December 12, 2023 • 21 mins
Dream of seeing your business skyrocket to the top of a search engine page?
When it comes to search engines, quality keywords are a crucial step to getting your site to the top of search queries. Today's episode dives headfirst into the world of Keyword Research and SEO.
Understanding your target audience, identifying their needs, and brainstorming seed keywords to create unique and specific keywords that will draw traffic to your website: this episode will help you use keywords to their fullest potential!
Tune in and prepare to take your e-commerce business to the next level, one keyword at a time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
When helping clients with search engine optimization,
or SEO for short one of thefirst things that we do is we
work with them on keywordresearch.
Having the right keywords andkeyword phrases is crucial for
being successful with searchengine optimization.
So, if you can grab a pen andpaper and let's dive into this
episode and brainstorm together.
(00:21):
Welcome to the Ecommerce MadeEasy podcast.
I'm your host, kiri Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine-month-old.
My main goal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech and to easily
(00:41):
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of
e-commerce together.
Welcome back to this week'sepisode of the Ecommerce Made
Easy podcast.
I'm your host, kiri Saunders.
Today, we're diving into theworld of keyword research and
(01:03):
how it relates to search engineoptimization, or SEO for short.
Hopefully you are able to get apen and paper out while
listening to the intro, or, ifyou're driving a car, no worries
, or can't write down thingsright now.
Listen to the episode, absorbthe information and then come
back and re-listen to it with apen and paper in mind so that we
can brainstorm on this together.
(01:24):
But you're going to glean a lotof it no matter where you have
your pen and paper availabletoday.
I find having creative time tojust really list out all the
keyword possibilities, withoutjudgment, can really help you be
successful in when you're doingkeyword research really.
So, first off, what is akeyword?
So a keyword definition is aspecific word or phrase that
(01:47):
describes the content of a webpage.
It helps search engines knowwhat your page is about.
And also keep in mind, whenwe're talking through this
episode, that you're going tohave some core keywords that are
tried and true across most ofyour pages, but we really should
be looking at specific keywordsper page as well.
So, as we're talking throughthe tactics here, keep that in
(02:10):
mind.
You're going to have someoverall keywords that are going
to be a theme across all yourpages, very likely, and then
you're going to have some morespecific keywords for specific
pages.
All right, so let's jump intohow do we find relevant keywords
for our business.
So first off, as always in doingpretty much anything business
(02:32):
wide, we need to understand ouraudience and their needs and
what they're looking for.
You want to identify your mainproducts or services and your
offerings of your business andthen understand how's your
target audience talking aboutthese subjects.
What words or phrases do theyuse when they're looking for
(02:54):
your type of business?
And I know a lot on thisepisode.
We take the dog treat business.
It's just something easily, Ithink, to conceptualize.
Most of us have a pet or two orthree.
So let's think about it fromthe dog treat you know example.
So say, you're a dog treatbusiness.
Obviously dog treats are goingto be probably one of your
(03:16):
keywords, but that's probably avery Competitive keyword.
Lots of people are vying forthe dog trait business.
So also keep that in your mindtoo.
As we're talking about thesespecific techniques, we need to
find some keywords that are alsovery unique to you, as well as
some of the generic ones thatare a little bit harder to
optimize for.
So when you're thinking aboutthis, what certain phrases are
(03:41):
your customers using whensearching for, let's say, dog
traits?
Are they wanting specific typesof dog traits?
Do they want them only made ina specific country, or grain
free, or all natural or organic,or maybe they want single
ingredient dog traits.
I know my dog loves to eatfreeze dried minnows that look
(04:02):
kind of freaky, but she loves it, and in my mind they're single
ingredients.
So it's probably better for youto better for her to paint bone
how they process it.
But that aside, what are yourconsumers talking about?
Like I said, for me I'msearching for green tree
products.
If you don't know me too well,I actually have celiac disease
(04:23):
and on three of our kids have itas well, and so we can't have
gluten in the house.
So I need to find dog treatsand cat treats that are green
free so that we can make surethat our household is safe and
we aren't getting crosscontaminated from our animals
with gluten from them licking usor play at you know us handling
(04:46):
their food or their treats orthings like that.
