Find “Shoulder Keywords”
Most people ONLY optimize their site around keywords that are very closely related to what they sell.
And it’s a BIG mistake for two main reasons:
1. Product keywords are usually super competitive.
2. There are thousands of keywords that your potential customer searches for when they’re not searching for that you sell.
And if you can get in front of your customer with an awesome piece of content, they’re SUPER likely to buy from you down the road.
For example, like I mentioned earlier, I run an SEO training company.
But I don’t optimize every page on my site around commercial terms.
(Like “SEO training” and “SEO courses”).
Instead, I rank for keywords that my customers search for when they’re not looking for SEO training.
(Keywords like: “link building”, “on-page SEO” and “SEO Tools”).
I call these keywords “Shoulder Keywords”.
These keywords aren’t directly related to what you sell. But they’re keywords that your customers search for. Which makes them worth going after.
How about another example?
Let’s say you run an Ecommerce site that sells basketball hoops.
Obviously, you’d want to optimize some of your pages around terms like “buy basketball hoops online”.
But don’t stop there.
After all, someone interested in buying a basketball hoop may also search for:
- How to shoot a better free throw
- Slam dunk highlights
- How to get recruited by college scouts
- Nutrition for basketball players
- How to improve a vertical jump
So you’d want to create content around these “Shoulder Keywords” too.
