How to Choose Keywords For SEO (The 4-Factor Approach to Dominate Your Niche)

As a coach or consultant, your knowledge is your most valuable asset. But what’s the use of that knowledge if potential clients can’t find you online?

In this guide, I’ll show you how to choose keywords for SEO – keywords that attract valuable clients and boost your business growth.

You’ll discover how to:

1. Find keywords your ideal clients actually use
2. Focus on phrases that show a high likelihood to buy your services
3. Narrow down keywords in relation to the strength of your website

These strategies will make your website a powerful tool for attracting clients – whether you’re a life coach aiming to fill your schedule or a business consultant looking to secure more corporate clients.

I normally use a two-part process when choosing keywords. First, I generate a large list of potentially relevant keywords (I’ll show you how in the next section).

Second, I filter and narrow down the list to choose the ones that look most promising. I always evaluate several additional factors to decide whether a keyword makes sense to pursue. Here’s what that process looks like.

Part 1: Finding Relevant Keywords For Your Business

Method 1: Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are the foundation of your keyword research. These are the broad core terms that define your business, services, and target audience. Here’s how to use them effectively:

1. Start with your services: List out every service you offer. For a business coach, this might include “strategic planning,” “leadership development,” and “performance optimization.”
2. Include industry terms: Add keywords that are specific to your niche. If you specialize in tech startups, include terms like “SaaS coaching” or “startup mentoring.”
3. Think like your client: What words would your ideal client use to describe their problems or goals? “Improve team productivity” or “scale my business” could be good examples.
4. Use professional keyword research tools: Input your seed keywords into tools like Ahrefs or Semrush. These will generate hundreds of related keywords, giving you a goldmine of ideas.
5. Analyze the results: Look for patterns and themes in the suggested keywords. You’ll often find long-tail variations or related topics you hadn’t considered.

Method 2: Competitor Reverse Engineering

Your competitors have already done a lot of the work for you. By analyzing their keyword strategies, you can uncover valuable opportunities and gaps in the market.

1. Identify your top competitors: Look for businesses offering similar services to yours, both locally and nationally.
2. Use SEO tools to analyze their websites: Tools like Semrush or Ahrefs can show you exactly which keywords your competitors are ranking for.
3. Look for content gaps: Are there topics your competitors are covering that you’re not? These could be valuable keyword opportunities.
4. Assess keyword difficulty: Some of your competitors might be ranking for high-difficulty keywords. Look for lower-difficulty alternatives that you could target.
5. Analyze their top-performing content: What topics are getting the most traffic? This can give you insights into what your audience is interested in.
6. Check their PPC campaigns: If competitors are paying for certain keywords, it’s a good indicator that those terms are valuable.

The goal here isn’t to copy your competitors’ content, but instead learn from their successes and identify promising opportunities they might have missed.

Method 3: Forum Mining

Forums and online communities are absolutely amazing places for keyword research. It’s kind of like opening up a direct portal into your potential clients’ pain points, concerns, and choice of language.

Here’s a detailed approach focusing on Reddit, one of the most valuable platforms for this method (but you can easily substitute other forums in place of it):

Start with Reddit Search:
Open Reddit and enter your broad seed keyword (e.g., “life coaching”) into the search bar. Your goal is to find subreddits that are closely focused on your topic.

Identify Relevant Subreddits:
Look for subreddits that are specifically about your niche or where your target audience is likely to gather. For life coaching, you might find subreddits like r/lifecoaching, r/selfimprovement, or r/getdisciplined.

Analyze Subreddit Content:
Spend some time browsing the top posts and comments. Pay attention to:

• Frequently asked questions
• Common pain points or challenges discussed
• Specific language and terminology used by the community

Use SEO Tools for Deep Diving:
Here’s where we bring in advanced SEO techniques:

• Take the URL of a relevant subreddit (e.g., https://www.reddit.com/r/lifecoaching/)
• Plug this URL into a keyword research tool like Ahrefs or Semrush
• These tools will show you all the keywords that the subreddit is ranking for related to your topic

Analyze the Results:
The keywords you find through this method are incredibly valuable because:

• They represent real questions and topics your target audience is discussing
• They often include long-tail keywords that are less competitive but highly relevant
• They can reveal niche topics or emerging trends in your field

Pro Tips:

• Pay attention to the specific language and phrases used in top posts and comments. These can be goldmines for crafting content that resonates with your audience.
• Look for questions that come up repeatedly. These are prime candidates for creating FAQs or in-depth guide content.
• Don’t ignore seemingly “basic” questions. Even if you think a topic is too simple, if it’s being asked frequently, it’s worth addressing.
• Use Reddit’s sorting features (Top posts of all time, Hot, New) to get a mix of evergreen and trending topics.