So this might be not besomething you might not think of
if you're not in a situationlike me, but there are people
that are going to bespecifically looking for that
specific type of dog treat.
So put yourself in those shoesof your customers.
What services or products areyou're offering, that they're
really niched down and reallyspecifically looking for.
(05:09):
This is what's going to reallyget you head in.
Keyword optimization is not justthinking broad and generically
but also thinking veryspecifically.
So I want you to brainstormsome seed keywords and the seed
keywords is a easier ones tothink of, like dog treats.
Or let's say, you sell runningshoes, you know so running shoes
(05:30):
would be a generic kind of seedkeywords to think of.
All those simple phrases thatmay not be super specific yet,
but brainstorm those, put thosedown on a piece of paper and do
it without filtering yourself.
Just really get it down andthen you can come back and rank
the ones that you think are mostimportant for your audience.
But if we don't get that flowof creativity out, it's going to
(05:53):
be harder to really come upwith those really special
keywords.
That's really going to helppeople find you.
Now you can also use keywordresearch tools that are out
there, and there are quite a fewout there.
There are some paid ones, thereare some free ones.
So you can even just search forkeyword research tools and
you're going to come up withquite a few, and I don't want to
necessarily mention any on thepodcast, because they're always,
(06:16):
ever changing, but there aresome very, very good ones out
there.
If you aren't wanting to payfor keyword research tool you
may not be in the place in yourbusiness where you need or want
to do that then that's perfectlyfine too.
One of the things you can do issimply go to Google or Bing and
start typing for your subject.
(06:37):
So if you sell dog treats,we'll go back to that.
Start typing dog treats, don'thit enter and see what shows up
below your search.
You're going to see somerelated searches that the search
engine is going to suggest toyou based upon what you started
with, and they're going to bemore specific.
So look at that, see what thoseare, pick out the ones that you
(07:00):
like that you think resonatewith what you sell in your
services, and write those downon your brainstorming piece of
paper too.
Make a different column forthis, because this is a bit more
of our specific sort ofkeywords.
And then another thing you cando is actually search for some
of those keywords.
When you do that, you're goingto see down at the bottom of the
page at least in Google and Ibelieve Bing does this as well
(07:23):
Most search engines, relatedsearches based upon what you
just searched.
So not only can you get extrasuggestions by just starting to
type the search, you're going toget even more specific
suggestions when you actually dosearch and look below You're
going to find.
Some of them will be the sameand some of the things you're
going to find at the bottom aregoing to be different and might
give you some great ideas towork from.
(07:45):
And when you're doing this,what you're going to find and
this is kind of our next pointis you're going to find long
tail keywords.
So long tail keywords are whatI've been alluding to when we
get a bit more specific on ourkeywords.
So dog treats is pretty generic.
It's pretty.
You know, everybody could usethe word dog treats if they're
(08:07):
selling dog treats.
But if you are selling aspecific type of dog treat, like
the green, free dog treats,that's a lot more specific.
Now if you're selling organic,green, free dog treats, that's
even more specific.
That's even a longer tailkeyword phrase, and there's
nothing wrong with that.
That's actually really good inmany cases, especially if you
(08:28):
have a specific page on yourwebsite that's dedicated to
organic, green, free dog treats,and then you're also going to
be one to look up synonyms.
What are some other words thatpeople use for dog treats?
Maybe a dog snack, you know?
Come up, try to find some other.
Or canine you could maybe evenuse the word canine.
(08:50):
I mean, most people probablyaren't searching for the word
canine at least that's not thatI can think of but you could.
You want to look at synonyms forall your, your main keywords
that you find?
Because we want to create anatural language, as we talked
about a lot on this podcast.
When we're doing our long formcontent, our blog posts and
(09:11):
things like that, we don't wantto just say over and over and
over again green free dog treats, green free dog treats, green
free drug treats, right, that's.
I mean, it's even hard for meto say quickly and nobody's
going to want to just like readthat over and over again on your
website.
So you're going to want to mixin variations of your main
keyword per page, and sosynonyms are really going to
(09:35):
help you here.
You can use some tools onlineto get synonyms.
You can ask AI for somesynonyms.
