Figuring Out Your Keywords

Keywords 101: An Intro to figuring out your keywords
This tutorial gives you a simple spreadsheet for how to brainstorm possible keywords for your online presence, based on what the person searching is thinking, not standard/typical industry keywords.

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Transcript of Basic Keywords 101: An Intro to figuring out your keywords.
“Good morning. This is Coach Angela and today we are going to be talking about keywords… the very basics of keywords. And some experts will tell you, “oh you have to do the research. It’s important that you do the research and we have to find out what competitors are paying for certain keywords, what is the popularity of the keywords, how  many people are searching and using these keywords per month — both locally and globally.”

But I’m going to introduce you to an even more fundamental way to go about thinking about your keywords because even before you do the research, you have to know what yours are for your industry and for your business.
I’m going to walk you through a method. We are going to do screenshare. … Start screenshare.
So, you can see my mouse, here, in the upper left hand corner. I’ve devised a spreadsheet. I like to work in Excel. You can use Microsoft Word if you want to. I’ve added this column here (column A) to designate priority and you can assign letters here (A, B, C, D or 1, 2, 3, 4) so you can assign that so that later you can sort your data. And we are going to make some lists together.
Now, I’m going to use “chiropractor” as an example because that is what I’m very familiar with and have had direct experience with, and of course, success with.
So, in the industry, you think of obvious things. The industry meaning chiropractic, and even possibly alternative medicine. But if we are just looking at chiropractors, we’re thinking of back pain…. So, you just want to start making a list: low back pain. There is another training video on long tail keywords (which is more than just pain — which is a keyword– back pain which is a longer keyword. Low back pain) You can have sciatica (hope I’m spelling that right). You can have frozen shoulder. ok. So you just build out this list of things that are very obvious. Hip displaced (not sure the medical term, but of course, this is what people would type into Google or Bing search engine… they are sitting down).

Then let’s look over here at “demographics.” These are just some examples. You can make this list as long as you want. You want to take some time, take a block of time and sit down and at least get this started. And then put this list on your back burner in your brain as you go about your week. You can keep coming back to it as you get inspired to add to it. This is just a starting point for you to understand what the thought process is here, behind the keywords.

So, when you are thinking in terms of keywords in terms of demographics. I have a section on demographics in my book. My classic example is “don’t tell me you are a dentist and everyone with teeth is your demographics. Don’t tell me you are a chiropractor and everyone with a spine or joints or whatever you can adjust is your demographics.”

You want to drill it down. If you are a chiropractor who wants to attract more children in your practice, because with the children come the parents. The children, you know with ear infections, let’s say. I know that chiropractors are a wiz at resolving ear infections (we are not supposed to say heal or cure) but resolving ear infections.
So,
children
adults
sports adults (adults who play sports in otherwords)
working adults
workers comp
elderly (some people work with the elderly. depends on if you are a cash practice or you are taking… [insurance].

So, you can go by age, or you can go by sports, if they are working or not working. There is a whole section in my book about that. It’s a very foundational exercise and challenge. It’s very important that you fill that out because later in the book, then, we refer to that. In my training videos I’m always “harping” about demographics. We need to know our EXACT demographics.

For this training video, my demographics are people that are newbies or beginners or even advanced beginners that want to get back to basics or learn some new tricks and tips. That is my demographics for the video. I’m clear on my demographics for my book, as well!

Ok, so here we have “motivation.” What does that mean in terms of keywords. What motivates a person who is searching in a search engine to sit down and start typing away? So, if you think in terms of children and ear infections… and they overhear a friend saying, “oh, I took my child to a chiropractor and she was just an infant at the time or a toddle. And I would have never thought of a chiropractor but we were having a discussion and he mentioned it. Well, who was your chiropractor? and then they say … and they either write it down or they don’t and they remember it or they don’t. But they might remember… wow. chiropractor and ear infection (I might never have put that together). So they are motivated to Google a chiropractor who deals with ear infections.
chiropractor AND ear infections.
What other motivations are there?
Twisted ankle. I twisted my ankle and maybe I’ll go see a chiropractor because I don’t think it’s broken and I don’t need x-rays probably. So I will go see a chiropractor. Maybe some chiropractors might specialize in foot and ankle adjustments (I don’t know). So this is what MOTIVATES me to sit down and do a search.

