How to Find Keywords

It wasn’t so long ago that if you wanted to spread the word about your small business, you placed an ad in the local newspaper and hoped for the best. Marketing was very expensive and unless you offered a coupon, there was no solid way to track your results.

In the digital marketing age, your small business can build online marketing campaigns with measurable results for little or no money. One of the best ways is to use SEO to lead customers to your website when they do searches for keywords related to your business.

You may be wondering,

“But Exactly How Do I Choose The Right Keywords!”

That’s what the competition wants you to think! Don’t worry. It may sound like a formidable challenge, but you can research and choose the right keywords yourself with a little bit of knowledge and free and low cost tools to support you. Let’s learn how to use some of these platforms.

One of the best free keyword research tools is Google Ads Keyword Planner. You’ll need a Google Ads account to access this tool. If you don’t have one, hit the pause button and set it up now. If you need help setting up a Google Ads account, you can find a link to a step-by-step tutorial below.

Now that you have a Google Ads account, login. Go to ads.google.com and click Login. Click Tools and Settings, Keyword Planner, Discover New Keywords.

There are several ways to find keywords in the Keyword Planner, but the easiest place to start is to direct Google to your website and let it do all the work. It will generate a list of keyword ideas based on your website’s content. To use this method, click Start with a website, enter your domain name, and click Get Results.

You can also start by entering words closely related to your business. To use this method, click Start With Keywords, enter a word or short phrase that describes your primary product or service and click Get Results.

Regardless of which method you use, you can click the download button in the upper right corner to export your results.

Another easy, free way to quickly discover keyword ideas is to do a Google search and use the keywords it suggests as the foundation for your keyword list. Simply visit Google and type phrases closely related to your products or services in the search bar. Scan the list of keywords that pops up for new keyword ideas. For example, if you type in “coffee shop,” you’ll see that people search for open coffee shops and coffee shops within a particular geography. Now complete the search and scroll to the bottom of the search results page. Take a look in the Related Searches section for more ideas.

If this still seems complicated, consider using a paid keyword research tool. They’re inexpensive and some, like Jess, let you select your business type and will automatically generate a complete list of keywords for you. To learn more, click the link below.

View the next lesson, How to Select Keywords for Your Strategy .

Return to the SEO Course page.