This would actually be a goodplace to use AI to brainstorm.
We obviously don't want to copyanything the AI gives us,
because it's sometimesinaccurate, but it is a really
good tool for brainstorming,especially for keywords.
So use the tools that you havearound you.
(09:56):
Now, if you are a local business, this is something even more
important.
You want to make sure you alsouse local keywords.
So we are located in AthensOhio.
If we service the Athens Ohiobusinesses, we would want to use
the words Athens Ohio on ourwebsite frequently enough that
(10:16):
it's going to show up in searchengines.
Or if you're maybe notnecessarily city specific, but
your regional specific, we couldsay south southeastern Ohio on
our website to grab thatregional specific type of
audience.
So you can use local keywordsto also really help you out.
(10:40):
And this is especially true for, say, businesses that sell dog
treats.
Right, you might want to go tothe store rather than ordering
online your dog treats.
Maybe you just ran out all of asudden and you didn't expect to
, and you want to go to thestore and get some.
So making sure that you havelocal keywords in there as well
is super important if you doservice people locally.
(11:04):
And you might want to also thinkabout what is the intent of the
user when they're searching forthese phrases, that way that
you can really tailor yourkeywords to what they're doing.
Are they looking forinformation?
Are they looking for products?
Are they looking for services?
Knowing that can help you alsolike add a different flavor to
(11:27):
your keywords, because maybe youdo nail trimming services and
so you want to put up dog nailtrimming services in the Athens
Ohio area.
That would be a perfect phraseto have on a pet store that's
here in Athens Ohio for the.
When somebody's searching fornail trimming services for dogs
(11:49):
In this area, they're going tobe more likely to find you.
So right there we're kind ofcombining both the local
keywords as well as user intent.
Now when we could also takelocal out of it and you might be
looking for web developers inthe United States or web
developers in the United Kingdom.
(12:09):
You know, have some of thosewords in there.
Even if you might be very broadas far as who you service, you
still might want to put some ofthose words in there.
For us, we service clientsworldwide.
However, a lot of our clientsare in the United States right
now, so we might want to saysomething like that that we
service actually.
(12:29):
Probably I would want to putthe United States, the United
Kingdom and Australia.
That's kind of our commonplaces.
That we service people is thosecountries, so we might want to
add that to our website actually.
Ok, so hopefully you have a lotbrainstormed on your paper.
If you aren't doing this yet onpaper, hopefully this has got
your brain working and reallythinking about what words and
(12:51):
phrases would I use, would mycustomers use, to find my
website and find my products orservices?
Next we're going to dive brieflyinto some a bit more advanced
techniques, and you do want totouch on these because I want
you to see what else is possibleas you get a little bit further
into search engine optimization, and this might be something
(13:13):
that you don't want to handleand you want to pass off to a
service provider like us or asearch engine optimization
person otherwise to this.
Maybe not us, but if you knowabout it, at least you can
better monitor and help thatperson do a good job for you,
because even if you hire asearch engine optimization
(13:34):
expert, they need your input andyour information to do a good
job.
So understanding these advancedtechniques, at least at the
high level, will help you dothat, and that's what we're here
for is to help you have a greatbusiness, ok, so let's dive in.
So first we want to be able toevaluate the search volume and
competition.
So basically what that means isif we were To do a query on
(14:01):
simply dog traits, you're goingto find a huge search volume for
that and you're going to find alot of competitors.
And I know that without eventrying it.
Just because it's a very simple, generic keyword phrase, right,
dog traits, very simple andvery generic.
Now grain free dog traits isgoing to be a bit more refined
(14:24):
in less competition and a lessof a lesser of a search volume.
This still might still be a lotof search volume.
If you're brand new and juststarting out on your website,
you probably want to go evenfurther into being more specific
.
So maybe grain free dog treatsin the Athens Ohio area.
I know it sounds kind of wordyand a lot of words for keyword
(14:47):
phrase, but if you're juststarting out, google's not going
to give you quite as much apriority and other major search
engines because your website'snew.
If your domain name's new andyour website's new, you're going
to be the lowest person on thetotem pole.
