We audited a Greensboro veterinary practice's blog last month. They had published 41 posts over two years. Total monthly search traffic to those posts: 84 visits. The problem was not effort. The problem was that no one researched what their customers were actually searching for before writing.
What a Keyword Actually Is
A keyword is a phrase someone types into Google. "How much is teeth whitening in Greensboro" is a keyword. "Greensboro family law attorney" is a keyword. Every blog post should target one specific keyword that your prospects use, not the abstract industry jargon you and your peers use.
The Three Types of Keywords That Matter for Service Businesses
- →Service + city: "personal injury attorney greensboro" or "winston salem hvac repair." High-intent buyers ready to call.
- →Question keywords: "how long does roof replacement take" or "what is included in a financial plan." Researchers who are not yet ready to buy but soon will be.
- →Cost keywords: "how much does invisalign cost" or "average cost of estate planning." High commercial intent, often closer to a buying decision than people admit.
The Free Keyword Research Process
- →Brainstorm 20 candidate keywords for the topic you want to write about. Use customer language, not industry jargon.
- →Run them through the Google Keyword Tool (free inside AdWords). Look for monthly search volume and competition.
- →Pick a keyword with realistic volume: For local Triad searches, anything with 50 to 500 monthly searches is worth targeting. You do not need millions.
- →Search the keyword in Google. Look at the first page. Are the results other businesses or are they encyclopedic articles? You can usually outrank thin business pages with a focused, useful post.
Where to Place the Keyword in the Post
- →In the title: The single highest-impact placement.
- →In the URL: /blog/teeth-whitening-cost-greensboro is better than /blog/post-217.
- →In the first paragraph: Naturally, not stuffed.
- →In one or two H2 subheadings.
- →In the meta description: The 150-character snippet Google shows in the search result.
- →In image file names and alt text: teeth-whitening-greensboro.jpg, not IMG_4892.jpg.
What Not to Do
Do not stuff the keyword 50 times into a post. Google's algorithm penalizes that pattern and human readers find it unreadable. Use the keyword naturally three to six times in a 1,000-word post and use related variations throughout. Write for humans first. Keyword optimization is the layer on top.
A High Point custom home builder rewrote their existing 22 blog posts using the process above. Search traffic to their blog grew from roughly 200 visits a month to over 1,400 visits a month inside nine months, with no new posts published.
Read our companion pieces on getting started with a business blog and finding blog topics, or have our digital marketing agency handle keyword research, topic planning, and writing.