You’ve heard keywords are important to rank well in online searches and want to use them for your website. But there’s so much confusing advice, and wild claims about page one rankings, that you’ve decided keywords are just a giant pain in the you-know-what…

Make a cup of coffee and read the whole thing. Or use the table of contents to jump to the section that is most useful for you today.

Table of Contents

What’s in this guide?

You’ll learn how to

  • understand the basics of keywords
  • conduct your own keyword research
  • choose keywords which you have a hope in heck of actually ranking for
  • add keywords to your website effectively
  • avoid a keyword-stuffing Google penalty
  • monitor how well your keywords perform
  • tweak your strategy until you’re attracting more of the right kind of traffic to your website

Even if you decide this is too much to tackle alone, you’ll know enough to discuss keyword research with an agency or consultant without getting duped. And you’ll be able to check their results for yourself.

What are search engine optimization (SEO) keywords?

Keyword guide diagram

A keyword is a search phrase. When you use Google to search for something, the text you enter is a keyword. It can be long, like “best retaining wall contractor in Nanaimo”, or short, like “retaining wall”. When you create a new page for your business website, you want to make it clear to Google that your web page is relevant to certain keywords. You do this by adding the keywords in strategic fields such as Headings and meta tags (more about that later…) . Google will then index your web page using those keywords.

We use keywords because we want Google to list our web pages in search results.

And we want our pages near the top of the results.

Take advantage of different types of keywords.

Before you brainstorm what keywords your target audience might use, think about the different keyword types:

Ask “What is the searcher’s intent?”

Keyword guide searcher intent

Each web page is created with a goal in mind. Selling a product or service, or providing information, are common goals.

Suppose your business builds retaining walls for homeowners.

The home page target keyword might be “Best retaining wall contractor in Nanaimo”. The searcher’s intent is to do research before choosing a contractor.

The services page target keyword might be “Retaining wall construction services”. Searchers are almost ready to buy. The search is “transactional”.

A blog post target keyword might be “Is concrete better than blocks for retaining walls?”. The searcher is just learning about the service. The search is “informational”.

Think about WHY someone is using Google before you choose candidate keywords.

Keyword length long tail and short tail

Keyword length – longer is probably better

As small business owners, we need to accept that it’s tough to compete with large companies. They might have big teams running their websites. Trying to compete head to head with them for certain keywords is pointless.

So what options do we have?

Fortunately, people keep coming up with new search phrases. They might start with a short phrase like “blue sneakers”. When the results are too generic, they could try “blue canvas sneakers available online in Canada”, or “blue canvas sneakers with white laces”. Not as many people search for these longer phrases but also fewer websites will target them. If you have a web page which targets carefully selected long phrases (called long-tail keywords), you have a chance of getting traffic from those searches.

How long should long-tail keywords be?

Most keyword tools recommend up to 5 words for long-tail keyword length. There is no limit though. For text on a web page, Google could use many different words as keywords to index your page. You can’t control that. So you might want to include a full length question such as one you found on answerthepublic. Putting the text in a heading makes it more likely that it will be indexed.

This sentence
Our panel selected the best type of gluten-free chocolate cake mix using spelt flour
might rank for these keywords:

  • the best type of gluten-free chocolate cake mix using spelt flour
  • gluten-free chocolate cake mix
  • cake mix using spelt flour

The higher the domain authority of your website, the more likely it will rank for shorter keywords as well as longer ones.

For meta tags, recommended character limits restrict the keyword length. Title tags should be less than 60 characters. For the example above, the title tag could be “Best gluten-free chocolate cake mix using spelt flour”.

How to do your own keyword research

Keyword researcher

There are free tools you can use to see how many people search for certain keywords and how many other websites are competing for those keywords. First you need a list of candidate keywords. The tools help you choose the best ones, and suggest alternatives.

First step – brainstorm

The first step is to make a list of candidate keywords which your target audience might use.

Ideally, you ask them what they would search for!

If that isn’t an option, think about the words they typically use. Remember that someone unfamiliar with your industry is unlikely to use any jargon. What language do they use when writing reviews for you or your competitors? Try to think like your customer. And remember searcher intent – are they looking for information or are they ready to buy? Buyers often use adjectives like “best” or “affordable”. People looking for information might ask questions (why, how, what, where, when).

Keyword research – what do the terms mean?