So really diving into the very,very specifically detailed
keywords is going to be to youradvantage because you're going
(15:07):
to be found easier and then, asyou get more well-known, you
might want to just do grain freedog treats, for example, but
this is something you're goingto want to look at over time and
we're going to talk about thattowards the end of the episode.
So just be aware that rankinghigh for specific keywords
greatly depends upon the searchof volume and the competition.
(15:28):
If you can find that sweet spotwhere the search volume is
decently high and thecompetition is decently low,
you're going to have a reallygood chance of ranking high for
that keyword pretty quickly.
Otherwise it might take a bitmore time if the competition's a
little bit stronger.
Now we also want to potentiallymonitor our competitors.
What search engine phrases arethey doing well for?
(15:52):
And then find the pages thatare doing well, kind of analyze
it.
Why are they doing well?
Do they put keywords in aspecific way on their website?
Are they really mixing up theirphrasing?
So it's very natural for thehuman to read what are they
doing right and well there, andsometimes that takes a bit of
experience to really see what'sgoing on right there.
(16:13):
But knowing your competitors isgreat and another thing you can
do with your competitors.
You can figure out what they'redoing.
The gap is was they not doingwell for keyword optimization?
What could you do better thanthem there?
You might get a leg up by doingthat.
And then you can also thinkabout seasonal keywords.
So this could be something thatmay not apply to you.
(16:34):
It kind of depends on who youserve.
But you may need seasonalkeywords for summer things.
Maybe you're a pool company andyou service pools in the summer
.
In the winter you help servicehot tubs.
So you may want to change upyour focus.
You obviously don't want torewrite your website, but you
(16:55):
may want to focus on optimizingspecific pages during specific
times of the year so that thosepages are ready from when that
season happens.
Because you have to make sureyou're doing search engine
optimization ahead of when youneed it, because it can take
some time to really nail it downand get it right.
And then, if you do some ofthese more advanced techniques,
(17:17):
you do want to refine andprioritize them.
No-transcript what?
What really is relevant?
What is your search volumeversus your competition volume?
Where do you think you reallymight have a chance to stand out
?
So don't just blindly Usekeyword phrases.
When you're doing the researchwith the competition and the
(17:37):
search volume, make sure you'rereally looking at the data and
picking out the ones that youthink you're going to be able to
succeed at pretty quickly,because it's going to give you a
win.
It's going to boost yourwebsite as you, as you Do a
better job with keywords orspecific keywords, you're going
to have a better chance of doinga better job with other
keywords.
(17:57):
So use kind of like a snowballeffect.
Once you kind of get searchengine optimization going and
really working for you, the morelayers you add to it You're
going to get like a bigger,faster snowball going and you're
going to get a lot bettersearch engine rankings across
all your pages Once you reallystart to hone in and analyze and
get several of the pagesworking out really well in
(18:17):
search engines.
Okay and last but not least,this is something I see time and
time again with our clients isSearch engine optimization is
not a set it and forget it.
You cannot.
I mean you will get it.
You would have an advantage ifyou do do some searches and
optimization, but you're goingto give it even better advantage
(18:38):
if you're constantly monitoringand revising it and Making sure
it's working for you, makingsure you're keeping up with the
trends.
Are people using differentwords anymore to search for your
product or service?
You really need to keep up onthis and I really recommend you
monitoring this once a month orhaving somebody on your staff or
(18:59):
Hiring hiring somebody like usto monitor this for you
regularly, because it is justsomething that can just change
so easily.
You know this.
Major search engines do updatesand optimizations on their end.
That's going to change yoursearch engine ranking.
It's just something that needsto be attended to Regularly,
(19:21):
otherwise you're going to fallbehind and it's going to be like
an uphill battle to catch backup again.
But if you keep the ball moving, even if you're just putting a
little bit of effort, doesn'thave to be like a ton of effort.
As long as you're putting alittle bit of effort and really
reviewing everything regularlyI'm making a habit, like I said,
at least once a month thenyou're gonna you're, you're
(19:41):
gonna reap the benefits in thelong run for all of this.
All right, so that's it for thisweek's episode of the
e-commerce made easy podcast.
What a jam packed informationon search engine optimization
and keyword research.
I hope that was super helpfulfor you.
