One of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs make when it comes to SEO is not doing keyword research. Keyword research is the most important aspect of your SEO strategy. It is the foundation of all your SEO efforts. But wait, what is a keyword? A keyword is anything that gets typed into a search engine. It could be one word like chocolate, or it could be a string of words like, how to make chocolate cake from scratch?
If someone has typed it in Google, then it's a keyword. So what exactly is keyword research? It's about understanding the terms people use to find you. They might not be looking for your site specifically, but they are searching for something that you can use to create a path to your business. Keywords are the foundation of SEO, and keyword research is what sets you in the right direction as you build your SEO strategy.
Here's a quick story to help give context. Say, you're a Google user. When you search for something, Google tries to make you happy by providing the best possible content, products, and services for you. This is critical to Google because if you're not happy with the results you receive, you'll likely start using another search engine instead, and Google's business would suffer.
So as a business owner, you want to figure out the best keywords to rank for so that when a potential customer types in a relevant word or phrase in Google, your website shows up at the top of the first results page. Now, you'll have a lot of competition if someone searches for a common term like chocolate, so that's not always the best place to start as a small business.
So you'll consider other options like long-tail keywords. Long-tail refers to three or more words that people search for as a phrase or sentence. We'll get into those more later on. However, as an ecommerce entrepreneur, I want you to consider something much more unique to ecommerce SEO. You have to be a bit of a psychologist, but it's both where the fun comes in and where the big breakthroughs happen.
When it comes to ecommerce SEO, you have to consider buyer intent. That means you want to figure out what someone is typing into Google before they make their purchase. A great example comes from the Kular family. They turned their family recipes into a full-blown business on Shopify. What I love about their story is how they build their SEO strategy on keyword research.
The family's delicious Indian recipes were in high demand from friends and family, but when they tried to market their products, they couldn't seem to crack search rankings for all the different spices they had to offer. That's when they realized they had to capitalize on buyer intent. They pivoted their strategy from talking about certain spices to talking about recipes as a whole. That's because real-world Google searches center around whole dishes and recipes, not specific ingredients.
The Kulars started incorporating recipes into their website that would rank well for any searches related to Indian recipes. That SEO breakthrough was the turning point for Jaswant's Kitchen, which started to see major growth, grabbed attention, and now they're selling in Whole Foods. After you take this course, you can check out the hobby to biz course to learn how the Kular family built their business.
Now, you have an overview of keywords and keyword research. In the next lesson, I'm going to teach you how to strategically come up with a list of keywords that you can use to grow your business.