The words your customers actually type
You know your trade's language. Your customers do not. A lot of the search traffic a Newcastle business misses is sitting in that gap, in phrases nobody inside the business would ever think to write down.
Nobody searches for what you call it
A sparkie calls it a switchboard upgrade. The customer types "power keeps tripping". A plumber calls it a tempering valve. The customer types "hot water too hot at the tap". A builder offers secondary dwellings. The customer asks "can I put a granny flat in my backyard". Both sets of words are correct. Only one of them gets typed into Google at nine o'clock at night.
The page that wins is the one that answers the question in the same words the question was asked in.
Three ways to find the real words, none of them paid
- Read your own enquiries. People describe their problem in their own words before anyone has a chance to correct them. Your inbox is a keyword list you already own.
- Let Google finish your sentence. Start typing the question and watch what autocomplete suggests, then read the "People also ask" box. That is Google telling you what people actually ask next.
- Write down the first line on the phone. The opening sentence out of a caller's mouth, collected for a fortnight, will show you the pattern faster than any tool.
Then use them like a person, not a robot
The advice from business.gov.au is to think about the keywords customers are likely to search for and work them naturally into your writing, rather than forcing them in. That is the whole craft of it. Repeating a phrase does not make a page more relevant, it makes it harder to read, and the person you are trying to win is the one reading it.
A simple test: read the paragraph out loud. If you would not say it that way to someone standing in front of you, take the words back out.
Where the words earn their keep
- The page title, which is the blue line people see in Google.
- The first paragraph, where a reader decides whether to stay.
- Your headings, which is how most people skim.
- Your Google Business Profile description and service list.
For local searches, Google says what shows up is decided by three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Distance you cannot change and prominence takes time. Relevance is the one you control directly, and you control it with words.
Why this beats chasing algorithm news
Google's own documentation describes core updates as broad, ongoing changes to how its systems assess content across the entire web, not something aimed at particular sites or individual pages. There is usually nothing to react to and nothing to undo. Pages that answer real questions in real language are the ones that keep working through all of it.
Where to start this month
Pick the three questions you answer most often on the phone. Give each one its own page, written the way the question gets asked. That is a month's work at most, and it is worth more than a year of tinkering.
If you want the full running order, our SEO tips cover what to do in what sequence, and how long SEO takes sets a realistic expectation for when any of it starts to show.