You can visit the show notes ate-commerce.
Made easy podcast.
(20:02):
Comm forward, slash 33 and ifyou have any questions or
suggestions for us of thepodcast, drop us an email.
Drop it to podcast at usengineering calm and we look
forward to seeing you next week.
When helping clients with search engine optimization,
or SEO for short one of thefirst things that we do is we
work with them on keywordresearch.
Having the right keywords andkeyword phrases is crucial for
being successful with searchengine optimization.
So, if you can grab a pen andpaper and let's dive into this
episode and brainstorm together.
(00:21):
Welcome to the Ecommerce MadeEasy podcast.
I'm your host, kiri Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine-month-old.
My main goal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech and to easily
(00:41):
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of
e-commerce together.
Welcome back to this week'sepisode of the Ecommerce Made
Easy podcast.
I'm your host, kiri Saunders.
Today, we're diving into theworld of keyword research and
(01:03):
how it relates to search engineoptimization, or SEO for short.
Hopefully you are able to get apen and paper out while
listening to the intro, or, ifyou're driving a car, no worries
, or can't write down thingsright now.
Listen to the episode, absorbthe information and then come
back and re-listen to it with apen and paper in mind so that we
can brainstorm on this together.
(01:24):
But you're going to glean a lotof it no matter where you have
your pen and paper availabletoday.
I find having creative time tojust really list out all the
keyword possibilities, withoutjudgment, can really help you be
successful in when you're doingkeyword research really.
So, first off, what is akeyword?
So a keyword definition is aspecific word or phrase that
(01:47):
describes the content of a webpage.
It helps search engines knowwhat your page is about.
And also keep in mind, whenwe're talking through this
episode, that you're going tohave some core keywords that are
tried and true across most ofyour pages, but we really should
be looking at specific keywordsper page as well.
So, as we're talking throughthe tactics here, keep that in
(02:10):
mind.
You're going to have someoverall keywords that are going
to be a theme across all yourpages, very likely, and then
you're going to have some morespecific keywords for specific
pages.
All right, so let's jump intohow do we find relevant keywords
for our business.
So first off, as always in doingpretty much anything business
(02:32):
wide, we need to understand ouraudience and their needs and
what they're looking for.
You want to identify your mainproducts or services and your
offerings of your business andthen understand how's your
target audience talking aboutthese subjects.
What words or phrases do theyuse when they're looking for
(02:54):
your type of business?
And I know a lot on thisepisode.
We take the dog treat business.
It's just something easily, Ithink, to conceptualize.
Most of us have a pet or two orthree.
So let's think about it fromthe dog treat you know example.
So say, you're a dog treatbusiness.
Obviously dog treats are goingto be probably one of your
(03:16):
keywords, but that's probably avery Competitive keyword.
Lots of people are vying forthe dog trait business.
So also keep that in your mindtoo.
As we're talking about thesespecific techniques, we need to
find some keywords that are alsovery unique to you, as well as
some of the generic ones thatare a little bit harder to
optimize for.
So when you're thinking aboutthis, what certain phrases are
(03:41):
your customers using whensearching for, let's say, dog
traits?
Are they wanting specific typesof dog traits?
Do they want them only made ina specific country, or grain
free, or all natural or organic,or maybe they want single
ingredient dog traits.
I know my dog loves to eatfreeze dried minnows that look
(04:02):
kind of freaky, but she loves it, and in my mind they're single
ingredients.
So it's probably better for youto better for her to paint bone
how they process it.
But that aside, what are yourconsumers talking about?
Like I said, for me I'msearching for green tree
products.
If you don't know me too well,I actually have celiac disease
(04:23):
and on three of our kids have itas well, and so we can't have
gluten in the house.
So I need to find dog treatsand cat treats that are green
free so that we can make surethat our household is safe and
we aren't getting crosscontaminated from our animals
with gluten from them licking usor play at you know us handling
(04:46):
their food or their treats orthings like that.
So this might be not besomething you might not think of
if you're not in a situationlike me, but there are people
that are going to bespecifically looking for that
specific type of dog treat.
So put yourself in those shoesof your customers.
What services or products areyou're offering, that they're
really niched down and reallyspecifically looking for.