What other kinds of motivations are there? Sports injury, someone is injured. Injuries in general, but that is too broad of a keyword. You don’t want to put injuries. You might want to put that under the industry column because there are car injuries, car accidents, right?
What I’m going to suggest to you when we look at this list is that while it’s important to have these high competition (see column B, here–industry) and general industry keywords, but I wouldn’t say that would be your big focus because that is not what motivates people to sit down and type something. They are not going to go to Google or Bing and type in “back pain, chiropractor, and the name of their town.” If they have back pain, they are not going to type that in. They’re just going to type in (they know they need a chiropractor) so they are just going to type in “chiropractor and the name of their town.
Sometimes the motivation is not going to be “chiropractor and ear infections.” They might not be that savvy. Maybe they didn’t have that conversation with their neighbor or friend. Maybe they don’t know what they don’t know. Maybe they don’t know that chiropractors can resolve chronic ear infections.

So, a motivation might be “alternative therapy for … (and then you can type in any kind of ailment)… so, asthma, let’s say…
-asthma
-asthma options
We don’t know… but we are just typing in… [ideas]
digestive distress. ok, they are not going to type in “distress,” (I’m a nerd), but they are going to type in, maybe, digestive problems
-indigestion
because their antacids aren’t working because the antacids are making it worse. Indigestion and acid reflux is caused by too little acid, not too much acid (as we know), so their antacids are making it worse.
So, maybe someone is MOTIVATED to sit down and type in indigestion cures or alternatives or whatever. So, think in terms of what triggers a person to finally get frustrated enough to sit down and Google, “well, what are my options? Because what I’m doing isn’t working.” And again, sometimes they don’t know what they don’t know.
This is a very important column to keep adding to. You know you can resolve issues. You know you can help people. This is part of translating it to the people that don’t know what they don’t know.
Come to where they are at: what is their motivation for typing in something.

Specialties is also a really important column. Every chiropractor… and again, I’m just using this as an example, and you will have to translate this into your industry and your specific business… but every chiropractor is like a snowflake within the industry.

There are different chiropractic methods. For example, there is SOT (which you will always want to spell out: sacral-occipital technique). There are other techniques, like DNFT (directional non-force technique and again you will want to spell this out always… I’m just doing this for sake of example).

Specialties. What other alternative and additional healing techniques do you have? Do you have a higher degree? A DABCI (which is a Diplomat American Board of Chiropractic Internists)? Do you have a DCBCN (a Diplomat Chiropractic Board of Clinical Nutrition), you always want to spell it out. Put BOTH your letters and what your letters stand for. Not one or the other, but both. Even if it’s not a full blown degree, you will want to put certifications that you have gotten.

You will want to put manufacturers that you carry. For example, if you carry Systemic Formulas, or Standard Process. I know this is not a specialty, but it does kind of fall into this overarching category.

Specialties. Do you do Visceral Manipulation? ok, so think of what your specialties are. Now, this is going to overlap a little bit with motivation. Maybe you specialize in or want to be known for children’s chronic ear infections.

I know one chiropractor in Minnesota. She is a good chiropractor. She does whatever her technique is structurally, but she is also big on female hormones. And this is again, not a technical term, but is something that would go actually in this [motivation] column.
Again, these two columns overlap, right. She deals a lot with the endocrine system, but she also wants to be known for concussions. So one of her specialties is concussions. So somebody will be typing that in that is seeking help with concussions that the Western doctors cannot help with concussions.

Okay, so this is just a way to get you started. And we are going to go off of screenshare. I hope that that spreadsheet is giving you a tool to think about keywords in a different way than using the Keyword Planner (what it’s now called). Google has a Keyword Planner which I feel is not that straightfoward in terms of doing the research and figuring out volume and popularity and cost of it. Which is all very… advanced, actually. And you can pay someone like Crisp Media, LLC. You can pay professionals to do a professional keyword campaign. You can pay them to do the research and you can pay them to implement the campaign to make sure that you rank high for the keywords you have chosen.

This spreadsheet gives you a way to think differently, and to think more in terms of coming from the user’s point of view instead of classic industry keywords that people may or may not be typing in. It’s a complex formula and the keywords are just the beginning of it. That’s your basic keywords and I will see you next time. This is Coach Angela signing off.

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