Local SEO, What Do Your Keywords Actually Mean?
For Local SEO, what do your keywords actually mean to the search engines and your customers? When optimizing your website, social media presence or simply your Google Maps listing, keywords are the basis for everything. The keywords you use tell the search engines what your information is about and consequently (hopefully, then send customers searching for that keyword your way.
Unfortunately, get this wrong and you’ll never get the right people to visit your site. The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) industry uses words and phrases ‘the intent of the searcher’, ‘about-ness’ and even ‘semantic content’ to determine what are you really looking for. For this article, we’ll use the word ‘intent’.
For example, if I type in ‘pizza’, am I searching for information on how to make one, buy one or visit the place?
The algorithms used are complicated but basically, Google guesses what you really want by the millions of people who’ve used this keyword in the past and their behaviour on the various sites they’ve been sent to. In a business context, what you think your customers are looking for is often completely wrong.
So, when wanting to be found for a specific keyword, do your research and see what other sites come up in the search results. Are they covering the same products and services as you or is it the wrong keyword for your business?
Consider this example of a past client. They were printers who print business cards and leaflets for small businesses. They had designed their entire online campaign around the keyword ‘printer’. Unfortunately, the intent of most searchers when using the term ‘printer’ is to look for a computer printer. As a consequence, the client had to redo much of their content to ensure their prospective customers were finding their site.
So, do the research on your business. What is the main keyword that represents your business? When you search for it, what do you find and is it right for you?
