Lesson 5: How to research keywords and create a seed list

1998 model

Keywords are the words and phrases that relate to your business. For example, if you have a business selling tasty organic ice cream in Atlanta, some of your keywords might be: organic, hand-churned ice cream, downtown Atlanta, Georgia, family-owned ice cream shop, etc.

Keywords are the words people enter into a search engine when they’re trying to find a business like yours. Effective keywords help boost your search engine ranking, putting your site in front of more customers. 

Creating a keyword seed list

In order to make sure the right people find you when searching for a product or service like yours, you’ll need to research keywords that are valuable and appropriate to your business.

Begin by thinking about all the words or phrases that relate to your business and write them down. This is the start of what’s called your keyword seed list, which is basically a list of the most relevant keywords for your business. This list is the starting point for your keyword research, where you’ll continue to find and refine the most impactful keywords for your business.

PRO-TIP

You can use the Google Ads Keyword Planner to help generate some keyword combinations and then see the average searches and competition level for each of those options. Another great tool is KW Finder.

Researching and adding keywords

To research effective keywords to add to your seed list, you need to identify your ideal audience, look at the competition, and define your business goals. Let’s break this down. 

1. Identify your ideal audience

Remember, effective keywords are the ones that help your target audience find you. So, first, you have to define your ideal audience. Think about your typical customer or the types of customers you are trying to reach. Identify keywords about your audience and what problems you’re solving for them.

Think from your customer’s point of view–what words or phrases would they type into their favorite search engine to find a product or service like yours? Use your customers’ viewpoint to help brainstorm keywords that have to do with you, your business, your services/products, and your location.

2. Look at your competition

After you’ve come up with keywords tailored to your ideal audience, open a private browser (e.g., Chrome’s incognito mode) and search for those keywords. Seeing which sites are currently ranking in the top results for a given keyword or keyword combination will help you understand and determine your online competition.

You can check out your competition’s sites for more keyword inspiration. And, remember, it’s good to be different from your competition! Think about what you specialize in to make sure you have all your keywords covered. (Bonus: You can also scroll down to the bottom of the Google search results and look at the “searches related to” section to discover other keywords.) 

3. Define your business goals

Finally, to determine the most effective keywords for your business, think of your measurable business goals (e.g., increase your email list, have more people make facial appointments, etc.). Determine what keywords will help you meet these goals.

For example, let’s say you own a shoe store and want to sell your excess Adidas inventory. If you optimize your keywords for “running shoes,” you might get a ton of traffic, but the user intent is not clear. Are the users just starting to jog? Do they simply want to see what runners’ shoes look like? You’ll never know.

On the other hand, if you optimize for “Adidas women’s white shoes clearance sale” you’re targeting someone who’s ready to buy. They know the brand, color, and price point they want. Granted, you won’t be getting as much traffic (fewer people search using very specific queries), but you’ll get the traffic that matters.

Activity: Create a keyword seedlist for your business

Ok, let’s put this information into action by creating a keyword seedlist for your business. This is a big task. Reserve a day to organize your thoughts and do your research. Stock up on snacks and make this a fun project. If you finish early, that’s great! If it takes the day, don’t be discouraged at the time–this is important stuff!

We recommend using an Excel workbook or Google Sheets to document your keywords. This can make it easier to search for and organize sets of keywords because you’ll end up with a lot of them!

If you want extra guidance on how to create your seed list, we’ve added some super handy video resources at the bottom of this lesson. You can also use the following to-do list to guide you as you create your seed list: 

7 TO-DOS

  • Create your initial keyword seed list
    List all the words that have to do with you, your business, your services/products, and your location.
  • Write down keywords you think are most important to reaching your ideal audience
    Think about what words your audience would use to describe your products and services and what keywords are related to the problems your products/services help solve.
  • Perform a Google search of these keywords and note key competitors/related searches
    Use a private browser so you see the results your customers likely see.
  • Explore key competitors’ websites and the related searches to identify more keywords
    In particular, think about the keywords that set you apart from the competition.
  • Write down measurable business goals and identify keywords for each goal
    Be as specific as possible in both your goals and your keywords.
  • Use tools like the Google Ads Keyword Planner to identify high-impact keywords
    To learn more about using Google’s Keyword Planner, you can watch this video.
  • Keep adding and refining
    You can go through this to-do list multiple times to keep building and improving your keywords.

Looking for more resources?

For additional resources, take a look through the links below to further your knowledge on keywords. There’s a ton of info here, so we highly recommend prioritizing the stuff you feel like you’re ready to act on, and coming back to things that are interesting but that you may not be ready for at a later date.

Additional SEO keyword resources

Ok, so you have an amazingly comprehensive list of keywords for your business. Now, what in the world do you do with it? Continue on to the next lesson to learn how to put your seed list to good use.