Research tools give data for any keyword you’re interested in. There are several types of data:

Search volumeThe average number of times per month a keyword is used in online searches. You can narrow this down by location, such as Canada-only, or use global data.
CompetitionHow difficult it will be to rank well for a keyword. Google Keyword Planner has low, medium and high categories for Competition. New businesses will have more success targeting keywords with low competition. Paid tools use the terms Keyword Difficulty or Score to show the level of competition. These are values out of 100, giving more granularity.
CPCCost per click. The average amount advertisers pay when someone clicks on an ad triggered by that keyword.
In general, a high CPC means many ad buyers are competing for that keyword. This shows it is a popular and ‘clickable’ keyword. It might not be a target keyword on a web page, so could be a good candidate.

Why is keyword research needed?

Choosing a keyword for a web page without knowing how many people are searching for it, or how many other websites are competing for it, is like playing roulette. Keyword research gives you the best chance of attracting more of the right kind of visitors to your website.

Your first list of candidate keywords will likely be based on how you talk about your business. But the words you use may not be the same as the words your customers use. For example, I use the word “copywriting” to describe one of my services, but most people outside digital marketing don’t use that term. Business owners might search for “website writing” or “product description writer” instead, so those are better keywords to use.

How can you find what keywords your customers might use?

  1. Look at reviews they write for your business or your competitors
  2. Look at social media discussions about your industry.
  3. Look at questions on Reddit or Quora.
  4. Do your own Google search for one of your candidate keywords. Look in the “People also ask” section in the search results for inspiration.

Keyword research tools give suggestions and valuable data

In an ideal world, your candidate keyword would have high search volume and low competition, but this is unlikely. Keyword research tools give you stats about individual keywords. They also give lists of suggestions and related keywords. Look through these lists for ideas. You might find that ordering words differently, or replacing a word, gives a search phrase with much better stats. Experiment with different keywords to get more suggestions. This allows you to refine your list to improve your chances of ranking well.

If 100 people are searching for your candidate keyword, but 1000 are searching for a very similar one, choose the one with higher volume! If you haven’t done keyword research before, you might be amazed at how much data is available to help you find the right keywords for your business.

Find keywords you have a chance of ranking for

You need to know how much competition there is for a keyword before choosing it. For most new businesses, it isn’t possible to rank for a keyword which has high competition.

To understand this better, we need to talk about Domain Authority (DA). This is a score out of 100 developed by major SEO tool providers like Semrush and Moz.

Domain Authority is largely based on

  • The number of visitors a website (domain) receives
  • How many other reputable websites link to it (number of backlinks)

It gives a good indication of how well a website will rank in online searches.

Large organizations like Wikipedia might have a DA of 98, while a small plumber’s website might have a DA of 6. You can check your website’s DA by getting a free account on Moz and using their link explorer.

Many keywords are ‘owned’ by websites which are large, well established, and have high DA. There is no point competing for these keywords if you are a small business. You need to do keyword research to find achievable keywords. Long tail keywords are a good place to start.

Guidelines for using keyword tools

Keyword tools

As you experiment with keyword research tools, it’s easy to lose track of your original keyword goals. Don’t forget about searcher intent, the goal for your web page, and the language your customers use. Keep track of the time – it’s easy to go down a rabbit hole!

Create a spreadsheet with different columns for keywords, search volume, competition and CPC. You’re likely to generate a long list of candidates and you need to keep track of them in an efficient way.

Even if you don’t use all the keywords you find for your main website pages, save them to have ideas for blog posts later.

Note: You might find a keyword which shows a search volume of zero, but you think it’s a good candidate. Keyword tools are not perfect. Data for informational searches is less accurate than for transaction-oriented searches (buying stuff). So don’t necessarily abandon a keyword with zero search volume.

Free tool

Google’s Keyword Planner is free. It includes data for Google searches only, which covers over 90% of all searches worldwide. It isn’t as sophisticated as paid tools but is a great way to start. The research part of the tool can be used without running a paid Google Ads campaign. This keyword planner tutorial gives a detailed overview of how to use it.

Paid tools

The list of SEO tools keeps growing. You can pay from $24 to over $700 per month, depending on your needs and your business size. For small businesses doing keyword research only, one of these options would be a good place to start:

LinkPricing per monthTutorial
MangoolsStarting at $29Mangools tutorial
KeysearchStarting at $17Keysearch tutorial
Keywords EverywhereStarting at $6Keywords Everywhere tutorial

Keysearch tool screen grab

This screen capture shows the Keysearch tool in action.

