{"id":233,"date":"2014-08-22T19:50:04","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T19:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstpagesage.com\/seo-blog\/?p=233"},"modified":"2023-05-06T17:57:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T17:57:56","slug":"determine-seo-keywords-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redesign.fpsclients.com\/wp\/determine-seo-keywords-website\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Determine SEO Keywords For Your Website"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are five ways to figure out the best SEO keywords for your website: (1) intuition; (2) asking potential customers what they would type into Google to find a company like yours; (3) using the Google Adwords Keyword Planner; (4) capitalizing on your competitors\u2019 hard work; and (5) running a PPC campaign.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s break each one down:<\/p>\n

The place to start when determining keywords is with your own intuition<\/strong>. Your conclusions could turn out to be off the mark down the road, but it\u2019s often more accurate than you\u2019d think. After all, presumably you know quite a lot about the business you own or work for. Here is the question to ask yourself: \u201cIf I were a potential customer, what would I type into Google to find what my company sells?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the example of a wealth manager. The target clients of a wealth managers are likely to be established people, probably\u00a0in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. It\u2019s a good bet they\u2019re slightly less sophisticated with Google than the average, say, 20 year old. Let\u2019s imagine one of those people. We\u2019ll call her Betty, and she is a 58 year old mother of two who lives in Los Angeles and has been married 30 years. (It\u2019s not important how long she has been married or how many kids she has, but I\u2019m trying to get into character here.) Betty has been using the same wealth manager for decades, who was originally introduced to her by her father. As she gets closer to retirement, she\u2019s starting to think more about how much money she\u2019ll have to live on, and lately she hasn\u2019t been impressed with her returns. It may be time for a change, she thinks. What might she type into Google to find a new wealth manager? I\u2019m thinking something like \u201cwealth management firm\u201d \u201cwealth advisory firm\u201d or \u201cbest wealth manager in los angeles.\u201d I don\u2019t know why, I just picture Betty typing in those things. And for that reason, they\u2019re a fine starting point.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s consider the second place to go searching for keywords: asking potential customers<\/strong>. I might talk to an aunt of mine at family gathering, or a neighbor I pass while walking my dog. \u201cHey Sharon, do you mind if I trouble you with a quick business question? I\u2019m about to do some search engine marketing for my company,\u201d I\u2019d say. \u201cEssentially, if you were looking for someone to manage your money, what would you type into Google?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHmm\u201d Sharon replies. \u201cI suppose I would type in \u2018financial planner.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, that\u2019s good. Thanks very much,\u201d I say, and I\u2019m on my way so as not to ask too much of a woman who is trying to get her dog to pee.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ve got four keywords, including one I hadn\u2019t thought too much about. I always call this kind of thing \u201cwealth management\u201d or \u201cwealth advisory.\u201d But apparently, some people use the term \u201cfinancial planner\u201d more readily. Good to know.<\/p>\n

Next, I hop onto the Google Adwords Keyword Planner<\/a><\/strong>. This is where most marketers would start, but once you experience the Keyword Planner, it\u2019s hard to forget its suggestions. And the thing is, the Keyword Planner does not always suggest the best keywords. It can be fairly weak with long tail keywords<\/a> and its estimates of the number of searches per month are inaccurate. Still, it\u2019s a great tool.<\/p>\n

Typing \u201cwealth manager\u201d into Google, I learn of a few additional keywords that might be good to target:<\/p>\n

\u201ctop wealth management firm\u201d
\n\u201cwealth management services\u201d
\n\u201cwealth management advisor\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m especially glad I used the Keyword Planner because of the first one. \u201cTop\u201d strikes me as an excellent word to include in a keyword phrase because it\u2019s the type of thing that many educated individuals type in when searching for best-in-class professional service firms. By the time I\u2019m finished perusing Google\u2019s free tool, I feel like I have a handle on some excellent keywords for my website.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s time to consult two real life, experience-tested methods. The first is competitors\u2019 title tags<\/strong>. Any competitor that knows a lick about SEO will have their best keywords in the meta title tags<\/a> of their home page, main service pages, and other prominent landing pages. These title tags are not just a collection of 70 or so characters; they\u2019re the product of lots of time and money spent in determining the best possible keywords for their most precious pages. In that way, they\u2019re a gift to me. By combing through competitors\u2019 title tags (which you don\u2019t even have to leave the Google results to do, since Google makes a site\u2019s title tag into the blue heading of its Google listing), I discover the following:<\/p>\n