Doing market research for your site is an important part of SEO. In Austin TX there are a lot of BBQ joints. At a recent meetup in the city that was presented by a local Austin SEO firm, they had an online marketing workshop for BBQ restaurants. They kept saying that doing market research is the most important part of your strategy. Below I’ll outline some of the points they brought up.
1. See what people are searching for.
The main tool that most companies use is the Google Keyword planner. It’s free and has valuable data. They said to come up with a simple list of 5 keywords that you think your customers might type into Google. For instance, if you’re a BBQ restaurant you might input:
Austin BBQ
BBQ restaurant in Austin
ribs in Austin
Best BBQ in Austin
top bbq Austin restaurants
Even if you put one keyword into the planner then Google will suggest what keywords people are searching for. You will be surprised to see what people are actually typing into Google. Most businesses think they know what their customers are searching for but the truth is you don’t. A good rule of thumb is to go after keywords that have a few hundred searches as a minimum. Now depending on your market this might not be possible but it’s a good rule to stick by.
2. Type your keyword into Google.
When you type your keyword into Google you can scroll down to the bottom and see what people are also searching for. They are labeled, “Searches related to your keyword.” Google is telling you what words people are typing in. Take note of this! You can get a lot of great ideas from these terms at the bottom of the page.
3. Put your URL into the search field in the Keyword Planner.
You can enter your URL into the keyword planner tool and see what keywords are already associated for your site. This might give you some good ideas you can add to your list of keywords. Google is crawling your page and telling you how they see it so itís very useful information.
4. Dive into Webmaster tools.
Webmaster tools is another free tool that you can use for your site. Unlike the planner, webmaster tools need to be setup and itís super easy to do. Once itís setup you can go into the tool and look under Search Traffic and then Search Queries. These are keywords that you are ranking for. Its amazing information and you can pull some real gems from this. Working on a keyword that youíre already ranking for could be easier to increase your ranking.
All of these suggestions above will help you get some really nice keywords for your website. The main thing when doing keyword research is that you want to get into your customers mind and think like them. Think about what words they would type into a search engine to find your business. Ask people are around you like friends and family what they would type in. The more research you do, the better data youíll collect. Check out the video below to get a HOW TO on using the planner.
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