Baffled by SEO keyword research? Learn how to figure out what your audience is searching for so you can create content that speaks their language and gets found online.
Jump To:
A few weeks ago, I held an email AMA (Ask Me Anything), and two people asked me the same question: “How do I figure out the language my audience is using?”
Here’s why I love that question the most: they weren’t asking, “What SEO keywords should I use?”
Instead, they were asking about their people. The searchers behind the click.
Searchers are the heart of SEO.
It’s not about stuffing keywords into a blog post or trying to hack Google’s algorithm.
It’s about uncovering the exact words and phrases your audience uses to describe their problems, needs, and goals. And using those words to create a bridge between their searches and your solutions.
When you connect with your audience in their own language, you’re meeting them where they’re at, showing them you understand their pain points, and building trust before they even click.
So how do you uncover the language your audience is searching for?
Here are five seriously smart (and simple!) ways to get started:
1. Voice-of-Customer Research
The best way to discover your audience’s language is to go straight to the source.
Voice of Customer (VoC) research simply involves listening carefully to your clients or potential clients to uncover the exact words and phrases they use to describe their challenges, goals, and needs.
There are several ways to approach VoC research:
- Intentional client interviews or surveys: You can schedule interviews or design surveys specifically to collect voice-of-customer language. Ask open-ended questions like:
- “What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to [your topic]?”
- “What have you already tried to solve this problem, and how did it go?”
- “If you could wave a magic wand and solve this problem, what would the outcome look like?”
- What would you type into Google if you were trying to find the answer to your problem?
- Intake forms or onboarding questionnaires: Track the language your clients use when they describe their goals, frustrations, or desired outcomes. I’ve personally found intake questionnaires to be a veritable goldmine of customer language and keywords.
- Facebook group discussions or online communities: Pay attention to conversations in groups where your target audience hangs out. What questions do they ask? How do they describe their problems
- Testimonials or reviews: Look at reviews of your own business (or competitors’) to identify recurring words and phrases people use to describe their experiences (both good and bad!).
VoC research takes time and you might be tempted to skip this step. Don’t do it!
While the next four methods are great SUPPLEMENTS to talking with real people, no tool can ever take the place of the nuanced insights you’ll get from real conversations and interactions.
2. Using ChatGPT To Expand On Your VoC Research
Once you’ve gathered insights from conversations with a handful of your people, you can use AI tools like ChatGPT to dig even deeper into how your broader audience might phrase their questions.
Here’s how to make the most of it:
- Ask ChatGPT questions as if you were your audience:
For example, “What might someone struggling with [specific problem] ask online?” or “What phrases would a beginner use to describe [your solution]?”
- Use it to explore alternative ways to say the same thing:
Ask ChatGPT to come up with variations of the questions or phrases you identified in your voice-of-customer research. This can help you spot additional ways people might frame their searches.
While ChatGPT can’t replace VoC research, it’s a powerful tool for filling in keywords you may have overlooked and coming up with additional ways to say the same thing.
3. Competitor Keyword Analysis
Another great way to understand what your audience is searching for is to look at what’s already working for your competitors.
This doesn’t mean copying their strategy; it means analyzing their content to uncover themes and identifying areas where you can differentiate or add value.
Here’s how to conduct a smart competitor analysis:
- Snoop through their content: Browse your competitors’ blogs, website copy, and social media posts. Pay attention to the language they use in headlines, FAQs, or even client testimonials they showcase. Are there recurring phrases or topics they focus on?
- Explore with Ubersuggest: Visit Ubersuggest and enter your competitor’s URL to see which keywords they rank for. This can help you understand what’s driving traffic for them and, more importantly, what real people are typing into the search bar to connect with a similar service to yours.
Competitor analysis isn’t about imitation or plagiarism (hopefully that goes without saying!).
It’s a tool to help you understand where your audience is already finding answers and positioning your content as a compelling alternative or additional resource.
4. Ubersuggest for Validating and Refining SEO Keywords
Once you’ve gathered ideas from your audience and competitors, Ubersuggest can help you refine your understanding of how people are searching for related topics.
This freeium keyword research tool allows you to dig deeper into SEO keywords and search data, making it easier to connect the dots.
Here are a few ways to use Ubersuggest:
- Explore related keywords: Enter a term or phrase from your VoC research or competitor analysis, and review suggested and related keywords.
