Finding the Right Keywords to Slay
In the children’s book Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman, a baby bird hatches early while his mother is away from the nest. The plucky little guy doesn't wait. He sets off to find her.
One small problem -- he has no idea what she looks like. So, he asks a kitten, a dog, a hen and others if they are his mother. Spoiler alert … he eventually finds his mother, and all ends happily.
His journey reminds us how that knowing who we are looking for (and who is looking for us ... hello ideal client!) is an important part of the search, especially when it comes to finding the right keywords and metatags.
As we hatch our online marketing dreams and ideas, we have lot in common with that baby bird. We too are looking for an important missing element -- our keywords. But we might not know what they look like so we try various words on to see which will lead us to find -- and be found -- by our ideal clients.
Finding the Right Keywords
To state the obvious, these words are literally the KEY to how Google and its rankings work. Think of how you search for something online. This will give you an idea of what you should be doing with your own keywords and key phrases.
And when compiling them, keep in mind that Google is not the all-knowing Oz. It needs a few clues.To find these magic words there are myriad online keyword tools and many are great.
But it’s not a huge mystery. The best keywords and phrases are those that are relevant to what you do and who you do it for and differentiate you from your competition. Choose them, then niche them down. Instead of event professional, author, or entrepreneur, add words that describe your specialty, geography or a feature that sets you apart. After doing this for a while, consistently, you will get a month such as the one my client just had.
It was our weekly meeting, and the head of events at a historic wedding and event venue in Los Angeles admitted she almost cancelled because they were so busy. “We had 600 inquiries last month,” she said with a huge smile. Wow! It was the most they had ever had. Ever. Because it takes a little time for search engines to comb through the internet and changes, it took four months of concerted online effort that happily paid off right at the beginning of the wedding season.
Here's a brief overview of how we did it.
We identified the special features of the venue -- "historic," "garden courtyard" were among the main words -- that made it relevant to many wedding couples and set it apart from its competition.
We built a micro site on Squarespace that was solely about weddings. I could then drive traffic to this specific site without muddying the waters with the site's larger organization which has its own objectives.
Every fourth event profile blog, we wrote an article that was an SEO (search engine optimization) driver. These are articles with searchable headlines such as "How to," 10 Ways to," "Best Ideas for," etc. in addition to blogs that were event profiles.
Indexed the overall site with Google, and then indexed each blog as it was published on Google's Search Engine Console (accessible through gmail).
Added photos and captions on the Google Business Profile that generated a huge number of views which in turn helped push the site up on the rankings. After all, Google rewards those who use all its products!
A little word on Squarespace.
We can debate the pros and cons of all website platforms, but for me, Squarespace hits that middle ground between Wordpress, which I feel has become hard for the layperson to manage and upkeep, and Wix which I find still too rudimentary in terms of design options. Most importantly, I find Squarespace has set itself up for easier search engine optimization.
Tiffany Davidson - Squarespace SEO expert
I know you might feel like that lost baby bird with all this information. But it's only a little overwhelming in the beginning. Once you choose your keywords and create a step-by-step strategy, you will begin to climb higher in Google rankings and be seen by your ideal client. Want to read more about writing for online connection?
