How to Choose Keywords for Your Small Business Website
Ask AI to Summarize
TL;DR
To choose keywords, start with the terms customers use to describe your service, check search volume and difficulty in a tool like Ubersuggest, and prioritize specific, lower-competition phrases with clear buyer intent. For small businesses, ten well-chosen local and long-tail keywords beat one broad, unwinnable term.
Start With Customer Language
List the words your customers actually use for your service, not industry jargon. Think about the problems they have and the phrases they would type. Your sales calls, reviews, and FAQs are goldmines for real customer language. This raw list becomes the seed for everything else.
Check Volume and Difficulty
Run your list through a keyword tool like Ubersuggest to see monthly search volume and SEO difficulty. You are looking for the sweet spot: enough searches to matter, low enough difficulty to actually rank. A high-volume term you can never reach is worth less than a modest one you can win.
Match Buyer Intent
Not all searches are equal. “Emergency plumber [city]” signals someone ready to buy; “how does plumbing work” does not. Prioritize keywords with clear buyer or local intent for your money pages, and use informational terms for blog content that feeds them. Intent decides which keyword belongs on which page.
Prioritize Long-Tail and Local
For small businesses, specific long-tail and local keywords win. They have less competition, higher intent, and convert better than broad head terms. Ten focused phrases you can rank for beat one giant keyword you cannot. A free SEO audit can confirm which terms are realistically within reach.
FAQ: Choosing Keywords
Start with customer language, check volume and difficulty in a tool, and prioritize specific, lower-competition phrases with buyer intent.
A score estimating how hard it is to rank for a term. Lower difficulty means a more realistic target for a small business.
For a small business, a focused set of local and long-tail keywords beats chasing one broad, unwinnable term.
Longer, more specific phrases with less competition and higher intent, like “emergency roof repair [city]” instead of “roofing.”
