Are you using the right keywords?  My guess is yes, you are.  

You are probably also using the same keywords as your competitors - the most popular and obvious ones.  It’s time to get clever with your search engine optimisation; find those different keywords, the ones that make you stand out from your competitors and help your audience find you.

While the industry does not know the intricacies of each search engine algorithm, what we do know is that the algorithms are trying to closely match search results and page content with user intent.  Your keywords and page content must be relevant to your business and your products or services.  

For our part, we will be concentrating on short tail keywords.  Organically or paid, it is hard to rank with short tail keywords in this highly competitive market.  However, you still need to ensure your short tail keywords are correct AND find other keywords that your competitors may not be using.

Let’s look at discovering some different keywords to target in your copy.

Could you use slang words?
Is there a slang or alternative word for your product or service?  For example, if you are in the fashion industry, there are several versions of the term swimming costume you can be using – swimsuit, cossie, swimmers, bathers, budgie smugglers, togs, swimming trunks, board shorts, bikini, boardies.  

Let’s try the word alcohol – grog, amber fluid, coldie, plonk, slab, tinny, or roadie. 

Warning: Be careful with slang words, some may have offensive connotations. Always ensure the slang words do not harm your brand and use them in the right context.

Be on the lookout for new trending words
Use the dictionary as a good reference for new words.  They add new words to the English language every year.  Are you using the most current words?  

Here are the new words added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2018.   Remember, twerking made famous by Miley Cyrus in 2015, we now have thought-provoking bubblehead, evergreening, even hipsterdom making the list!

Abbreviations
I recently completed copywriting for a sales training company.  Using the keyword of business to business sales, which is what they commonly call it in their industry, a quick google search found there were 2,400 monthly searches.  What about B2B sales?  There were an additional 12,100 searches for this keyword.  Is this a phrase that your competitors aren’t using?

Let’s go one step further, b to b sales had 320 searches and business 2 business sales had 50 searches!  Ok, maybe not great numbers for searches but it could improve your ranking and draw more traffic to your website.

Spelling errors
Yes, you read right!  For whatever reason, they may be in a hurry or use common spelling errors, your customer or target audience may miss-spell when searching.  

The smartphone screen size does not make it easy to type accurately.  In fact, there are 1.5 more typos in search sites on smartphones than on a laptop or desktop.  This is even more important to remember, if your target audience is likely to search for your products or services on their mobile.

Nobody likes to see a spelling error on a website but if one of your key search words is a commonly misspelt word, put it in your web copy.  Use the misspelt word in an image description where it is less likely to be noticed. 

A quick search for the word copywriter tells me there were 60,500 monthly searches.  For the misspelt word, copiwriter there were 70 searches – when I searched for copiwriter in Google it did change my search to copywriter, so this may not work for every misspelled word.

Spelling and name differences
If you are a global business, you need to spell the keywords how your target audience is going to spell them.  For example, a printer in Australia could be using the keyword catalogue with monthly searches 135,000, however if you use the US spelling of catalog there were 110,000 monthly searches.  Or try flavour with monthly searches 90,500, as the Australian/English spelling, however the American spelling is flavor, with monthly searches of 49,500.

How about name differences?  In England, they don’t sit on a couch (monthly searches 1,220,000), they sit on a settee (monthly searches 110,000).  If you are an Australian furniture etailer or retailer you could use the word settee in your content or create a landing page using this keyword.

Try the plural form of your keyword
There is debate amongst the professionals as to whether the plural for a keyword is necessary. To err on the side of caution, use both within your content.  For example, when you search for bicycle, there are 1,220,000 monthly searches however, when you search for bicycles there are 450,000 searches.

Use the keyword that your audience would use to search for your business and add the plural keyword into your content as well. 

Always write relevant, interesting content ahead of keywords.  Higher quality content ensures better rankings with the search engines.  Only add the keyword if it makes sense and enhances the copy, otherwise don’t use it. 

Does your content sound forced or unnatural?  Get an unbiased opinion.  Email it to me and I’ll edit it, so you can publish winning copy your website and business deserves.