For a new vegan business owner, the world of digital marketing likely feels overwhelming. You want to optimize your online presence so that your target audience can find you. But it’s hard to figure out where to start between email marketing, digital ads, social media, and content marketing.
After you launch your brand, one of the first things you should determine, where digital marketing is concerned, is the keywords you will use. Keywords will tell online search engines about the content of your website and will enable those searching for your keywords to find you. If your product is vegan brownies, you want to make sure that your brand pops up when people type in “vegan brownies.”
But there is more to choosing the right keywords than just picking the most obvious option. How many vegan brownie brands are out there who are already using that keyword? How can you make sure that your brand can compete?
This article will help you pick the best keywords for your brand that will help you optimize your online presence and reach your target audience.
Keyword research
Firstly, you need to do some keyword research to see what keyword options are available and choose the best ones. Keyword research will show you what people are searching for in online search engines so that you avoid using keywords that no one is searching for. It will also help you estimate how much traffic your vegan business can expect using each keyword and potential conversion rate.
The most straightforward way to do keyword research is using a keyword research tool or work with a digital agency that can take care of the research for you. If you choose to do it yourself, then here are the steps to follow:
1. Make a list of topics you want to rank for
Before you start plugging terms into a keyword research tool, you will need to brainstorm some terms you might want to rank for. Let’s use the example above, vegan brownies, as a base. Think about what your audience might search for if they were looking for your specific product. Are your brownies also gluten-free? Do they contain any additional ingredients? Are they organic?
You’ll also want to consider queries or related topics that people might search for. For example, “where can I buy vegan brownies?” or “the best vegan brownie recipe.”
2. Define your goals
Next, you want to determine and define goals for your vegan brand. Are you a new business looking to increase your exposure as much as possible and create buzz? Or are you happy with lower traffic but higher conversion on that traffic? You can use these goals to help you choose the best keywords in the next step.
3. Use a keyword research tool to analyse keywords
Using a keyword research tool will show you what keywords people are searching for, the volume of people searching for it, and the search intent behind the keywords. Some of the best keyword research tools you can use include:
While each tool has unique features, they generally work in the same way. Many platforms offer a limited free option, but you will often need to pay to access in-depth results. Regardless, these tools are an excellent place to start and will provide some valuable insight to choose some foundational keywords.
How to understand keyword analytics
Use the topic list you already made and start by entering one of them into the search bar of your chosen keyword research tool. The tool will then provide you with an analytics page full of many numbers and percentages that you may not understand. So, let’s break down how to read these results and use them to choose your keywords.
1. Search volume
The first figure you’ll want to look at is the search volume. Most tools will give you an overall global search volume, plus provide you with more tailored search volume based on location. If you don’t ship your product internationally, then the global volume will not be relevant. Instead, the local search volume is most important.
2. Keyword difficulty
Keyword difficulty will tell you how difficult it is to rank on Google for the specific keyword you’ve chosen. The more generic the term, the greater the keyword difficulty will be. Keyword difficulty is also based on domain authority and the quality of the content on the page. If the keyword difficulty is high, then you’ll need to build up some domain authority and create really high-quality content you want to rank. It’s best to start with keywords with low keyword difficulty.
3. Keyword variations/related keywords
Keyword variations will show you other variations of the keyword that you’ve entered into the tool. For example, “vegan brownie” will show you “vegan brownie recipe” and “vegan gluten free brownies.” It will also show you the search volume and keyword difficulty for these words to see if there is a better option. Related keywords will show you other similar keywords but may not contain your original word like “vegetarian brownies.”
4. Trend
Most keyword research tools will show you how the keyword has been trending over the last year. You can clearly see if interest in your chosen keyword is going up or going down.
5. Click-through rate
Arguably the most important metric of them all is the CTR or click-through rate. Having your vegan brand show up on search engine results pages is excellent, but if no one clicks on your link, it won’t do you any good. Look for keywords with a high organic click-through rate, which means that searchers are more likely to visit your page and purchase your product or service.
Choosing the right keywords for your vegan brand
The sweet spot is finding keywords that have high search volume but low keyword difficulty. You might have to spend some time trying different combinations to find the best options, but it’s worth it to choose effective keywords from the get-go. The sooner you choose keywords for your vegan brand, the more time you will have to build up authority on them.
