You have come up with some great blog post ideas based on what your clients have asked - you also have a good idea what your clients want to know from studying your market segment. But before you turn these blog post ideas into articles, you want to make sure that your articles are going to be searched and found by the right audience.
How do you do that? Great question! One of the first criteria to consider is keywords. Keywords or keyword phrases are the words your prospects type into Google, Bing or Yahoo when they start searching for information to solve the problem or issue they may have. Second, if you operate mostly in your local area, what is your prospect's location? When you know the geographic location (s) of your prospects it becomes possible to optimize your keywords / keyword phrases for local search results - allowing you to post your great new blogs in front of the right audience. Here is an example of how people search for a local business, product or service:
The keyword phrase we used here was “riding lawn mower tires Petaluma.”
We have mentioned keywords above, but you might be a little uncertain as to exactly what they are or why they so are important. Let’s look at why you need very specific keywords.
Keywords are key to a search
Keywords are links in a chain. They connect the blog posts on your website to search engines. When the search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo!) crawl your website page to index it, the engines analyze or closely examine the keywords and content on your webpage so that it can determine what your article is about.
Indexing the information is just like what it sounds like—the search engine puts the information into something similar to a physical index box. They can hold very specific information this way.
When a person who is interested in something does a Google search using certain keywords, the search engine looks for those words in the index and connects the person with a list of articles.
As you can see the keywords/keyword phrases you chose for your website blog posts are the link. Since the latest Google algorithm made the massive search engine more user friendly, we need to make sure that we have the right keyword phrase to ensure that when a person asks a question, our website content will be displayed.
This is called a semantic search and you can read more about it in our article Another Keyword Article about Google Hummingbird and SEO Part 2.
So it is very important that your research discover the best keywords/keyword phrases that prospects use in their search queries. Identifying the right keyword can make all the difference in your search results.
Here are the first search results below the ad section for the query about "riding lawn mower tires Petaluma" we asked above:
BTW, if you have keyword phrases nailed down, you might be interested in some of the other best business blogging practices we talk about in our new, free guide “An Introduction to Business Blogging.”
Keyword Research is fun with the right mindset
1. Do you love treasure hunts? Well, keyword research is very much like treasure hunts. When you identify that keyword you just instinctively know this is the word that is going to contribute to the search results you’ve been looking for. There are many tools available to help you out. Some are free, others are costly and some are in between. Examples are Google’s Keyword Tool, Hubspots Inbound Marketing Software and Conductors’ Searchlight.
2. Keywords go from general words to keyword phrases to full questions people type into the search engine search bar. In other words, the more specific people are in their search the more relevant the search results they receive.
3. Repeat #2 - You need to know that keywords go from general words to keyword phrases to questions that are extremely specific - like the one we did.
If you want to attract people that want exactly what you have to offer, you have to find very specific keywords - it is frequently referred to as long tail keyword phrases. Long tail keyword phrases are more complex than just a simple keyword and are more specifically about what your business is, sells or is located. When you identify the specific search phrases your prospects would use, you can develop your content to answer those specific search queries.
- For example, if you are selling riding lawn mower tires, you could go with a general keyword “tires.” But there are probably hundreds of thousands of blog post articles writing about tires. Chances that someone will find your business using the keyword “tires” are slim to none.
- If, on the other hand, you sell riding lawn mower tires from small mowers to the big riding ones, you would do better using a keyword phrase like “riding lawn mower tires Husqvqarna.”
- If you are a brick and mortar store in Petaluma, you might use “riding lawn mowers Petaluma.” When you find this to be a good keyword phrase, you will want to use it for some of your blog post ideas. The longer the phrase, the better. These long tail keywords are what we want to research in order to find the best.
How do you know if you have a good keyword phrase? In Discover the Best Local Keywords for Blog Post Ideas Part 2 we will get into more detail on how to figure out which keywords are the best.
In the meantime, please feel free to get a copy of our new guide “An Introduction to Business Blogging” by clicking the button below.
Jaco Grobbelaar is the owner of BroadVision Marketing. BroadVision Marketing works with business owners to put in place inbound and outbound marketing strategies that consistently secure new clients. The BroadVision Marketing Training Center is located in Petaluma, CA and primarily serves companies in the San Francisco Bay area.
Jaco can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.766.9778 or connect with Jaco on Facebook - www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing - and LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar. He can also be found at Jaco+.