One of the most important things you can do for your SEO is to discover the right keywords to target. Keywords are the words and phrases people use to search for something online. By targeting the right keywords, you can make sure that your website shows up for a variety of different search inquiries.
Keyword Research
There are a few different ways to discover keywords for your local wellness brand. One way is to use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner. This tool is part of Google’s Ads platform but does not require you to actually buy ads. The Keyword planner will show you how many people are searching for different keywords each month, as well as the competition for those keywords.
Another way to discover keywords is to simply think about what people are likely to search for when they’re looking for a local wellness brand like yours. What are the problems that your customers are facing? What are they hoping to achieve? What are services that you offer that can help them?
Competing For Keywords
Once you’ve come up with a list of keywords, you need to narrow it down to the ones that are most likely to be successful for your website. Here are a few things to keep in mind when narrowing down your list:
Search volume: You want to target keywords that have a high search volume because that means lots of people are trying to find results for those keywords. However, these keywords are most likely to be highly sought after by other local brands serving in your area and who have likely optimized their websites for these keywords. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever rank for them, just that it will take time and consistent SEO work for you to get traction.
So for example, if you are trying to rank for the term “acupuncturist” or acupuncturist near me” you will need to establish your SEO authority before you can expect to be found at the top of search and maps. (As a caveat, Google will often randomly place a non-authoritative website high on the rankings once in a while as part of its algorithm. Although this can help newcomers get some traffic it is significantly less than those who have long-established SEO track records)
Competition: You also want to target keywords that have low competition; this means there are fewer searches for these keywords, and therefore fewer brands competing for them. These keywords are great to go for if you are just getting started.
To keep with the acupuncturist example, a less sought-after keyword to compete for may be “Chinese medicine near me”. By optimizing some of your website you can be sure to outcompete those other brands just going for acupuncture.
This does not mean you will be confined to only using a lower volume keyword on your website. You should definitely be optimized for the other keywords as well, but in terms of priority, you’ll get more traffic sooner using this strategy. So it’s best to have a low-volume strategy in place, especially if you are just getting started.
Search intent: Finally, you want to target keywords with the right search intent. For example, “wheelchair accessible acupuncturist near me.” These kinds of keywords are much lower in volume and are there for the taking. By identifying specific queries that searchers may be looking for you can easily optimize your website for hundreds of keywords.
Implementing Keywords
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of keywords, you can start using them on your website. Having pages dedicated to a single subject (such as a particular service) is a great SEO practice. You can also use your blog to elaborate on your subjects of expertise. This not only gives you more keyword exposure but signals to Google that you are an authority on the subject.
Some more geeky ways of using keywords are by making sure they are in your page meta titles and descriptions. 
Just be careful not to overly stuff your content with your keywords in an unnatural way. That can actually backfire and lower your SEO rankings
By following these tips, you can discover the right keywords for your local wellness brand and improve your SEO. This will help you attract more customers and grow your business.