These can help you uncover variations or adjacent topics your audience is also interested in.
You’ll need to use your own experience with and understanding of your audience as a filter to decide which of the related keywords might be relevant for you.
- Validate keyword ideas with data: Look at metrics like search volume (how often a term is searched) and SEO difficulty (how hard it is to rank for that term). Focus on terms that strike a balance, relevant to your audience but not so competitive that they’re impossible to rank for.
- Identify long-tail keywords: Longer, more specific phrases (e.g., “how to start a service-based business in 2024”) better reflect conversational searches and are easier to rank for. They more closely align with the language your audience actually uses.
Ubersuggest is most useful for validating what you’ve already discovered and finding smaller opportunities to round out your content strategy.
It’s not so much about letting the tool lead the way, but instead using it to support what you’ve learned directly from your audience.
5. Discover Exact Questions People Are Asking With Answer The Public
If you’ve ever wished you could see exactly what questions people are typing into search bars, Answer the Public is the next best thing.
This keyword research tool collects and organizes real-world search queries, giving you an overview of the specific questions, comparisons, and phrases people use around a given topic.
Type a keyword or phrase related to your business or service, and the tool will generate a list of questions categorized by phrases like “how,” “what,” “why,” and “can.” These lists are incredible resources for blog topics that answer specific, informational queries your audience may be searching for.
It’s important to remember that this complements your understanding of your audience’s needs.
Use the insights you’ve gained through your professional experience and your voice-of-customer research as a filter, choosing questions or keywords that align most closely with the problems your audience actually wants solved.
Pro tip: If you’d like to stick to fewer tools, you can actually access the “Answer The Public” data within Ubersuggest.
Ubersuggest purchased Answer The Public and the same data is available within their “Keyword Visualization” tool in the Ubersuggest platform.
Now What? How to Use Your Keywords on Your Website
You’ve done your research. You know what your audience is typing into Google. Now it’s time to put those words to work.
Because knowing what your people are searching for is one thing, actually using those keywords on your website is what helps you show up in search and get found by the folks already looking for what you do.
Here’s where those keywords should go:
- SEO Titles (a.k.a. what shows up in search results)
This is the headline people see on the search engine results page. Make it clear, clickable, and include your main keyword. Don’t get too clever here. Just tell people what they’ll find. - Meta Descriptions
This is the little blurb under your SEO title in search. It’s your pitch to get the click. Use it to reinforce your keyword and make someone think, “Yep, this is what I need.” - Headlines (your H1s)
Your main headline should reflect the core topic of the page or blog post. Try to use your keyword towards the beginning of the title. - Subheadings (your H2s and H3s)
Break up your content with subheadings that make it easier to skim. Rather than stuffing subheadings with exact match keywords or phrases, use subheadings as opportunities to include keyword variations and related words. - Body Copy
This one’s simple: write thorough, helpful content. If you’re doing that, your keywords are probably already baked in. Don’t overthink it. - Image File Names + Alt Text
Rename your images before you upload them. Instead of IMG_3489.png, try prenatal-personal-training-memphis.png.And write alt text that actually describes the image in plain English. Bonus points if it includes a keyword, as long as it makes sense.
- URL Slugs
Use your main keyword, with words separated by hyphens. Look at the URL for this blog post as an example! - Internal Links
Link related blog posts and pages together using descriptive anchor text (the text that’s highlighted and linked). This helps readers stay on your website longer and gives search engines a better understanding of what your site’s about.
One last thing: You don’t need to stuff your keyword into every little nook and cranny on the page. Sprinkle it in where it makes sense but always prioritize readability and user experience over keyword frequency.
Beyond Keyword Research: Finding Keywords That Create Connection
At its core, figuring out what your audience is searching for isn’t about fancy tools or complicated strategies.
It’s about understanding how they describe their struggles, needs, and dreams in their own words.
When you start with real conversations, sprinkle in some AI magic (hello, ChatGPT!), and back it up with tools like Ubersuggest or Answer the Public, you’ll uncover the exact language your audience is already using to search for answers.
If you’re ready to identify the exact words your audience uses and learn how to turn them into website copy or SEO-friendly content that works, grab my SEO Simplified Keyword Research Workbook.
It’s free when you join my email list, and it’ll walk you step-by-step through brainstorming keywords, validating your choices, and applying them to your website in the right way to attract the right people.
