Whether you offer services as an attorney, medical specialist, or financial advisor, keyword research is crucial to your digital marketing strategy. Picking the right keywords can translate to effective search engine optimization (SEO) for your website. In layman’s terms, you get more website traffic and more clients with the right keywords. Let’s look at how to pick the best keywords to optimize your SEO and grow your professional service-based business.

According to Hubspot, “Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing search terms that people enter into search engines with the goal of using that data for a specific purpose, often for search engine optimization (SEO) or general marketing.” 

Defining keyword research is not enough, though. You need to understand how to pick a topic, know the best keywords for your potential clients, and how to choose your titles, keywords, and slugs for web pages or blogs. Optimized SEO solutions depend on picking the right keywords for your business.

Narrow It Down

You may have done keyword research and found keywords that look popular. However, the popularity of a keyword doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for your business. Strategically picking keywords that will bring in new clients for your services takes a bit of know-how.

First, focus on topics you’ve had people ask you. Look for keywords about those questions first. The chances are that if you’ve had one person ask about how to do a particular type of estate planning, there are others who’ve got the same questions.

Questions Anyone?

For example, a long-time client of an estate planning attorney may have questions about the 2020 legislation concerning IRA’s and how the new rules affect their heirs. 

Specifically, they may have concerns about whether their children or grandchildren can hold onto assets from an inherited trust long-term. When you sit and think about it, you may realize that you’ve had several clients of estate planning services mention this and ask questions about how it might affect their future planning.

If you do a broad keyword search such as “estate planning IRA,” without clicking enter and just letting your cursor stay in the search box, some possible keywords show up in the drop-down area: 

PLLC Keywords for SEO

The Newest Marketing Trend: Long-Tail Keywords

In the search above, we used a broad approach. With a more targeted search like “estate planning inherited ira” in the image below, you see long-tail keywords appear under your cursor in the search box.

PLLC Keywords for SEO

Long-tail keywords are phrases or questions that have 3-5 words in them. Looking for long-tail keywords for specific topics will bring in those looking for an answer to their particular question. 

According to trends in digital marketing, it is not easy to rank high on a page when you use broader keywords. The current marketing trend is to fill in the knowledge gaps on the internet with targeted, focused long-tail keywords. Focusing in may involve using more keywords and taking the time to choose a topic before writing a blog or service page for your website.

To narrow it down further, focus on one of the long-tail keywords in the drop-down menu. You could choose, “Can an estate own an inherited ira?” However, this question does not get at the heart of what your clients are asking you.

You may decide that these keywords in the image above are not going in the direction of the questions you’ve received from clients. Looking for a better fit may bring better results. When you hit enter for “estate planning inherited IRA,” you find many results that align with the questions you’ve received.

keywords for SEO

Some titles pop out on the search page results as examples of articles your clients may read if searching online: 

Keywords Choice

When your potential clients search for answers online, they don’t generally type in the name of your business. Likely, they aren’t even looking for an attorney or specific legal advice. Some people who come across your article may be in your field and checking out your marketing blogs. Others may be field adjacent and need your services. Some may have watched a news channel report about IRA planning and be curious about estate planning for the first time in their life. Only some of them are heirs or grantors of trusts. All of these people have something in common, though. 

But what exactly is it? And what are they looking for online?

How Clients Use Google Search

Think about how you use Google search. You want answers to a question that pops into your mind. You know that the internet supplies the most popular answers to the specific words you type in. 

Your clients are no different. If they wonder about estate planning and IRA’s for their grandchildren, they may not yet know the terms “stretch IRA” or “SECURE Act.” However, they do know that it is 2021, and things have changed. 

Their search queries may be broader. However, your keywords must narrow it down. You can see this reflected in the top 2 search results.

  1. How the SECURE Act impacts IRAs left to a trust
  2. Estate Planning Strategies for Heirs and Inherited IRAs

The first result focuses in with likely keywords:

  • IRA
  • Trust
  • SECURE Act

The first two keywords are broad and catch everyone looking for information about “IRA” and “trust.” However, the last keyword narrows it down to the “SECURE act” effects on IRAs and trusts.

The second title above, “Estate Planning Strategies for Heirs and Inherited IRAs,” focuses on the ever-popular keywords, “Estate Planning Strategies,” but then adds essential keywords for this particular topic:

  • Heirs
  • Inherited 
  • IRA

Using a similar keyword search process and adding your city or state’s name can be a powerful marketing strategy. Potential clients begin to look to you for the answers they need. You know what they need before they ask the question. 

Displaying your knowledge and expertise on your blogs and website with the right keywords can make future clients feel understood. They begin to look to you as the expert they need when troubles arise in their lives. Optimizing your SEO with the right keywords brings you higher in the search engine rankings for the questions potential clients are asking.

Using Keyword Search Tools

If you have a keyword search tool such as Keywords Everywhere, you can see additional data about every search term listed. 

keyword SEO 2021

The screenshot above shows that “inheriting an ira from a parent 2020” gets 1,900 hits per month. Any possible topic above 100 in volume ranks in popularity. Another with 1,900 hits this month is “SECURE act inherited ira.” 

With a keyword research tool that shows volume results, you see what exact words people are typing in as their keywords when searching for answers about IRA’s and the SECURE Act. 

Choosing a Title with Your Keywords

Armed with the volume data of a keyword marketing tool, you can now research titles you might choose for your blog.

You probably already know that your title is not necessarily the same as your keywords. For example, in the number one search result, “How the SECURE Act Impacts IRAs Left to a Trust,” the volume data is 0 because no one searches for that exact title when they type in keywords.

When you type in the title of the most high-ranking blog on the search page, there is no volume data for the title! That’s because no one types in “how the secure act impacts iras left to a trust” when they look for answers. 

SEO optimization with keywords

Your title should include the keywords. However, the title is NOT ALWAYS THE SAME as your keywords. People search by typing in keywords. From our research so far, we know that some of the keywords we might choose for this topic include:

  • IRA
  • SECURE
  • Estate Planning
  • Heir
  • Inherit
  • Trust
  • Parent
  • Child

Putting It All Together

Looking at the words above, you know what keywords to use. Sometimes you can craft a title that is the same as your keywords. In this example, the titles that are also your keywords could include:

  • “inherited roth ira” 2,900 per month
  • “Inheriting an ira from a parent” 1,900 per month
  • “Ira planning” 1,300 per month
  • “Ira estate beneficiary” 390 per month

Or you could choose to use keywords in your title but not as your whole title. Using keywords in the title is what the top two ranking results on the search page above chose. Examples of titles with the keywords in bold include:

  • “New Considerations for an Inherited Roth Ira
  • “Inherited Roth IRAs in 2021”
  • “The New Rules for IRA Planning in North Carolina
  • “Are You an IRA Estate Beneficiary? What You Must Know”

We Can Help

If you own a service-based business and are looking for ways to bring in new clients, keyword research can help you build your brand and get your name out there. At Whoosh Agency, our marketing team dedicates itself to making your name and expert reputation stand out.

Engaging in a well-thought-out digital marketing strategy brings more traffic to your website and more clients through your doors. However, doing it all yourself can be time-consuming and confusing. It is difficult to see results and honestly know whether your marketing strategies are working for your business.

That’s why we do what we do. If you want to see results from a digital marketing strategy, we know what works and why. We can help you find solutions, whether a quick answer or a complete marketing plan providing your social media, blogs, and website. Get in touch today for a free consult and find out how we can help.