(05:09):
This is what's going to reallyget you head in.
Keyword optimization is not justthinking broad and generically
but also thinking veryspecifically.
So I want you to brainstormsome seed keywords and the seed
keywords is a easier ones tothink of, like dog treats.
Or let's say, you sell runningshoes, you know so running shoes
(05:30):
would be a generic kind of seedkeywords to think of.
All those simple phrases thatmay not be super specific yet,
but brainstorm those, put thosedown on a piece of paper and do
it without filtering yourself.
Just really get it down andthen you can come back and rank
the ones that you think are mostimportant for your audience.
But if we don't get that flowof creativity out, it's going to
(05:53):
be harder to really come upwith those really special
keywords.
That's really going to helppeople find you.
Now you can also use keywordresearch tools that are out
there, and there are quite a fewout there.
There are some paid ones, thereare some free ones.
So you can even just search forkeyword research tools and
you're going to come up withquite a few, and I don't want to
necessarily mention any on thepodcast, because they're always,
(06:16):
ever changing, but there aresome very, very good ones out
there.
If you aren't wanting to payfor keyword research tool you
may not be in the place in yourbusiness where you need or want
to do that then that's perfectlyfine too.
One of the things you can do issimply go to Google or Bing and
start typing for your subject.
(06:37):
So if you sell dog treats,we'll go back to that.
Start typing dog treats, don'thit enter and see what shows up
below your search.
You're going to see somerelated searches that the search
engine is going to suggest toyou based upon what you started
with, and they're going to bemore specific.
So look at that, see what thoseare, pick out the ones that you
(07:00):
like that you think resonatewith what you sell in your
services, and write those downon your brainstorming piece of
paper too.
Make a different column forthis, because this is a bit more
of our specific sort ofkeywords.
And then another thing you cando is actually search for some
of those keywords.
When you do that, you're goingto see down at the bottom of the
page at least in Google and Ibelieve Bing does this as well
(07:23):
Most search engines, relatedsearches based upon what you
just searched.
So not only can you get extrasuggestions by just starting to
type the search, you're going toget even more specific
suggestions when you actually dosearch and look below You're
going to find.
Some of them will be the sameand some of the things you're
going to find at the bottom aregoing to be different and might
give you some great ideas towork from.
(07:45):
And when you're doing this,what you're going to find and
this is kind of our next pointis you're going to find long
tail keywords.
So long tail keywords are whatI've been alluding to when we
get a bit more specific on ourkeywords.
So dog treats is pretty generic.
It's pretty.
You know, everybody could usethe word dog treats if they're
(08:07):
selling dog treats.
But if you are selling aspecific type of dog treat, like
the green, free dog treats,that's a lot more specific.
Now if you're selling organic,green, free dog treats, that's
even more specific.
That's even a longer tailkeyword phrase, and there's
nothing wrong with that.
That's actually really good inmany cases, especially if you
(08:28):
have a specific page on yourwebsite that's dedicated to
organic, green, free dog treats,and then you're also going to
be one to look up synonyms.
What are some other words thatpeople use for dog treats?
Maybe a dog snack, you know?
Come up, try to find some other.
Or canine you could maybe evenuse the word canine.
(08:50):
I mean, most people probablyaren't searching for the word
canine at least that's not thatI can think of but you could.
You want to look at synonyms forall your, your main keywords
that you find?
Because we want to create anatural language, as we talked
about a lot on this podcast.
When we're doing our long formcontent, our blog posts and
(09:11):
things like that, we don't wantto just say over and over and
over again green free dog treats, green free dog treats, green
free drug treats, right, that's.
I mean, it's even hard for meto say quickly and nobody's
going to want to just like readthat over and over again on your
website.
So you're going to want to mixin variations of your main
keyword per page, and sosynonyms are really going to
(09:35):
help you here.
You can use some tools onlineto get synonyms.
You can ask AI for somesynonyms.
This would actually be a goodplace to use AI to brainstorm.
We obviously don't want to copyanything the AI gives us,
because it's sometimesinaccurate, but it is a really
good tool for brainstorming,especially for keywords.
So use the tools that you havearound you.
