Think Like Your Audience on Google

Search is something that you get better at with experience. But we are here to help you jump start you search skills.

Key words are tricky until you get used to them. Let's start with an example. You have a client that wants to reach Home Improvement Blogs to talk about a product or website.

You could go to Google and type: "Home Improvement Blogs."

The first error is the Blogs – Most people will list their blog as singular.

An even bigger mistake is to think so literally. It would be great if search engines returned exactly what we typed into them. Instead, you would get some good hits, but be missing many opportunities.

Once you exhaust the resources on your obvious keywords, you have to begin thinking like the writer of the resource you want to reach. Will a writer on a Home Improvement Blog write articles entitled "Home Improvement Blog?" No.

Instead, here are some search terms that could yield big results.

"Kitchen Cabinet Repair"

"Do it yourself ceramic flooring"

"How to fix a toilet"

You get the idea. They are going to be listed much more strongly for the specific things they are writing about, not the label you group them by. By thinking about what words the writers you are trying to reach are using, you can find the resources you want.

Quotes can also help you target your search. If you use two or three common words without quotes, you are going to be getting millions of listings. That does not help you. The reason is that without quotes, each word has to appear someplace on the page but not necessarily be related or together.

Instead, try it with quotes around some of the words or enough specific words that you will not get many non-related hits.

Another important factor is often finding fresh content. You can use advanced filters (In Google, choose advanced search option) and in the lower part of the page you can choose only newer page – updated in the last x days or months.

You cannot get great results for clients if you are struggling with getting the keywords right and spending too much time sifting through non-relevant websites and blogs. Using these simple suggestions, you can improve results and provide more value in less time.