Where to start your website planning: Keyword Research

Posted by Mike in Blog

Is your goal to have your new website get found by Google? Then before you speak with a website designer or programmer, you should do keyword research.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding out which words people use when they go on Google to search for a particular topic.

Why is keyword research the place to start your website planning?

In many cases finding the right keywords, and then using On-Page SEO measures to implement them into your website, will be the difference between getting found on Google or not getting found.

For example, according to Google every month, when Canadians go online to search for taps for their bathroom they use the search term “basin sets” 91 times and the search term “bathroom faucets” 18,100 times. Based on this keyword insight, if your were a manufacturer of faucets it would make more sense to implement the keyword term “bathroom faucets” into your website as opposed to “basin sets” if you want more people to find your website on Google.

Use keyword research to structure the design of your website architecture.

When mapping out the structure of a new website, the first instinct most people have is to design the architecture around common category terms like “Our Products”, “Our Services”, etc. No one ever went on Google and searched for “Our Products” or “Our Services”.  Remember, if your goal is to have your new website get found on Google it would make more sense to base the structure of your website around category terms that are the terms people are using when they conduct a search for what you sell.

For example, let’s say you have a dog grooming supplies & training business and you want to find out what keyword terms you should be considering. According to Google, people in Canada search the following terms, so many times per month.

Based on these numbers, it would be more advantageous to structure the design of your dog grooming supplies & training website architecture around these category terms than “Our Products” or “Our Services”.

If you’re about to embark on developing a new website remember start your website planning process with keyword research. It can be the difference between your website being lost or found on Google.