The process of Keyword research typically begins with brainstorming and answering some fundamental questions about your products, services and brand.

A great starting point is by answering the following questions:

• what services do you offer?
• what products do you sell?
• where are you located?
• where do customers get in contact with you?

Be as comprehensive as possible and list out as many keywords and phrases as you can.

For example, ASOS would have something like the following important keywords in their brainstorm session:

• Skinny leg jeans
• Petite women's clothing
• Black dresses
• Accessories for under $10
• 90's fashion
• Activewear
• Festival beauty products

See how the above keywords are not 'women's fashion' they are super descriptive of the actual products on ASOS, therefore when you search '90's fashion' chances are ASOS will show up high on Google's list.

Hot Tip: Always make sure that you brainstorm Keywords from a customer's perspective. What words do they use? Not what business-terms you use.

People who work in your business every single day might have a very different way of explaining your products and services.

For example, as a real estate website. You might be tempted to write down keywords like a premium residential home, but at the end of the day, no one in the world is typing that into a search engine. While those things make sense to you, your customers are looking for homes for sale.

Different Types of Keywords

Market-defining keywords

Market-defining keywords are terms and phrases your target audience use when talking about your business or industry. These phrases are usually broad and generic, so they are often much harder to rank for than others; nonetheless, they are still important.

Hot Tip: These are the keywords that usually pop into your head when you’re thinking of starting your SEO marketing campaign for your company, business, product, etc.

Let’s take a black dress keyword campaign for example. If I wanted to use market defining keywords for my black dress campaign, I’d choose from a list that looks something like this:

• back dress
• black dresses
• black evening dress

These terms are critical in your on-page optimisation. Following SEO best practices, add these phrases throughout your site pages. Market-defining keywords are also helpful in jump-starting your content creation.

Customer-defining keywords

Customer-defining keywords are the most-used keywords and are terms and phrases your customers use to define themselves. What do your customers call themselves? How do they refer to others in their group? These two questions will guide you to uncovering these powerful keywords.

For example, if your business is about personal training equipment then some of your customer defining keywords would be:

• Personal Trainer/s
• Fitness trainer
• Trainer

Hot Tip: These types of keywords help you realise who you want to direct your search results too. It also helps you realise the effectiveness of your keywords on this specific field.

By using these terms, you can uncover some great insight into how your audience speaks and how you can frame your site in a way that entices them to interact.

Product Keywords

Product keywords describe what you sell. These are the keywords your searcher will type into Google if they are looking for a specific product, service or idea that they want to get information about or purchase.

When listing out and researching these terms, be specific. For example, if you sell clothing, use the brand names as well: Camilla and Marc, Alexander Wang, Tom Ford and so on. This will help you uncover some great opportunities and prospects who meet particular niches within your target customer segment.

Examples of product defining keywords:

• Alexander Wang Tshirts
• Alexander Wang Boots
• Camilla and Marc Black Skirt
• Camilla and Marc Blazer

In most spaces, you can find smaller segments that are very devoted to a particular brand, style or type of product. Within these segments, you’ll find product enthusiasts who usually are more likely to take action when approached for linking and brand building.

Hot Tip: Product keywords are great for use on your site and a great starting point for creating targeted content for your blog.

Geotargeted keywords

Geotargeted keywords are essential for your local rankings. These are the keywords that focus on the searcher’s location. These keywords lead the searchers to a local set of results so that local businesses and companies would be given priority in this ever-growing world with an ever-growing market.

According to Google, “50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day, and 34% who searched on a computer/tablet did the same.”

Hot Tip: Defining your geotargeted keywords will help you target local prospects, groups and events your company can engage with and/or sponsor.

Local SEO is a powerful way to grow your reach and influence in your backyard. If you have a shopfront business, local SEO will drive targeted traffic not just to your site, but to your store as well.

Examples of Geotargeted keywords:

• Alexander Wang Bondi
• Day spa in Paddington
• Dry cleaner Sydney CBD
• David Jones Melbourne

When researching geotargeted terms, don’t just stick to your town or city. Expand your territory to include neighbouring areas.

If you live in a larger city, break down your geo terms into neighbourhoods to capture an even more targeted segment.

Related vertical keywords

These are the keywords that are related to your company and product offering. These keywords are keywords of industries and markets that are closely or somehow related to your industry or market.

Examples of vertical keywords:

Let’s take ASOS for a list of possible vertical keywords for this example:

• Latest fashion
• Fashion Week London
• Fashion Stylist
• Fashion Blogging
• Makeup

Hot Tip: Vertical keywords are typically owned by industries and markets that are not in direct competition with you. These are the keywords owned by companies that you might even want to create a partnership with – eg ASOS & London Fashion Week

Lastly, Enjoy the process and discovery exercise of keyword research. Everyone searches differently, be open-minded, put yourself in the mindset of your potential customers and make sure to consider all of your options as you evaluate your keyword performance over time.