This forum mining technique lets you tap directly into the conversations and concerns of your potential clients.

It’s super valuable because it gives you deep insights into the types of content that will truly resonate with your audience.

Want to see my Reddit technique in action? Check out this video walkthrough:

Part 2: Selecting the Right Keywords for Qualified Leads

These are the four key factors to consider when selecting the right keywords to target for your business. I’ve arranged them in priority order, from most important to least important.

1. Relevance

Relevance is the absolute cornerstone of effective keyword selection. Every keyword you choose should directly relate to your ideal client and the services you offer. This makes sure you’re attracting the right audience who are more likely to become clients.

Align your keywords with your specific coaching or consulting niche, focusing on terms that describe the problems you solve or the outcomes you provide. Include keywords that match your ideal client’s language and level of expertise.

For example, if you’re a business coach specializing in startups, relevant keywords might include “startup growth strategies,” “new business mentoring,” or “tech entrepreneur coach.”

2. Search Intent

Understanding the intent behind a search query is crucial for attracting qualified leads. Different types of search intent indicate varying stages in the client’s journey.

These include:

• informational intent (users seeking information)
• Navigational intent (users looking for a specific website)
• Commercial intent (users researching services before deciding)
• Transactional intent (users ready to purchase or hire).

A particularly valuable category within informational intent is the “how to” keyword. These phrases often indicate a specific pain point or challenge that potential clients are facing.

For coaches and consultants, “how to” keywords are one of the best ways to attract qualified leads actively seeking solutions.

“How to” keywords typically fall into two categories:

1. Direct problem-solving: These are phrases like “how to improve team communication” or “how to increase sales productivity.” They indicate that the searcher is aware of a specific issue and is looking for practical solutions.
2. Aspirational goals: These phrases might include “how to become a more effective leader” or “how to scale a startup.” These searchers are looking to achieve a particular outcome or transformation.

Creating content that addresses these “how to” queries is a great chance to position yourself as a helpful resource and demonstrate your expertise.

That’s why I highly recommend using “how-to” blog content as a starting point for potential clients to engage with your services. Here’s how:

1. Provide partial solutions: Your content can offer initial steps or basic strategies to address the “how to” query. This demonstrates your knowledge and builds trust.
2. Highlight the complexity: While offering helpful information, you can also emphasize the nuances and challenges involved in fully addressing the issue, subtly indicating the value of professional guidance.
3. Showcase your expertise: Use case studies or examples from your coaching or consulting experience to illustrate how you’ve helped others with similar challenges.
4. Offer next steps: Include clear calls-to-action that guide readers toward your services. This could be an invitation to a free consultation, a webinar, or a more in-depth resource.

For example, if you’re a leadership coach, you might create content for the keyword “how to motivate underperforming employees.”

Your article could provide some general tips, but also emphasize the importance of personalized strategies and ongoing support – services that you offer.

By targeting these “how to” keywords, you’re connecting with potential clients at the exact moment they’re seeking solutions to problems you can solve.

This approach allows you to demonstrate value upfront, establish credibility, and create a natural pathway for prospects to explore your services further.

3. Difficulty

Keyword difficulty refers to how challenging it is to rank for a particular keyword in search engine results.

This factor can be important for figuring out which keywords are realistic targets for your SEO strategy. Here’s how to approach keyword difficulty:

Use SEO Tools:
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz each offer their own proprietary keyword difficulty scores. These scores, typically on a scale of 0-100, provide a quick snapshot of how competitive a keyword is.

For example, Ahrefs’ Keyword Difficulty (KD) score estimates how many backlinks you’d need to rank in the top 10 for a given keyword.

