The ultimate keyword guide for busy people who just need results.
Simple how to find the best keywords and use them to grow your business and SEO for free
How to find the right keywords for free and five simple strategies to use them.
Do keywords freak you out and confuse the f out of you?
Does it feel like you've been left out of some secret keyword society? And now you're missing out because you've got no clue what a good keyword is, how to find good keywords - let alone how to use them!
If you can relate to any of the above, I'm about rock your world with a simple, no-nonsense guide to find the right keywords (for free) and then use them to help attract new customers and grow your business.
So first things first…
What is a keyword?
Keywords are simply the words or phases someone (your customer) uses to find something they're looking for.
They are the words someone types into (or speaks into) a search engine or social platform.
For example:
"what is keyword marketing"
"where do I find the best keywords for my website"
"how do I find a keyword secret society"
Being human, we are all unique and tend to ask questions in a unique way. But, there are patterns of repeating "key" words and phrases we all tend to use when searching for a particular topic, product, or niche.
Why are keywords important?
There are three main reasons why keywords are important to us as marketers and businesses.
1) They help you appear in search results.
The purpose of a search engine is to help people find the best answer or solution. To do this, search engines use the keywords to understand what someone is trying to search for, and then go out there and find the best answer.
Keywords become a beacon of sorts - they become the clue that search engines use to find the best answer to the question if a website/content uses the same keywords used in the right way - bingo.
Think of it as digital word-of-mouth. Search engines and social platforms are the most powerful influencers on the planet. Google has earned enormous trust from the general public - if they recommend a website or content (particularly on the first page) people will tend to trust the recommendations.
It's a powerful endorsement.
And the reason why so many people get their knickers-in-a-knot about keywords and work so hard to appear on the first page.
Good marketers will optimise their copy, webpages and content to help search engines find and pick them as the best results - hence the term "search engine optimisation".
2) Keywords help you communicate with your customer more effectively by meeting them where they are.
Knowing the words, terms and phrases your customer uses to describe their need - their perspective - you can talk to them in a relatable way. It shows your customers that you understand them.
You're speaking their language.
And that's powerful.
3) Keyword research can help you build the right content.
A recent study revealed 90% of website pages get no traffic from Google - ever. If you know in advance the questions your customer is asking, you avoid major content creation mistakes by way of keyword research.
You can create the right content.
Content that answers an existing question.
Content that works.
How to find the right keywords?
This is where things usually get complicated and expensive. There are many SEO experts who are happy to take your hard-earned cash to tell you what the best keywords are. And yes, there are some excellent paid keyword tools if you have a budget to play with (more on that below).
But there are also simple and free ways to identify the best keywords for your business and I'm going to show you five epic free keyword tools and keyword finders right now!
1) Google Search Bar:
Yes, Google gives you the keyword insight you need for free. Yippee!
You know the search tips that pop up each time you do a Google search... well these tips for fast searching also house keyword gold for the savvy person.
Simply pretend you are your customer, type in what you think they may ask, and 10 related search queries automatically pop-up based on past search history and popular/trending searches.
Google's Autocomplete feature is a great resource to kickstart your keyword research and an incredible way to find long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords make up about 75% of search results; they are the less popular results but easier to rank for (help us be the David to the big SEO Goliaths).
Here are a few tips to help you pull keywords gold from Google Autocomplete:
Search in incognito mode (you don't want your personal history to bias the results).
use VPN if searching from another country.
make sure you adjust language settings.
Type in a popular term related to your product or niche (e.g. “content marketing” or “ice cream recipe”) and ta-da, you'll discover the most popular searches and keywords used.
Once you've reviewed these results, then add who, what, which, when, where, how to your term for more results.
Need more, add a letter after the term (e.g. “content marketing s” or “ice cream recipe a”). Go through the whole alphabet.
You're looking for patterns in keywords and groups of keywords that appear when you search.
While you're in Google please don't forget to look at "people also asked" and "related searches".
this free tool will blow your mind, it's keyword, keyphrase and long-tail heaven!
type in your term (e.g. content marketing or ice cream recipe) and Ask the Public will come back with the what, where, which, how searches, comparisons, and so much more.
you can do three keyword searches per day for free.
I love this tool because it lets you search by platform. Google vs Amazon vs Youtube etc
Keyworld Tool Dominator also lets you exclude keywords, search by word count, and rank.
You're capped for two searches a day in the free model, two gives you lots to play with
Another absolute keyword gold mine from our friend Google that's free, but you have to a Google Ads account set up
The tool is designed to help you find the best keywords for your paid google ad words, but smart people know this insight works just as well for organic
The free version of Keyword Tool generates up to 750+ long-tail keyword suggestions for every search term and you can do this without creating an account
Keyword Tool will help you discover new long-tail keywords related to your niche by the language you choose
It automatically generates Google's search suggestions for you
If you want to take your keyword research to the next level, there are some amazing paid keyword tools that offer deeper insight and save you more precious time. Here are some of the best paid keyword research tools in my opinion:
SEMrush
Ask The Public paid subscription
Ahrefs
Ubersuggests paid subscription
Moz
How to use keywords?
Once you've done the hard work of identifying the keywords and key phrases, you need to know how to use them.
This is another area where things can get complicated and overwhelming, but I've got five simple and effective keyword optimisation strategies that will set you up for search engine and social success:
Create great content that gives your customer an epic answer to their search query and offers a solution to the problem they're trying to solve. Get detailed, share your expertise, provide authentic, generous value through your content. Aim to blow them away and share more than anyone else is sharing around the keyword topic. Search engines know how to look for valuable content, and a blog one of the best ways to do this.
Focus on one keyword/keyphrase per page or per blog and naturally integrate that keyword into your content in a way that narratively makes sense. Don't force it, don't stuff it. You can't trick Google.
Mention the keyword in the first 100 and last 100 words. This will happen naturally if you're creating good content.\
Include the keyword in your page headline, the title tag and h1 tag for your page. Again don't stuff it. You're explaining what to expect in the content.
Include images on your webpage and take the time to describe how the images relate to the content by writing an Alt Attribute (which is basically an image tag) that includes your keyword. Again don't stuff it; describe it.
Play the long game. Keywords and SEO is not a quick overnight revenue driver.
Think of keywords as seeds. And strong SEO ranking as a mighty oak. If you plant the right seeds in the right place as soon as you can and nurture them over time, your seeds will soon grow to become a tree. Continue to nurture the tree, and it will grow into a mighty oak.
This keyword guide helps you find and plant the right seeds.
The tools and techniques will give you a strong foundation and a competitive advantage - because I guarantee you, most people are doing this. In most cases, because they don't understand the world of keywords. But now you know, keywords are your friend.
They not only help your customers find you, but they help you understand your customers and serve them in a powerful way.
I hope this helps you!