Keyword Development (Without a Computer!)

A search engine’s job is to match searchers to the right search results. Your job is to make sure you get found, which you can accomplish by creating content focused on topics that genuinely describe your business, services, solutions, offerings, etc.

Always approach your keyword research with your buying personas in mind. Understanding each personawill help you pair keywords with that specific audience’s needs.

If you have not developed your personas, take a step back and do the research. Here are two guides that will help you with the process:

  1. 9 Questions You Need to Ask When Developing Buying Personas
  2. A Marketer’s Template for Creating Buyer Personas

Begin with brainstorming a list of words and phrases that your personas are likely to associate with your business. Think in terms of two- to three-word keyword phrases (also known aslong-tail keywords) as opposed to individual words. Individual words are too competitive and yield unfocused results for searchers.

Your keywords should be tailored specifically to yourbusiness, product, or service, so when a potential customer lands on your site, they canimmediately see if it matches what they’re looking for. While you may not target all the keywords you find, you do need to brainstorm and find as many potential keywords as possible.

Your first priority is to identify words that your personas are searching for. Answer the questions on the next page to get started!

Questions to Answer When Developing Keywords

(Be as specific as possible!)

  1. What products/services do you offer?
  2. Why would your personas need your product? What does it solve for?
  3. How would you describe what your business does to someone who has never heard of you?
  1. How would you explain your business to someone who is new to you?
  2. What keywords would your personas use to find a solution like yours?
  3. What are the industry problems that your business can solve for?
  4. What problems/pain pointsare yourpersonas facing?
  5. What common questions do your prospects ask you?
  6. How are your offerings special? What differentiates you from your competitors?

Keyword Worksheet

Base Keyword / Long-tail iteration 1 / Long-tail iteration 2 / Long-tail iteration 3 / Long-tail iteration 4
(ex.) Get found online / Tools to get found online / How to get found online / Get your business found online / Get your business discovered online

Transaction-based keywords (Refer to questions 1,2,5,6,7, & 8)

Information-based keywords (Refer to questions 2,3,5,8, & 9)

Base Keyword / Long-tail iteration 1 / Long-tail iteration 2 / Long-tail iteration 3 / Long-tail iteration 4
(ex.) Inbound marketing software / All-in-one inbound marketing software / Inbound marketing software suite / Inbound marketing software tools / Inbound marketing software products

Branded keywords (Refer to question 1)

Base Keyword / Long-tail iteration 1 / Long-tail iteration 2 / Long-tail iteration 3 / Long-tail iteration 4
(ex.) HubSpot / HubSpot inbound marketing company / HubSpot inbound software company / HubSpot inbound marketing startup / HubSpot inbound marketing firm