Interpret Difficulty Scores:

• Low difficulty (0-30): These keywords are generally easier to rank for and could be good targets, especially if you’re just starting out.
• Medium difficulty (30-60): These require more effort but can be achievable with quality content and some link building.
• High difficulty (60-100): These are highly competitive and typically require significant SEO resources (such as lots of backlinks and an aged domain) in order to rank.

Note: The above is just a rough estimate based loosely on Ahrefs KD scoring.

Analyze Top 10 Search Results:
But don’t just rely on the keyword difficulty score alone. You should also Google your target keyword and examine the top 10 search results:

• Look at the DR/DA scores of ranking sites. If you see websites with similar or lower domain authority than yours, it’s a good sign (I like using the free Ahrefs toolbar to get an easy snapshot of DR scores).
• Check out the content quality. If it’s bad – and you can produce significantly better, more detailed, more expert content – then you might have a decent chance to outrank them.
• Assess the diversity of results. If the top 10 includes a mix of big brands and smaller sites, there might be an opportunity for you to rank.

Consider Your Own Domain Strength:
Compare your website’s DR/DA to those sites ranking for your target keyword. If your site’s strength is comparable or stronger, you have a better chance of ranking.

Look for Keyword Gaps:
Sometimes, you can find keywords where the top-ranking content isn’t directly addressing the search intent. These present opportunities to create more relevant content that could rank well despite high difficulty scores.

Balance Difficulty with Other Factors:
Remember, a high-difficulty keyword that’s extremely relevant to your niche might still be worth targeting if you have the resources. Conversely, an easy-to-rank-for keyword isn’t valuable if it’s not relevant to your audience.

Long-Tail Strategy:
Consider targeting long-tail variations of competitive keywords. These often have lower difficulty scores and can collectively drive significant traffic.

I also prefer targeting long tail keywords because they usually have a clear and specific intent, which makes them easier to create content for. For example, if someone is searching for “how to leave a 9 to 5 job” it’s pretty obvious what they want to find in the search results.

4. Volume

Search volume indicates how many times a keyword is searched for in a given period (typically one month).

While it’s worth considering, volume should normally be the least important factor in your keyword selection process. Let’s explore some of the reasons why that’s the case.

First off, most SEO tools provide estimated search volumes, but these figures can be notoriously inaccurate.

They often vastly underestimate the actual search volume, especially for long-tail or niche keywords. Hence, relying too heavily on reported search volumes means you’ll likely overlook valuable keywords.

As a rule of thumb, always prioritize your audience’s needs over raw search numbers. If a keyword is highly relevant to your target clients and addresses their specific pain points or questions, it’s worth targeting even if the reported search volume is low.

What’s more, low-volume keywords often indicate a more specific search intent. These searches are typically performed by users who know exactly what they’re looking for, making them more likely to convert. For coaches and consultants, these focused searches typically generate higher-quality leads for your business.

While individual long-tail keywords might have low search volumes, collectively they can drive significant traffic. An SEO content strategy targeting multiple low-volume, highly relevant keywords is usually more effective than competing for a few high-volume, generic terms.

Some keywords may have low average monthly searches but experience spikes during certain times of the year or during specific events. These can be valuable if they align with your business cycles or specialties.

Lower-volume keywords are often less competitive, giving you a better chance to rank well. This can be particularly advantageous for newer websites or those in highly competitive niches.

And don’t forget, even if a keyword has low search volume, creating content around it can provide value in other ways. It can serve as a resource for your existing clients, support your overall content strategy, or be repurposed in your other marketing materials, such as your email newsletter or LinkedIn posts.

Actionable Next Steps

Knowing how to choose keywords for SEO is the foundation of a successful content strategy for coaches and consultants. Without it, you’ll struggle to generate results from organic content creation.

By following the methods I’ve outlined here – from brainstorming seed keywords to reverse-engineering competitor strategies and mining forums for insights – you’ll come up with a wealth of relevant keywords to help you attract qualified leads to your business.

In this article, I’ve given you a starting point to conduct your own keyword research. To help you take this to the next level, I’ve created a free video training to walk you through my proven keyword research process (the one that grew my coaching business from 0 to 5+ clients per week).

Grab the training below: