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Developing a Killer Keyword List for Your Website

Most likely you are familiar with the concept of “keywords” or “keyword phrases” – this is what you type into a search engine (like Google) when you want to find something online. You might be less familiar with what keywords have to do with your own website, though.

Basically, if you have a website, you want potential customers to visit it, right? Thinking about search-engines and keywords is a good idea then. You see, when people are searching for what YOU offer, and they type keyword phrases into a search engine, you want to show up in those results. You might also be considering using keyword-based “pay-per-click” (PPC) advertising (such as Adwords) to get more visitors to your site, if so, having a good keyword list will mean the difference between success and failure. If you plan to do any “search engine optimization” for your website, you will need to have a solid keyword list developed.


Now that you can see the value of having a keyword list, how do you go about building one? Well, professionals rely on special software to aggregate keyword research data and suggest keyword variations (if you are interested, Keyword Elite is one you might look into), but you don’t need software to begin you keyword list.

The first step is to think like your ideal customer. If your ideal clients were searching for you (but didn’t know they were searching for you), what words would they use in their search? For instance, what problems are they trying to solve? What questions are they asking? You can also add some more obvious keywords, one that closely describe the service you offer (“tax help”, “accounting”, “life coaching”, “personal trainer”, etc).

Make a list of as many words as you can. You don’t want to just choose the most obvious and shortest words and phrases. There is something called the “long tail”, which refers to very specific multi-word keyword phrases which might not get as many searches as the more general ones do, but since they are so targeted there is less competition for them and those people that do search on them will be a better fit for your services.

You can build your keyword list from a small brain-stormed list to hundreds or thousands of possibilities by using keyword research software or online tools such as Google, WordTracker, etc. Look especially for more specific phrases (“certified personal trainer”, “Milwaukee personal trainer”, “at home personal trainer”, or “nutrition personal trainer”). Look also for related phrases (“ab exercise”, “active lifestyle”, “aerobic exercise”, “bodybuilding”, “certified fitness trainers”, “weight management” … you get the idea). Obviously, choose words relevant to your specialties, services, and geographic market.

Once you have a good keyword list, you can optimize your website, blog posts, and articles to use some of those words. You can use them for PPC advertising and you can build up niche markets with them.

Web Action Steps 

  • Brainstorm at least 10-20 different keyword phrases that describe your business or would be things your ideal clients would be searching for.
  • Expand your list into more specific versions of your main phrases. Add geographic qualifiers, specialties, certifications, etc.
  • Look for related terms, sub-terms and synonyms.
  • If you can, sort your list into groups around individual topics which you might be able to write keyword-rich articles about or create targeted “landing pages” on your website for.

Building a good keyword list might seem like a challenge, but it really isn’t that difficult and can be so useful as you go deeper into enhancing your website and online marketing efforts.

If you need help building a keyword list or don’t know what to do with it once you have it developed, contact me for assistance today.