How to Choose the Right Keywords for Your Small Business

Think like your customer, not like your business

The biggest mistake small business owners make in keyword research is thinking about how they describe their own business, rather than how their customers search for it. A removalist might call their service 'furniture relocation' — but their customers search for 'movers Sydney' or 'cheap removalists'. A financial planner might offer 'wealth accumulation strategies' — but their clients search for 'financial planner Sydney' or 'how to invest for retirement'. Your keywords should be the words your customers use, not the industry jargon you use internally.

• →Ask your best customers: 'How did you find us?' and 'What did you search for?'
• →Look at the exact words customers use when they call or email you
• →Check your Google Business Profile for the search terms people used to find you
• →Read reviews of your competitors — the words customers use to describe the service are keyword gold

Understand the three types of keywords

Not all keywords are equal. Understanding the three main types will help you prioritise where to focus your effort and what kind of content to create for each.

• →Informational keywords — searches where someone wants to learn something. Example: 'how to fix a leaking tap'. These are best served by blog posts and guides. They bring visitors who aren't necessarily ready to buy, but who might become customers later.
• →Navigational keywords — searches where someone is looking for a specific business or website. Example: 'Smith Plumbing Sydney'. Focus on making sure your Google Business Profile is complete and your homepage is well-optimised for your business name.
• →Transactional keywords — searches where someone is ready to buy or hire. Example: 'plumber Sydney quote' or 'book plumber online Sydney'. These are the most valuable for a small business and should be the priority for your service and location pages.

Find keywords using free tools

You don't need to pay for keyword research tools to find good keywords for a small business. Several free methods give you real search data that's more than enough to build a strong keyword strategy.

• →Google Autocomplete — start typing your main service in Google and see what Google suggests. These suggestions are based on real searches.
• →People Also Ask — the expandable questions that appear in Google results show you related searches and informational queries.
• →Google Search Console — shows you the actual search terms people used to find your site. Access this through Traffic Magnet's dashboard.
• →Google Related Searches — scroll to the bottom of any Google results page to see related searches.
• →Competitors' pages — look at the title tags and headings on your top competitors' pages to see what keywords they're targeting.
• →Answer the Public (free tier) — type in your main service and get a map of questions people search around that topic.

Evaluate keywords by intent, volume, and competition

Once you have a list of potential keywords, you need to evaluate which ones to prioritise. Three factors matter: search intent (is this the right audience?), search volume (how many people search for this?), and competition (how hard is it to rank?). For a small business with a new or low-authority website, the sweet spot is keywords with clear transactional intent, moderate search volume, and low-to-medium competition.

• →High volume + high competition (e.g. 'plumber Sydney') — very hard to rank, years of effort required
• →High volume + low competition — rare but ideal when you find them, act fast
• →Low volume + low competition (e.g. 'plumber Balmain emergency') — easier to rank, less traffic but often higher conversion
• →Low volume + high competition — avoid these, the effort isn't worth the return

Build a keyword map for your website

A keyword map assigns specific keywords to specific pages on your website. Each page should target one primary keyword and a small number of closely related secondary keywords. This prevents multiple pages competing against each other (called keyword cannibalism) and ensures every page has a clear purpose and audience.

• →Homepage — target your broadest, most important keyword (e.g. 'plumber Sydney')
• →Service pages — one page per service, each targeting a specific service keyword
• →Location pages — if you serve multiple suburbs, create a dedicated page for each with localised content
• →Blog posts — target informational keywords that answer specific questions your customers have
• →About page — target brand + location searches (e.g. 'Smith Plumbing Sydney team')

Add your best keywords to Traffic Magnet

Once you've identified your target keywords, add them to Traffic Magnet so you can track your ranking position for each one every week. This turns keyword research from a one-time exercise into an ongoing feedback loop. You'll see which keywords are moving up (your content is working), which are stuck (need more effort), and which are dropping (something changed that needs attention). Start with your 5–10 most important transactional keywords and track them consistently.