How to Do Keyword Research at Your Small Business

If you want your website to rank on Google, especially for terms related to your business, the first step is performing keyword research.

Keywords give you a roadmap of topics to focus on so you can optimize your website and drive traffic to your brand. Many small business owners struggle to rank on search engines because they don't know how to do keyword research.

That's why we're here to help. We'll walk you through everything you need to know about keyword research and how you can leverage it to rank on Google.

Here's a peek at the topics we'll cover. Feel free to use the links below to skip ahead:

1. What is Keyword Research?
2. Why is Keyword Research Important?
3. How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Step-By-Step Guide
4. How to Do Keyword Research for YouTube

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is figuring out which keywords to target in your content - like your blog or website - by identifying the terms your customers search for on search engines like Google or Bing.

Keywords are actual terms that customers enter into search engines and the topics you want to target for your website.

If you're running a plumbing business, those terms could include:

1. "Plumbers near me"
2. "Plumbing services"
3. "Plumbing repair"

Why is Keyword Research Important?

Keyword research helps you avoid one of the biggest mistakes people make when doing search engine marketing: lacking focus.

When you target the right terms and optimize your website accordingly, you have a better chance of ranking higher in search results. And keyword research helps you find them, allowing you to focus on ranking for those terms specifically.

This can lead to increased traffic to your website, more brand awareness, and a boost in customer acquisition as new customers discover your services.

How to Do Keyword Research for Free

There are plenty of SEO tools that can analyze keywords for you, but if you're wondering how to do keyword research for free, follow these steps:

Free Keyword Research Template

Before we begin, here's a free template you can use to follow along.

Step 1: Make a list of relevant terms for your business.

Your first step is to jot down any terms related to your core services.

For example, if you own a landscaping business, your core services could be:

1. Landscaping Services
2. Artificial Turf
3. Brick Pavers

Think about your primary services and create a list of relevant terms that someone might use to find them when searching online.

Step 2: Create keyword buckets.

Use your core services to create categories or "keyword buckets," and fill in as many related keywords as you can.

Each bucket should have overarching topics, or "primary keywords," such as "landscaping services."

Underneath those should be "secondary keywords," which are subtopics that might fall under those primary keywords.

Adding secondary keywords will cast a wider net in search results, helping you capture all the keywords related to your products and services.

For the landscaping example, secondary keywords might be:

1. Landscape Design and Maintenance
2. Mulching
3. Tree and Shrub Care
4. Residential Landscaping
5. Commercial Landscaping

Based on your core products and services, create three to seven keyword buckets and fill in related terms under each primary keyword.

Step 3: Perform a search for those terms.

Next, you can see where you rank for these terms by performing a Google, Bing, or Yahoo search on each one. Make sure you use an incognito browser so your search history doesn't affect your results.

Note where your website currently stands in each search - you can jot this down in a Google or Excel spreadsheet - and compare it to your competitors.

Do your competitors rank for the terms on your list? Do you have those pages for those topics, too? If not, now you know what content to create to close the gap between you and your competitors.

For example, one of our keywords from the landscaping example is "landscape services." Here's what it looks like when we search for that term.

Note that if we were "John's Landscaping Services" we would be in position one. That means we are the first business people see when searching for this term.

If we were competing with John's Landscaping Services, we might look at its website and local listings to see why it ranks so well. Think about the topics covered on its website and decide if it makes sense for you to create similar content for your customers.

You should also note if your website shows up in places like Google's Map Pack, which is a list of local businesses that offer similar services to yours.

When we search for the term, "plumbers near me" we get a list of businesses in my area that offer plumbing services along with a map that shows us where they are.

You can also use this step to find more terms to target. By scrolling to the bottom of the SERP (the page where Google shows search results), you'll see suggested keywords to add to your keyword strategy.

Step 4: Finalize your keyword list.

Now that you have your keyword list, you should narrow it down and identify the main keywords you'll target for your website, along with secondary keywords that relate to each one.

Using our template, this might look like:

How to Do Keyword Research for SEO

Now it's time to take your keyword research and put it to work.

Audit your website.

With your new keyword list, check out your website with fresh eyes.

Do you have content for each keyword?

Ideally, you'll have a page dedicated to each of your primary keywords, with secondary keywords sprinkled throughout and within those pages.

Source

We call this "keyword optimization," which helps search engines see that you offer these services in your area. It also means you can optimize each page specifically for those keywords, which helps you rank higher for them over time.

For your primary keywords, it's also a good idea to consider adding blog articles that relate to those topics and help answer customers' questions.

In our lawn mowing example, you could write short blogs on the following topics to capture even more searches:

1. Keyword: lawn mowing frequency. Title: "How often should I cut my lawn?"
2. Keyword: benefits of lawn mowing. Title: "The Top XX Benefits of Using a Lawn Mowing Service"
3. Keyword: hiring a lawn mowing service. Title: "How much does hiring a lawn mowing service in my area cost?"

Jot down which keywords need new content and which could use a fresh update. Then organize them in another tab of your spreadsheet.

Build your content strategy and create content.

Use what you've uncovered in your audit to create a content strategy or a plan for creating content and updating pages.

Here's what that looks like:

A "new page" means creating a brand-new blog post or landing page for your website. It indicates that you haven't covered this topic before and need a space where you can rank for this keyword.

A "refresh" means that you are updating an existing page. For pages that need an update, adding your primary and secondary keywords throughout the page's title, headings, and body text could be as simple as making a few copy edits.

You can then have someone on your team create new pages or hire a freelancer to tackle these posts.

The biggest takeaway is that each page should have a focus keyword and related secondary keywords as well.

Publish your updates and track your progress.

Once you publish your changes (new pages and page updates), monitor your progress by performing Google, Bing, and Yahoo searches to see where your website ranks for each targeted term.

Hopefully, you'll see positive movement and you're ranking higher for each term in your keyword strategy.

You can also check Google Analytics and Google Search Console to see what results your updates produced. These tools monitor your website as well as the keywords that you rank for.

If your business uses YouTube, here's what you need to know about researching keywords there:

How to Do Keyword Research for YouTube

With over 2.49 billion users worldwide, YouTube is the second-most visited website after Google.

And since YouTube is a search engine, the keyword research you'll perform works in a similar way:

1. Start with a list of your target keywords.
2. Create keyword buckets based on the core services you offer.
3. Type those keywords into YouTube's search bar to see what videos appear. (Remember to use an incognito window for this, too.)
4. Create new content or update your existing content to optimize for your top keywords.
5. Monitor your hard work and see if you bump up in YouTube's search results.

The only difference here is that you'll want to optimize your video content and the page it lives on, including the titles, descriptions, and hashtags within YouTube, instead of your website's pages.

Starting Your Keyword Research Strategy

Follow the steps in this guide, and you'll have your keywords and content strategy mapped out in no time.

Be sure to revisit your keyword strategy and rankings every few months to assess your performance in search results. Any changes you make will take time for search engines to pick up, so you can revisit this occasionally instead of checking in weekly.

By keeping up with and optimizing your target keywords, you'll have a better chance of ranking higher in search results, making all of this effort well worth it.

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