Small business keyword guide research tool in action

Keywords Everywhere tool screen grab

This marked-up screen capture shows how the Keywords Everywhere browser extension tool enhances search results.

Keyword guide browser extension research tool

Get keyword ideas from your competitors

You can refine your keyword strategy if you know what keywords your competitors are targeting. You can choose other keywords if you don’t think you can compete. Or you can create an awesome web page which is better than theirs so you can outrank them.

The first step is to find their keywords.

How to find any web page’s focus keywords

If a web page is well optimized for SEO, the Title Tag and H1 Heading will have the focus keyword near the beginning.

Open a competitor’s web page in a browser. The Title Tag text appears in the top of the browser tab, as shown here.

Keyword guide screen capture showing Title Tag.

Another way to find the focus keyword is to look at the source code of a web page. In Firefox and Chrome, Ctrl-U is the keyboard shortcut to view the ‘page source’. This opens a new tab showing the source code of the web page. Use the Search function (Ctrl-F for most browsers) to find the Title Tag text by searching for: <title

You’ll find a field which looks something like this:

<title>Affordable small business SEO|Vancouver Island|Happy Pedals</title>

Now find the H1 Heading text by searching for: <h1

You should find a field like this (although some web pages do not use H1 Headings, which is a missed opportunity to rank better in searches…)

<h1 class="et_pb_module_heading">Affordable SEO and copywriting services for small businesses on Vancouver Island, and remote clients around the world.</h1>

How to get ideas from competitors with a free tool

The Google Keyword Planner tool has a mode which suggests keywords based on a website. Enter a competitor’s website address to see keyword suggestions based on that site. See these marked-up screen captures:

Keyword planner screen capture

This gives a list of keywords used on the competitor’s site, but not the focus keyword.

Keyword research – localization and “near me”

A search which includes ‘near me’ is simply a local search. For example, if you are in Kingston and you search for ‘pizza near me’, Google interprets this as ‘pizza Kingston’. So don’t try to target the keyword ‘near me’ but instead target the name of your physical location.

Use your research to pick the focus keyword, related words and synonyms

Your spreadsheet will have a long list of candidate keywords. Narrow them down using these tips:

  • Remember searcher intent. A keyword like “Best rose bush for Vancouver Island” is suitable for a sales page. “How to plant a rose bush” is good for a blog post.
  • Small businesses may need to start with low competition and fairly low volume. It’s better to pick up some ‘crumbs’ from low volume keywords than to be on page 95 of search results for high volume keywords.

How to determine whether you could rank well for a keyword

Get the actual search results for a keyword. It’s important to open an Incognito (or Private) browser window for this search to remove personal search history. The Number One search result for a keyword might not be a great web page. It might just be the best thing Google can find. Open the web pages of some of the top results. Check their Title Tag and H1 Heading. Are they targeting the keyword? Do they have useful content on the page? Do they have graphics or videos?

Could you create something better to compete with them?

You need to take your Domain Authority (DA) into account when you do this. Do the websites near the top of the search results have similar DA to yours? If so, you may be able to create a richer page with better content and grab the Number One spot. If their DA is much higher than yours, it will be difficult to compete unless you can create something which is significantly better.

Now that you’ve chosen a keyword, how do you add it to the page?

Google looks for clues to find out what a web page is about. Add your focus keyword in these places:

  • Title Tag (see How to find any web page’s focus keywords). This is the most important place. A Title Tag should have less than 60 characters, with the keyword near the beginning. It’s the heading displayed in search results, so make it succinct and interesting.
    For example “Best gluten-free chocolate cake mix | Free shipping!”
    Instead of “Anna’s cakes, for the best gluten-free chocolate cake mix”
  • H1 heading (see How to find any web page’s focus keywords).
  • URL. Warning: Don’t change the URL of an existing page because it may already be indexed by Google. But the next time you’re creating a new page, use the keyword near the beginning of the new URL.
  • The first 100 words of content.
  • Image file names. For example, call an image ‘gluten-free-chocolate-cake.jpg’ instead of ‘cake342-scaled.jpg’. Use hyphens in image file names rather than underscores.
  • Image Alt text. Every image can have Alt text to describe it. This is displayed if an image fails to load, and is read by screen readers to improve accessibility of web pages for those with visual challenges.

