do you think are the key terms you want to be found for by your customers? (These might well be different from the industry-specific terminology you use. ie. a B2B company selling cybersecurity solutions could focus on technical features like ‘encryption protocols’ or ‘intrusion detection’ while real customers searching for their solutions use terms like ‘data breach prevention’ or ‘protecting sensitive information.’)
So which are the actual terms your ideal customers would type in for what you do or offer? To really understand what people might search for when they’re researching your service or product, I’d suggest you do a combination of actually asking your customers - via a survey or direct conversation - as well as keyword research.
You can use the answers to these three questions to hone in on the terms to target. A specialist SEO company (or your own use of keyword research tools such as Moz, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google’s Keyword Planner and Answer the Public) will also help you pare down keyword research.
The Power of Long-tail Keywords
What are long-tail keywords? They’re specific and targeted phrases that are longer in length (usually 3-5 words) and have a lower search volume compared to more generic, shorter keywords. They’re often used by searchers who have a specific intent and are looking for a particular product or service.
Sharp focus on long-tail keywords
"B2B SaaS marketing automation software", for example, is a long-tail keyword that targets a specific type of business (B2B) and a specific type of software (marketing automation). By using this long-tail keyword, a company can attract potential customers who are searching for this exact type of software, rather than just generic keywords like "marketing software".
"Accounting software for small businesses in the hospitality industry" is another example. This long-tail keyword targets a specific type of customer (small businesses in the hospitality industry) and a specific type of software (accounting). By using this long-tail keyword, a company can attract potential customers who are looking for a very specific solution to their problem, rather than just generic keywords like "accounting software".
While long-tail keywords will have less search ‘volume’ (they’ll attract a lower number of visits to your site), they’re like a magnet that attracts the right visitors for you with higher intent. They’re the hidden gems that can take you from the base of the mountain to its peak. You should use these detailed keyword strings to rank higher and attract people who are genuinely interested in your offering.
Your keyword selection boils down to your goals and searcher intent and figuring out the powerful medium-tail and long-tail niche keywords that have 'relevant intent' so will attract the highest volumes of visitors likely to be most interested in your site's offering.
Yes, long-tail keywords might get overall a smaller volume of hits. But those that you do get, will have real ‘intent’ behind them. For example, consider if you’re someone separating from your partner and concerned about your children. In that moment, wouldn’t you be more likely to type in “best lawyers who specialise in divorce and child custody” to “best family law lawyers”? So prioritise that term, as well as plenty of synonyms and related words.
“The more content you can add to your site using your target keywords or synonyms and words related to them, the higher you will climb in the SERPs results and increase your findability. Adding to your content by creating a collection of informative blog articles is a powerful way to do this. ”
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is what it says on the tin – it’s how you use your keywords on the page. It refers to the optimisation techniques applied on your website to improve its visibility and relevance for specific search queries.
It involves optimising elements such as your copy, headlines and sub-titles, meta-descriptions, URLs, internal linking, and images (your SEO will be stronger if your keywords are used on the file descriptions and alt-tags of images too), among others.
Don’t neglect the meta-description. This is the two or three-line description that appears in the browser results to searchers. It acts as a summary of the content and should be enticingly written to persuade people to click through to your site.
Think of on-page SEO as building the foundation of a house. It's the framework that supports the structure of your website and ensures it's visible and accessible to your target customers.
“By optimising different pages on your website for different keywords, you can increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages and attract more qualified leads. It’s like having multiple fishing lines in the water, each baited with a different lure to catch a variety of fish.”
SHOULD YOU OPTIMISE DIFFERENT KEYWORDS FOR DIFFERENT PAGES ON YOUR WEBSITE?
Yes, you should optimise different pages on your website for different keywords. Think of it like a library where each book is a different service or offering. Just as each book has a different title and cover, each page on your website should have a unique focus and target specific keywords.
By optimising different pages on your website for different keywords, you can increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages and attract more qualified leads. It's like having multiple fishing lines in the water, each baited with a different lure to catch a variety of fish. So, be sure to make the most of your digital real estate by creating unique, keyword-optimised pages for each service or offering your business provides.
For example, a law firm might have separate pages for their practice areas, such as criminal defence, personal injury, and family law. Each page would be optimised for different long-tail keywords related to that practice area. This allows the firm to cast a wider net and capture potential clients who are searching for specific legal services.
Another example is an accounting firm that provides both tax preparation and consulting services. They could have separate pages for each service with different keywords optimised for each page. For tax preparation, they might target keywords like ‘tax filing’, ‘tax return’ and ‘tax preparation services’, while for consulting services they might target keywords like ‘business advisory’, ‘financial analysis’, and ‘strategic planning’.
If you’re an accounting firm that specialises in serving a particular segment, say healthcare providers, law firms, or technology startups, then your long-tail keywords should reflect that. So ‘tax filing for healthcare providers’, ‘tax returns for law firms’ and ‘tax preparation services for technology startups’ etc.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is different. It’s the ‘back-end’ stuff. It refers to the optimisation techniques applied outside of your website to improve its ranking and visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
It mainly focuses on creating backlinks to related sites in your industry niche and building the website's authority through social media, influencer marketing, and other online marketing techniques. The goal is to improve the website's trustworthiness and relevance by building links and mentions from other high-quality websites.
In other words, off-page SEO is everything you can do to improve your site’s rankings through external means. Unlike on-page SEO, which involves optimising your website's own content and structure, off-page SEO focuses on improving the website's visibility and authority in the larger online ‘ecosystem’ of other websites and online communities that link to your website and share your content.
The bottomline? The more quality backlinks your website has, the more traffic it's likely to get.
The value of a SEO copywriter
A skilled SEO copywriter can serve as a sherpa to helps you navigate the mountain of SERPs and reach the top. They can:
Produce focused niche content that answers useful questions for your industry
Strategically use highly searched-for keywords in your website copy and meta-data
Increase the authority and relevance of your content and improve its ranking for those keywords
Effective Keyword Research
SEO takes time and persistence. But if you have a clear keyword approach from the start, you'll have a much-improved chance of reaching the summit.
A caveat though. If your business is competing with others in the same or a similar field, relying on a limited number of pages such as Home, About, Services and Contact will unlikely be enough to be found via SEO.
So, the more content you can add to your site using your target keywords or synonyms and words related to them, the higher you will climb in the SERPs results to increase your findability. Adding to your content and ‘SEO vault’ by creating a collection of informative blog articles is a powerful way to do this.
Effective keyword research is the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. If your site or web page is written from the start with a clear keyword approach and you’ve taken the time to sift through the data and find the hidden gems, you'll be better equipped to climb to the top of the SEO mountain.
And, like striking gold, the rewards can be substantial - increased website traffic, improved brand reputation, and higher conversion rates.
Interested to learn more?
I build in SEO copywriting to the websites I work on for clients. I’ve been keeping track of developments in SEO over the last 10 years and I owe the foundations of my knowledge to SEO expert Kate Toon, whose SEO course I recommend.