This week, we’re talking about keyword research for your brand if you’re a consultant or a coach. How do you build your brand for your coaching business and for your consulting business? The first place that we’re going to start is talking about keywords. Keywords are critical, especially for new coaches and consultants out there.
WHY DO YOU NEED KEYWORD RESEARCH?
Keywords are critical for identifying your niche in the market, for identifying what you want to do to own your space, and to be found as a coach in your market.
Why are keywords so important? Keywords are how people find you. In terms of your identity, being found in search and in your content, keywords are at the heart of all that. Why is that?
You’re creating content marketing, and that could be your podcast, your blog, posted on social media, white papers that you’re writing, or articles. It could be stages that you choose to speak on or you guesting on other people’s shows. All of that is connected to keywords in some way. The reason is that every time you do one of those things, whether it’s creating content or being a guest, you’re doing it within a category of content.
RELATED: Build your personal brand with the Content Marketing Starter Guide.
PEOPLE USE KEYWORDS TO SEARCH CATEGORIES
People are trying to figure out and learn something within some specific category. It’s not some kind of variety show you’re going on or that you’re creating. People are looking for a specific answer and you are there to provide an answer. That answer is usually related to some kind of general category or field of information. Keywords are at the heart of all of that.
If you haven’t already figured out what your keywords are today, we’re going to help you with that because finding the wrong keywords or using the wrong words can actually really affect your findability as a personal brand.
For example, if you are a fitness coach specifically dialed into one type of fitness; let’s say you are all about cardio. People type in the word “cardio” when looking for fitness exercises. If you don’t use that word, you may not be found. Or if you are a running coach and you don’t use the right word for running in your keywords, you may not be found.
RESEARCH KEYWORDS WITHIN CATEGORIES
The trick is to figure out what are the words within that category (for example, running) that people search for most often. When you do that research, you’ll find things. Maybe it’s “running”, maybe it’s “runner”. They’re different keywords.
Maybe it’s words like “marathon” or “running around my neighborhood”, whatever those might be. As you start to make a list and brainstorm what you think people would actually type into search, you can validate those using search engine tools and keyword research tools to figure out how many people are actually typing in those things.
You may have to change the words and adjust to what the right words would be for that search. Maybe it’s not just “running”. Maybe “morning run” is something that people type in all the time and you now need to create content around morning runs or make sure that you build that into your strategy.
These are just examples, but the point I’m trying to make is you’ll usually have some type of primary keyword, and then you’ll have break-offs that have additional words with them. That all leads people back to understanding that you fit within a certain category of expertise.
KEYWORD RESEARCH HELPS DEFINE YOUR BUSINESS
The reason that’s important is it informs everything that you do from here on out. It informs how you use language on your website, the words you use in your ad copy, and the titles of the speeches you create. It affects the words you use, the titles of the articles you write, and of the podcasts you record. All of it is related.
When you do it the right way, and you use those words that are actually being searched for, and you put that content out there, now the two things start to come together. The content you’ve created for the right keywords is now being searched for online and you’re being served up to those people searching for that specific keyword because you use the right words in your descriptions and then your titles. All that’s connected.
UNBRANDED VS BRANDED KEYWORDS
There are two types of keywords. There are what we’ll call unbranded keywords, and there are branded keywords. Unbranded is what we’re talking about. This is where you have to start. It is keywords that sound generic. These are the keywords that everybody uses.
The reason they’re important is that when people are searching for you and when your potential customers are searching for information, they use generic words. You have to work with that. You have to find a way to be relevant to the behavior that people are actually using.
This is a journey that customers are actually on. They’re actually typing in some basic things into the keyword search. When they don’t find what they’re looking for, they might go a little deeper and type in something else. It’s your job to figure that out and to show up where they’re actually looking for you.
That’s unbranded. It’s hard to brand the word “fitness” because fitness is everything. However, you still need to show up in that fitness category or in that running category. That’s not something you’re ever going to be able to own, but it is something that you could hopefully be competitive enough to show up.
KEYWORDS VS KEYWORD PHRASES
Within unbranded, there are short-tail and long-tail. What that means is there are words that are just the main word, like “fitness”. It would be a huge, main, short-tail word. It’s a word where you are one of the millions of results. You can also look for words that are in combination, like “morning run”, “daily run” or something like that.
It’s a combination of words that have less competition that you can also try to rank for. Within unbranded, try to tackle both words and you’ll have more success, especially when you’re smaller and starting out with those combinations of words, rather than the biggest.
