IN THIS ARTICLE · 9 PARTS
Keyword research sounds technical, but it simply means finding the words people type into Google when they need what you offer. Get these right, and you know which pages to create and what to call them.
Start with your customers
Write down how customers describe what they need, in their own words. Listen to phone calls and read emails. They rarely use your internal terms. A plumber might say "sanitary installations"; customers type "leaking pipe" or "plumber near me".
Add the place
Most local searches include a place: a city, a neighbourhood, "near me". List the towns and areas you really serve. "Bathroom renovation Sofia" and "bathroom renovation Lozenets" are different searches. See why local SEO works.
Use Google itself
Google's SEO Starter Guide recommends thinking about the words people would use to look for your content [1].
Google is the best free tool:
- Autocomplete: start typing your service and see what Google suggests.
- People also ask: the questions that appear in the results.
- Related searches: at the bottom of the results page.
- The results themselves: which businesses and pages rank, and what their titles say.
Use your own data
Once your site is live, Google Search Console shows the searches you already appear for, and how often people click. These are gold: they show what Google already connects you with. See how to measure what your website brings in. Search Console is Google's tool for exactly this [2].
Sort by intent
Not every keyword is equal:
- Ready to buy: "emergency electrician Plovdiv", "book a table Dobrich". Highest value.
- Comparing: "best wedding venue", "website price". Good for guides and price pages.
- Learning: "how to fix a leaking tap". Good for blog articles that build trust.
Start with the "ready to buy" keywords for your service pages.
One keyword, one page
Give each important keyword, or group of very similar keywords, one page that answers it best. Do not create several pages for the same thing; they compete with each other. Then link related pages together: internal links: the easiest SEO win.
Use the words naturally
Put the main keyword in the page title, the main heading and the first paragraph, and use related words naturally in the text. Never repeat it unnaturally; write for people first: page titles and descriptions that get clicks. Google's spam policies list keyword stuffing as a violation [3].
Keyword research is listening: to your customers, to Google's suggestions and to your own search data.
Next step
Make a simple list: keyword, the page it belongs to, and whether that page exists yet. That list is your SEO plan. For the bigger picture, see SEO for a business website: where to start.
References
- Google Search Central. "SEO Starter Guide." developers.google.com
- Google. "Google Search Console." search.google.com
- Google Search Central. "Spam policies for Google web search." developers.google.com