(09:56):
Now, if you are a local business, this is something even more
important.
You want to make sure you alsouse local keywords.
So we are located in AthensOhio.
If we service the Athens Ohiobusinesses, we would want to use
the words Athens Ohio on ourwebsite frequently enough that
(10:16):
it's going to show up in searchengines.
Or if you're maybe notnecessarily city specific, but
your regional specific, we couldsay south southeastern Ohio on
our website to grab thatregional specific type of
audience.
So you can use local keywordsto also really help you out.
(10:40):
And this is especially true for, say, businesses that sell dog
treats.
Right, you might want to go tothe store rather than ordering
online your dog treats.
Maybe you just ran out all of asudden and you didn't expect to
, and you want to go to thestore and get some.
So making sure that you havelocal keywords in there as well
is super important if you doservice people locally.
(11:04):
And you might want to also thinkabout what is the intent of the
user when they're searching forthese phrases, that way that
you can really tailor yourkeywords to what they're doing.
Are they looking forinformation?
Are they looking for products?
Are they looking for services?
Knowing that can help you alsolike add a different flavor to
(11:27):
your keywords, because maybe youdo nail trimming services and
so you want to put up dog nailtrimming services in the Athens
Ohio area.
That would be a perfect phraseto have on a pet store that's
here in Athens Ohio for the.
When somebody's searching fornail trimming services for dogs
(11:49):
In this area, they're going tobe more likely to find you.
So right there we're kind ofcombining both the local
keywords as well as user intent.
Now when we could also takelocal out of it and you might be
looking for web developers inthe United States or web
developers in the United Kingdom.
(12:09):
You know, have some of thosewords in there.
Even if you might be very broadas far as who you service, you
still might want to put some ofthose words in there.
For us, we service clientsworldwide.
However, a lot of our clientsare in the United States right
now, so we might want to saysomething like that that we
service actually.
(12:29):
Probably I would want to putthe United States, the United
Kingdom and Australia.
That's kind of our commonplaces.
That we service people is thosecountries, so we might want to
add that to our website actually.
Ok, so hopefully you have a lotbrainstormed on your paper.
If you aren't doing this yet onpaper, hopefully this has got
your brain working and reallythinking about what words and
(12:51):
phrases would I use, would mycustomers use, to find my
website and find my products orservices?
Next we're going to dive brieflyinto some a bit more advanced
techniques, and you do want totouch on these because I want
you to see what else is possibleas you get a little bit further
into search engine optimization, and this might be something
(13:13):
that you don't want to handleand you want to pass off to a
service provider like us or asearch engine optimization
person otherwise to this.
Maybe not us, but if you knowabout it, at least you can
better monitor and help thatperson do a good job for you,
because even if you hire asearch engine optimization
(13:34):
expert, they need your input andyour information to do a good
job.
So understanding these advancedtechniques, at least at the
high level, will help you dothat, and that's what we're here
for is to help you have a greatbusiness, ok, so let's dive in.
So first we want to be able toevaluate the search volume and
competition.
So basically what that means isif we were To do a query on
(14:01):
simply dog traits, you're goingto find a huge search volume for
that and you're going to find alot of competitors.
And I know that without eventrying it.
Just because it's a very simple, generic keyword phrase, right,
dog traits, very simple andvery generic.
Now grain free dog traits isgoing to be a bit more refined
(14:24):
in less competition and a lessof a lesser of a search volume.
This still might still be a lotof search volume.
If you're brand new and juststarting out on your website,
you probably want to go evenfurther into being more specific
.
So maybe grain free dog treatsin the Athens Ohio area.
I know it sounds kind of wordyand a lot of words for keyword
(14:47):
phrase, but if you're juststarting out, google's not going
to give you quite as much apriority and other major search
engines because your website'snew.
If your domain name's new andyour website's new, you're going
to be the lowest person on thetotem pole.
So really diving into the very,very specifically detailed
keywords is going to be to youradvantage because you're going
(15:07):
to be found easier and then, asyou get more well-known, you
might want to just do grain freedog treats, for example, but
this is something you're goingto want to look at over time and
we're going to talk about thattowards the end of the episode.
So just be aware that rankinghigh for specific keywords
greatly depends upon the searchof volume and the competition.