Now that you’ve taken care of the focus keyword, use related words and synonyms in the content and image names on the rest of the page. It’s important to sound natural though.

Always write for humans first, and Google second.

Keyword added! Now what?

Keyword added to small business website - well done

Well done! First, give yourself a pat on the back!

To see what impact your effort has had, you’ll need some ‘before’ and ‘after’ data. And you need to know how quickly the changes will have an effect…

When can you expect to see results?

It can take months for SEO changes to have their full impact.

You might see some quick improvements but don’t count on it.

It’s possible that one of your competitors is making similar changes at the same time. The algorithm used by Google also changes over time. So, unfortunately it isn’t possible to predict the outcome from SEO updates. We need to be patient and persistent and play the long game to get the power of SEO working for us 24/7.

How to track keyword performance

You can track the performance of your website in searches for your focus keyword two ways:

If you don’t have Google Search Console installed, this tutorial will get you started. Check the organic search traffic data and keep track of how it changes. Also, keep track of which organic search terms (called “Queries” in GSC) are being used to reach your website.

Open an Incognito (or Private) browser window to remove personal search history. Search for your focus keyword. Where does your website rank in the search results? Track how this changes over time.

Keyword choice mistakes

Don’t make these common keyword mistakes

There are a few pitfalls to avoid when choosing and adding keywords…

Mistake! Keyword stuffing – and a possible Google penalty

Repeating a keyword over and over in an unnatural way is called keyword stuffing. It can be easily detected. If your website is guilty of this, it may be penalized by Google. Recovering from a penalty is a slow process. It’s better to avoid this unpleasant experience.

Keyword stuffing also just sounds bad.

What do you think of this real-world example?

(The name has been removed, and the bolding was added by me)

The funeral directors at [name removed] Funeral Services provide individualized funeral services designed to meet the needs of each family. Our staff of dedicated professionals is available to assist you in making funeral service arrangements. From casket choices to funeral flowers, the funeral directors at [name removed] Funeral Services will guide you through this difficult time with dignity and compassion. Our funeral planning guide is a resource designed to answer your questions about funeral planning.

Mistake! Overly ambitious keyword choices

Targeting a keyword only because it has high search volume can be a big waste of time. Realistic choices based on who else is competing for a keyword will yield better results. It’s better to rank on page one for a search term with modest search volume, than on page 77 for a search term with tens of thousands of monthly searchers.

Mistake! Forgetting about searcher intent

Keep asking yourself what customer problem your web page is trying to solve. Is someone looking for help understanding a topic? Are they choosing between two types of product? Are they ready to buy and looking for the best deal?

Mistake! Choosing a keyword which doesn’t match the page content

Targeting a keyword which doesn’t actually match the content on your web page could result in unhappy website visitors. They will bounce back to the search results. If most people do this, Google learns that your web page is not a good one to offer in the search results. Your page will be deranked.

Mistake! Overlooking long-tail keywords

Here are 3 great reasons to love the long-tails!

  1. Long-tail keyword searches make up the vast majority of all Google searches!
  2. They are used by searchers who are more sure of what they want, and who have started to refine their search. These people are closer to making a purchase or decision.
  3. There is generally less competition for long-tail keywords because there are so many possibilities. This means small business websites have a better chance of ranking well for them.

Maintenance mode. Keep tweaking keywords for best results.

Keyword maintenance for small business website

Your website is part of the ever-shifting landscape of the Internet. Google modifies its algorithms. Websites are added and updated. And people change the way they search. Regular maintenance is needed to keep your keyword strategy on track.

If you’re working on your backlink strategy and adding useful content to your website, your Domain Authority will improve over time. That allows you to compete for keywords which you had to ignore in the past.

Search trends can change. Keep track of the search volume for your target keywords. You may have to make changes based on this. Look for gradual, persistent changes. Don’t be alarmed by short term blips.

Check on how you perform against your main competitors every month or so. Remember to use Incognito mode. Are they working on their SEO and competing for your target keywords? Or are your web pages starting to rank above theirs? Again, look for gradual, persistent changes. Weird things can happen in the short term.

Well done – that was a long read! Now you have more tools in your website improvement toolbox. Finding the best keywords takes effort but the long-term payback is REALLY worth it.

Do you need help choosing keywords for a web page?

Wondering what your Title Tags say about your focus keywords now?