You’ve done your research on the most popular keywords people use to find your business on Google.
- Plumber Brisbane
- Foot doctor Redcliffe.
- Nursing jobs aged care.
These are fine sounding phrases to throw at a bot, but can you really use them with a human reader? “At Pipes and Co, we are a plumber Brisbane that helps fix problems fast.” Doesn’t sound great, right? So what’s the solution to making the keywords you want to rank for sound a bit more palatable?
Well, here’s 3 approaches you can take.
1 Stop Words
Stop words are small filler words that make a key phrase sound natural, without being taken into account by the search engines. Words like ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘at’, ‘and’, ‘all’ and more. Based on our above list, you might try using ‘plumber in brisbane’, ‘foot doctor at Redcliffe pier’ and other variations. If you’d like more information, SEMrush has a list of 175 stop words you can use. Just scroll to the bottom of that page.
2 Synonyms
As well as using your original target keyword or phrase on your site, add synonym variations. For instance, say your main phrase is “actor’s agent”, you could also use “actor’s representative” to add variety and signal to the search engines what your page is about. To find synonyms, google your main keyword along with the word synonym. For instance, look up “agent synonym”, and see what else gets ‘bolded’ in the search results. You’ll find that words like “representative” and “assistant” are also bolded, meaning Google considers them a synonym. From this, create a list of possible synonyms for your main keyword that you find relevant and industry-appropriate and use them.
3 Balance
Once you’ve got your final list of main search terms, stop word variations and synonym variations, start to lay them out so they create variety on any page you use them. Don’t feel the need to spam your readers. Try to use your primary keyword (or a stop word variation) in your page headline and then only 1 – 2 times in the body copy on any given page. Try to use a synonym variation around once. Each page on your website should be targeting just one main keyword, so the synonym variations provide variety for the reader while signalling to Google what the page is about.