Choosing keywords for a digital marketing campaign sounds straightforward until you actually start doing it. You know what your business offers, but which words are potential customers typing into Google when they need it?

For a cleaning company, it might be “commercial cleaning services” or something much more specific, such as “office cleaning company in London”. A recruitment agency could be targeting searches around engineer recruitment, while an accountant may need to reach businesses looking for help with payroll, tax returns or bookkeeping.

The challenge is finding keywords that are not only relevant to your business but also have a strong chance of bringing the right people to your website.

How Do You Know Which Keywords Are Worth Targeting?

A keyword can have thousands of monthly searches and still be a poor choice for your business.

This is because search volume does not tell you everything. Someone searching for “cleaning” could be looking for cleaning tips, products, jobs or a local cleaning company. Meanwhile, “commercial cleaning company in Birmingham” may attract far fewer searches but be much more valuable to a business offering those services.

Effective keyword research looks at more than just search volume. It considers what people are looking for, how competitive the search is, whether it is relevant to your business and location, and what you want potential customers to do when they land on your website.

Should You Target Broad Keywords or More Specific Searches?

Both can be useful, depending on what you’re trying to achieve. Broader keywords can give you a sense of what people are searching for generally, while more specific phrases often show that someone knows what they need and may be closer to making a decision.

For example, a construction company might consider:

  • Construction company
  • Commercial construction
  • Industrial building contractors
  • Agricultural building contractors
  • Steel frame buildings installation
  • Commercial construction company in Kent

Similarly, an accountant might target terms such as:

  • Accountant
  • Small business accountant
  • Business tax accountant
  • Payroll services for small businesses
  • Bookkeeping services in Kent

The more specific searches can be particularly useful because they tell you more about what the person needs. Someone searching for “payroll services for small businesses” has a very different intention from someone simply searching for “accounting”.

The right approach is to build a keyword strategy around your services, customers and commercial goals rather than trying to collect as many keywords as possible.

What If the Keywords I Want Are Too Competitive?

This is a very common concern, and it is one reason keyword research should happen before you build a strategy to optimise your website’s visibility.

You do not necessarily need to abandon an important keyword just because it is competitive. But you also should not build your entire strategy around terms that are going to take a huge amount of time and money to compete for.

A stronger approach can involve a mixture of broader, more competitive terms and more specific searches where your business has a realistic opportunity to gain visibility.

For example, a specialist agricultural contractor may struggle to compete nationally for “agricultural services”. But searches relating to a particular service, type of customer or geographical area could provide more achievable opportunities.

Over time, building useful content and strong service pages around these relevant topics can also help establish your website’s wider authority and create trust with the people you want to attract.

Do I Need to Choose Keywords with the Highest Search Volume?

Not necessarily.

In fact, this is one of the biggest misconceptions about keyword research.

Imagine a specialist recruitment company finds that “recruitment” receives significantly more searches than “engineering recruitment agency in Edinburgh”. It might seem obvious to target the first term.

But how many of those searches are from people looking for an agency? How many are jobseekers? How many are students researching the industry? How many are looking for something completely unrelated to the company’s services?

The more specific keyword could attract fewer people but a much higher proportion of visitors who are looking for exactly what you’re offering.

Quality matters as much as quantity. The goal is not simply to increase website traffic. It is to attract traffic that has a genuine chance of becoming an enquiry, sale, booking or another valuable action.

How Can SiteWizard Help Identify the Right Keywords for My Digital Marketing Campaigns?

At SiteWizard, we do not believe in handing every business in a particular industry the same generic keyword list.

Your customers, services, locations and competitors are different, so your keyword strategy should reflect that.

We can research relevant search terms, assess their suitability and help you understand which opportunities are worth pursuing. We can then use those findings to inform and manage your wider digital marketing strategy, whether that involves SEO, Google Ads, content marketing or a combination of channels.

Ready to Find Out Which Keywords Could Bring the Right Customers to Your Website?

If your current digital marketing is generating traffic but not enough enquiries, or you are simply unsure whether you are targeting the right searches, it may be time to look more closely at the keywords you’re using.

Whether you run a cleaning company, recruitment agency, construction business, agricultural services, accountancy practice, eCommerce site or operate in another sector, the right keyword strategy can help your website reach people who are genuinely searching for the products or services you offer.

At SiteWizard, we can help you identify relevant keywords and turn that research into a digital marketing strategy that generates great business opportunities and real growth. Get in touch to discuss your goals and find out where your website could be more visible.