(15:28):
If you can find that sweet spotwhere the search volume is
decently high and thecompetition is decently low,
you're going to have a reallygood chance of ranking high for
that keyword pretty quickly.
Otherwise it might take a bitmore time if the competition's a
little bit stronger.
Now we also want to potentiallymonitor our competitors.
What search engine phrases arethey doing well for?
(15:52):
And then find the pages thatare doing well, kind of analyze
it.
Why are they doing well?
Do they put keywords in aspecific way on their website?
Are they really mixing up theirphrasing?
So it's very natural for thehuman to read what are they
doing right and well there, andsometimes that takes a bit of
experience to really see what'sgoing on right there.
(16:13):
But knowing your competitors isgreat and another thing you can
do with your competitors.
You can figure out what they'redoing.
The gap is was they not doingwell for keyword optimization?
What could you do better thanthem there?
You might get a leg up by doingthat.
And then you can also thinkabout seasonal keywords.
So this could be something thatmay not apply to you.
(16:34):
It kind of depends on who youserve.
But you may need seasonalkeywords for summer things.
Maybe you're a pool company andyou service pools in the summer
.
In the winter you help servicehot tubs.
So you may want to change upyour focus.
You obviously don't want torewrite your website, but you
(16:55):
may want to focus on optimizingspecific pages during specific
times of the year so that thosepages are ready from when that
season happens.
Because you have to make sureyou're doing search engine
optimization ahead of when youneed it, because it can take
some time to really nail it downand get it right.
And then, if you do some ofthese more advanced techniques,
(17:17):
you do want to refine andprioritize them.
No-transcript what?
What really is relevant?
What is your search volumeversus your competition volume?
Where do you think you reallymight have a chance to stand out
?
So don't just blindly Usekeyword phrases.
When you're doing the researchwith the competition and the
(17:37):
search volume, make sure you'rereally looking at the data and
picking out the ones that youthink you're going to be able to
succeed at pretty quickly,because it's going to give you a
win.
It's going to boost yourwebsite as you, as you Do a
better job with keywords orspecific keywords, you're going
to have a better chance of doinga better job with other
keywords.
(17:57):
So use kind of like a snowballeffect.
Once you kind of get searchengine optimization going and
really working for you, the morelayers you add to it You're
going to get like a bigger,faster snowball going and you're
going to get a lot bettersearch engine rankings across
all your pages Once you reallystart to hone in and analyze and
get several of the pagesworking out really well in
(18:17):
search engines.
Okay and last but not least,this is something I see time and
time again with our clients isSearch engine optimization is
not a set it and forget it.
You cannot.
I mean you will get it.
You would have an advantage ifyou do do some searches and
optimization, but you're goingto give it even better advantage
(18:38):
if you're constantly monitoringand revising it and Making sure
it's working for you, makingsure you're keeping up with the
trends.
Are people using differentwords anymore to search for your
product or service?
You really need to keep up onthis and I really recommend you
monitoring this once a month orhaving somebody on your staff or
(18:59):
Hiring hiring somebody like usto monitor this for you
regularly, because it is justsomething that can just change
so easily.
You know this.
Major search engines do updatesand optimizations on their end.
That's going to change yoursearch engine ranking.
It's just something that needsto be attended to Regularly,
(19:21):
otherwise you're going to fallbehind and it's going to be like
an uphill battle to catch backup again.
But if you keep the ball moving, even if you're just putting a
little bit of effort, doesn'thave to be like a ton of effort.
As long as you're putting alittle bit of effort and really
reviewing everything regularlyI'm making a habit, like I said,
at least once a month thenyou're gonna you're, you're
(19:41):
gonna reap the benefits in thelong run for all of this.
All right, so that's it for thisweek's episode of the
e-commerce made easy podcast.
What a jam packed informationon search engine optimization
and keyword research.
I hope that was super helpfulfor you.
You can visit the show notes ate-commerce.
Made easy podcast.
(20:02):
Comm forward, slash 33 and ifyou have any questions or
suggestions for us of thepodcast, drop us an email.
Drop it to podcast at usengineering calm and we look
forward to seeing you next week.
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