“A vision without a strategy remains an illusion.” -Lee Bolman

When I first started my Teachers Pay Teachers store “The Present Teacher,” I felt like I was constantly chasing a dream. I would read resource after resource until I created my strategy. 

As I mentioned in “Why You Should Mentor-Down,” this wasn’t a good idea. In fact, it stunted the growth and reach of my store. It wasn’t until I had a solid strategy, as mentioned by Bolman, and measurable goals that I finally started seeing progress. 

One of the strategies that massively transformed my business was utilizing Keyword Research. Without Keyword Research, I was unable to figure out which resources my audience needed or wanted. My followers also couldn’t find me as easily which was a huge roadblock to providing content to them. 

Once I started utilizing Keyword Research, I saw a huge transformation! In just my views alone this month has nearly doubled!

That’s why I want to share with you how I got here. In this article we are going to cover the following:

• What are Keywords?
• Why is Keyword Research Important?
• How do you do Keyword Research?
• How do you use Keywords in Titles and Descriptions?
• And the Importance of Not “Keyword-Stuffing” Your Content

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What are Keywords?

According to MOZ, “Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about. In terms of SEO, they’re the words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines.”

In other words, keywords are the subject of your content and what your audience needs to type in to find it. 

In the article “10 New TPT Seller Tips That Will Transform Your Business,” I mention how “When you look up Keywords, you are researching what words you need to put in your descriptions, titles, alt texts, etc. for your audience to reach your content. Or to find you through search.”

When you know what your audience is looking for or typing in the search, it’s easier to create content that your audience is looking for. That and it allows them to find you.

Hence, the more people that find you the more people your content is reaching. 

Related:

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  How to Gain More Followers Through Customer Service As A TPT Seller
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  How I Improved My TPT Income From $0 to $186 in 6 Months

Why is Keyword Research Important?

We already talked about this part in the previous section. But utilizing Keyword research allows more people to find your content. For instance, I did the following research for some Differentiated Sight Word Worksheets that I created. 

When I included these Keywords in my Descriptions and Titles, I was higher in the search when people looked for these keywords.

And I had previously stated, the higher in search you are the more people that your content is going to reach. Which in turn might mean more opportunities for a sale. 

How to Do Keyword Research

There are many ways to do Keyword Research. However, I am going to show you one of the easiest ways to do keyword research. Oh, and it’s free!

So let’s get started!

The resource you are going to need is… Google. Yep, that’s it. Just good old Google!

There are two ways you can do Keyword Research with Google. The first way is to use the Google Search Bar.

Using the Google Search Bar For Keyword Research

The first thing you need to do is go to google.com and type in the search bar the content you are creating. For example, I typed in “Sight Word Worksheets” and got the following results:

Whatever words you find in bold are other keywords that people are likely to search as well. For instance, I notice that “PDF Free” is in bold after “Sight word Worksheets.” Which means a lot of people are looking for free PDF worksheets. 

The other words I notice that people are searching for are “Kindergarten,” “1st grade,” “2nd grade,” “editable,” “Dolch,” and “sentences.” 

This gives me a good indicator of what I should include in my descriptions and titles. Or even my products.

Using the Bottom of Google For Keyword Research

Another way to do Keyword Research with Google is to scroll down to the bottom of the page. At the bottom of the page, you will find a “Related Section.” 

Sometimes this may have the same keywords that were mentioned in the search bar. However, this may not always be the case. Depending on the topic, sometimes there might be common questions that people have about the keyword. 

These are great to address when creating content that solves a problem!

Other Ways to Do Keyword Research

As I had mentioned previously, there are many ways to do Keyword Research. If you are looking for more ways or more keywords to utilize in your content, you can always check out my Free Teachers Pay Teachers Keyword Research Workbook! In this Free Workbook, I mention 3 other ways to do Keyword Research. And the best part: all three ways are free!

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And just so you know this Keyword Research does not only apply to content on Teachers Pay Teachers. In fact, all the keywords that I showed you today I use on Pinterest, My Blog Posts, and more! 

How to Put Keywords In Titles and Descriptions

Now that we have some Keywords, let’s talk about what to do with them. There are two places to put keywords that we are going to cover. 

• Titles
• Descriptions

Titles

The first place you want to put Keywords is in your Title. This is so much easier once you do your Keyword Research. After you know what keywords your audience is searching for you can create an amazing Title that will help you appear in search.

For example:

“Dolch Differentiated Sight Word Worksheets”

In this example I used:

(Keyword) (What it is About) (What type of Product it is)

I did not overuse my keywords, however, I chose the ones most relevant to the content. 

Another example of utilizing this prompt is:

1st Grade Sight Word Worksheets

(Keyword) (What it is About) (What type of product it is)

This allows my audience to know what the content is about and what type of resource it is. It also allows me to put in another keyword that people are looking for to make it seem more searchable. 

This was a game-changer for my products!

Descriptions

There are so many places to put the Keywords that you found through Keyword Research in your descriptions. However, we are going to just talk about the 1st paragraph.

The 1st paragraph in your description is extremely important! Because it is the first thing your audience will read. 

For example, here is one of my descriptions:

“Are you Teaching Sight Words in Kindergarten, 1st Grade or Special Education, and not sure where to start? This resource consists of a total of 360 Sight Word Worksheets. A total of 120 sight words, differentiated into three levels: easy, medium, hard. Perfect for small groups, literacy centers, homework, or whole group!”

(Pain point or problem a teacher may have in the form of a question) (Grades) (What the product entails)(What it is used for)

I made sure the description was easy to read while incorporating the Keywords we had discovered through Keyword Research.

Another example of utilizing this prompt would be:

“Are you Distance Learning this year and need fun and engaging Fall or Halloween activities? These “Five Little Pumpkins” Digital activities are perfect for Distance Learning. They are made on Google Slides and are ready to go. Text boxes are already there for your students to answer. Or, you can erase them and make the PRINT AND GO ready. I made several different versions to be as resourceful as possible. For Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 1st grade Students! For the activities you can do them whole group or assign them to each individual student. Just DRAG and GO, and your students will have an engaging fun activity while learning digitally!”

(Pain point or problem a teacher may have in the form of a question) (What the Product is)(Grades) (What the product entails)(What it is used for)

It’s that simple!

Don’t Keyword Stuff

The final thing about using Keyword Research in your Descriptions and Titles is don’t Keyword Stuff. 

Keyword stuff is basically where you use so many keywords that the content is unclear and it just doesn’t make sense.

A lot of people do this so that they may appear higher in search. However the reality is when you keyword stuff you are hurting your chances on a sale. 

When you Keyword Stuff, oftentimes the sentence doesn’t make sense. Which means it won’t be engaging to your audience. And if your audience can’t make sense of your content, then they won’t engage with it.

Another reason not to Keyword Stuff is that some Algorithms will punish you for it. For instance, if you use so many keywords in your descriptions that it is unclear what your content is about, the Algorithm may think you are Spam. 

And if you appear as Spam to the Algorithm then you are not going to be at the top of search.

Reviewing What We Went Over

All in all, Keyword Research is a great Asset for TPT Sellers. It allows content creators to appear at the top of search which allows your content to reach more people.

I hope you found this article useful and that these strategies transform your business like it did mine.

How do you use Keyword Research? Please feel free to comment below so we can help each other grow.

Because together we are stronger.

Happy Teaching!