However, they are still unbranded. They’re not words you invented. They’re not clever takes that you’ve created to sound interesting and unique. A good example of this in the marketing space is storytelling. This is a huge topic. It is one of the things people often search for to learn how to do.
EXAMPLES OF BRANDED KEYWORDS
“Storytelling”, “branded storytelling”, and “storytelling for your brands” are unbranded keywords. Someone who wants to be a branding coach might have to work hard to continue to put out articles about storytelling to show up in that search.
When you move on from that, and you’re trying to create a branded keyword, someone like Donald Miller wrote a book called Building a StoryBrand. Now he is known for this branded keyword, which is “StoryBrand”.
Prior to that, no one would be typing in the word “story”. It’s just not the way people think or talk. If you want to be found for storytelling, you type in “storytelling”. Now he (Donald Miller) can be found for “storytelling” and for the word “StoryBrand” when people are specifically searching for this concept that he came up with.
Another example is the word “Youpreneur”. One of my mentors, Chris Ducker, invented the word “Youpreneur” for a personal branding entrepreneur, someone who is in the business of them. He called it “Youpreneur” and he wrote the book The Rise of The Youpreneur and he has an event called Youpreneur.
You can search “personal branding”, “entrepreneur” or you can search for “Youpreneur” and he will hopefully show up for both of those things, especially for Youpreneur because he branded that.
EXPLORE KEYWORD RESEARCH BEFORE BRANDING KEYWORDS
You can create it, but I would say don’t start with branded keywords. Don’t just make up words and names of shows and hope that people will show up to it because you invented it, especially if you’re creating some kind of content. If you’re starting a show like a YouTube series or a podcast or a blog, naming it something generic with a little bit of branding is helpful.
For example, if you’re a fitness podcast, come up with your adjective. Maybe it’s “amplify”. “Amplify fitness”, but you have to use the word “fitness” too. You have to have both words in there so that you show up. Unbranded and branded keywords are important over time, especially when you’re getting started. Those unbranded keywords are important.
TOOLS FOR KEYWORD RESEARCH
There are tools to help you with. You don’t have to do this on your own. I mentioned you can do keyword research. One of the most powerful tools out there for keyword research is called Semrush, Search Engine Marketing Rush. Go to www.semrush.com and all the keyword tools are there. There are tons of them. What I would recommend you do is get their free keyword research tool.
If you want to link to that, just go to brandsonbrands.com/semrush. You’ll be taken right where you can use their free keyword tracker and also sign up for a free trial if you like. There is an affiliate with that. Obviously, if you use that, you’ll get the discount and I’ll make a few cents on the backend as well.
This tool is one of the most powerful keyword tools out there. You can type in one word and it will tell you what the traffic is of that keyword, but also what all the other related keywords are that actually rank higher or lower. It can guide you down the road that says, “This is the actual word you should be looking for.”
KEYWORD TOOLS HELP YOU CHOOSE THE BEST ONES
It will also tell you how competitive it is and who has which one of these words. If there are ten words that are all super relevant, maybe two of them aren’t as competitive as the others. You can pick those and create some content using those words. Maybe they’re all competitive, but you can at least pick the words that are slightly more niched down or the combinations of words that are niched down for your particular audience.
I’ll go a step further. You can also say, “Okay, what can I do if I had to create a title for something? Which of these words would I want to include in it?” Maybe it will give you content ideas. Maybe you haven’t yet created content on some of the keywords that are there in the list.
You should add that to your list of content that you’re going to create to continue to be relevant in this space. What are the topics you should be covering? Semrush is a great tool for that. Any of the keyword tools that are out there are amazing. Another free one is called Word Tracker. You can check that out on Google.
Both of these tools have a number of free searches you can use before they try to get you to pay. What I would say is if you’re getting started, I would sign up for Semrush at brandsonbrands.com/semrush. Get their trial and squeeze in as much research as you can in a month, then cancel because you don’t need to do this every week and every month.
PLAN YOUR KEYWORD STRATEGY THROUGH RESEARCH
You need to sit down, get your keyword strategy figured out in thirty days, and then implement it for the next year. Then you can do it again next year. Getting started with the right strategy is going to take you leaps ahead in terms of your approach to getting more visible, to becoming seen, and to being find-able on all the important web channels out there that are going to help a coach or a consultant be found.
That is what I have for you guys today. I hope that was helpful. Figuring out how you as a coach or consultant can find the keywords that help your brand stand out and differentiate you from all the other coaches out there is going to be important. Using the fundamental philosophies of branding and keyword research is going to help you at least start to be relevant in the general category as well.
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Talk soon!