I've got some friends who are into web design, and others who are building their own websites. A really common question I get is: how do you choose the right keyword for the page you're working on? That's what we're going to talk about today.
It's a fundamental, critical skill for SEO, and we're going to keep it simple. This is one of those topics where it can start to get complicated and you can tie yourself up in knots overthinking it. The best approach is to keep it super simple, so here are a few steps to help you choose the right keyword for your web page.
For this example, we're using Helen's Kitchen Cooking School. This isn't a client of mine, I just randomly selected it.
Step 1: Brainstorm on Your Own
Start by reviewing the content of the page you're working on. If you're building the page, you'll be quite familiar with it. But if it's a client, say you're a new SEO who just started at an agency, this might be the first time you're really taking in what the website is all about. So take a read.
Obviously, we're looking at a cooking school. In the main navigation, I can see "classes" as one of the central items, so it's probably cooking classes at a cooking school. I'm starting to get an idea of what this page boils down to. What's the main topic? That's really what I'm after.
Then I look at this sentence, which kind of says it all: "We offer hands-on cooking and baking classes to enthusiastic home cooks at our kitchen in Natick, MA." To me, the keyword, which should be a short phrase that my target audience would search, is jumping out: cooking classes in Natick, MA. I think that's the perfect keyword for this page, which is the homepage of the cooking school.
I can keep reading and I'll see more specific things like handmade pasta and sashimi, which hint at the different classes and foods you can work with. I might even learn a little about Helen herself. But it all boils down to cooking classes in Natick, MA. That's my first step: my own brainstorming, and I'm happy with that keyword. It makes sense and it's super relevant to the page.
Step 2: Tap Into AI
For step two, tap into AI. We've got this amazing tool now that we didn't have before. I wish I had it early in my SEO career, and we should definitely use it.
I like to use Gemini in Chrome for this, because it can see the web page I'm working on. All I have to do is open it in the upper right of my Chrome browser and ask: "What do you think is the primary keyword for this page?" I'm using AI as a collaborator, a partner in the brainstorming exercise. It gives me a second opinion, and hopefully it confirms what I landed on.
Here's what it said: based on the page content and the headings, the primary keyword is "cooking school" or the slightly more localized "cooking classes in Natick, MA." I don't like the first choice, "cooking school." It's way too general. In general, you want to be as specific as possible, especially for a smaller organization, and this looks like a small, private operation, not a Sur la Table.
More specific tends to be less competitive, and the less competitive terms are normally what you want to go after, unless you want to fight it out with the giants. The second choice, "cooking classes in Natick, MA," is exactly what I landed on with my own independent review. So this is really confirming. We're already on our way to choosing the right primary keyword.
Step 3: Check Google
The third thing you can do is take one or two ideas from your brainstorming and search them in Google. What you're looking for are pages that rank on page one and are similar to your own organization.
I already searched "cooking classes Natick MA." What's kind of funny is that Helen's cooking school already ranks number one, which tells me Google agrees with the keyword we chose. It thinks it's a great match.
I'll also look at the other results. I try to find ones similar to my business. Yelp and TripAdvisor aren't similar to Helen's cooking school, so they're not too useful here. Sur la Table is a big organization, but you can see they chose the exact same keyword we were targeting. I tend to focus on the organic results rather than the sponsored ones, but you can still get good ideas from sponsored listings.
Look at the title tags from the competitors to see whether they chose the keyword you thought of or something slightly different. That can give you more ideas and help you finalize your primary keyword. For example, one sponsored result from Cozymeal used the word "in-person." That's interesting, and it might be a way to make our title tag even more specific: "in-person cooking classes in Natick, MA." The more specific you get, the less competitive it tends to be, which gives you a better chance of ranking well and actually getting the click.
What If You Don't Have a Finished Page?
You might not have a finished web page to look at. Here are a couple of other scenarios:
You have a copywriting draft. Say you're a designer and you haven't built the page yet, but you have the copy. Read through it yourself and do your brainstorming, then drop it into an AI tool like ChatGPT or Claude and ask what it thinks the primary keyword is.
You don't even have a draft. Brainstorm on your own first: what page am I about to create, what's it all about, what does the topic boil down to? Then describe it to an AI tool in detail, the same way you'd think about it. For example: "I'm soon going to build a page about cooking classes led by a woman named Helen, who has experience from Europe and cities all over America, and she's based in Natick, MA." The AI can pick out the key details, boil them down, and give you an idea. It's a nice parachute for when you don't have a page to look at.
Validate It With Free Search Volume Data
Let me point you to another tool: Google Ads. Search for "Google Ads signup," go through the free signup process, and you'll land in the interface. On the left, go to Tools, then Planning, then Keyword Planner, and choose "Get search volume and forecasts." Then enter your keyword ideas.
When I was doing this exercise, I came across two ideas. One was "cooking classes Natick MA." The other was "cooking classes Boston MA," a suggestion I actually got from AI, which pointed out that Boston is a bigger area with potentially wider interest, so it might help attract more customers. Interesting idea.
But watch this. The average monthly searches for "cooking classes Boston MA" are way higher than the Natick variant, so a lot more people are searching for it. AI was on the right track there. As you'd guess, though, look at the competition column: the competition for "cooking classes Boston MA" is high, while Natick is medium. Helen's Kitchen seems like a smaller organization, basically one individual, so I'd go after the lower-competition term. Once again, that overconfirms my choice of "cooking classes in Natick, MA" as the primary keyword for the homepage.
Don't Forget the Title Tag
When you look at Helen's result in Google, that clickable headline is called a title tag, and it's really critical for SEO. When you have your keyword in the title tag, it's a very strong signal to Google that your page is a good match for anyone searching that keyword.
So even though Helen already ranks number one, putting "cooking classes in Natick, MA" in the title tag, followed by something like "Helen's Kitchen," would help lock her in place above Sur la Table and the other larger entities. (I might do a separate video on how to find the title tag in the code and update it.)
Final Thoughts
Those are the three steps: brainstorm on your own, use AI as a partner, and do a Google search to see what competitors are choosing for their primary keyword. Add in a free tool like Google Ads Keyword Planner for real data, and you can make a great choice on the primary keyword for any page you're working on.
Sometimes it's tricky to choose, because it isn't always this straightforward. If you're in one of those scenarios, leave me a comment and we can talk through it together.
