SEO By Lui Nobrega · Jun 10, 2026 · Updated Oct 26, 2026 · 5 min read

Use the words your customers use

You might call your work therapeutic bodywork. Your customer types massage near me. Write the words they use, not the words your industry uses. Google makes the same point in its own starter guide: people who know a topic well search with different words than people who are new to it.

Step 1: Write down how people ask you

Start with what you already have. This costs nothing and it is often the best list you will make.

1. For one week, write down the exact words people use when they call, email or walk in. Not what they mean. What they say.
2. Read your reviews and your contact form messages. Note the words customers use to describe the job.
3. Make one short list per service. Put the most common way of asking at the top.

Step 2: Let Google show you what people type

Google shows you real searches every time you use it. You just have to look.

1. Type the start of your main phrase into Google slowly, for example "kitchen remodel" plus your town. Write down the predictions that appear under the search box. Google says they reflect real searches done on Google. See: How Google autocomplete predictions work (opens in a new tab)
2. Run the search. Look for the box of related questions, often called "People also ask", and the group of related searches. Google suggests paying attention to them when you think about what to write. See: Visual Elements Gallery of Google Search (opens in a new tab)
3. Add any question you can answer to your list. Each one can become a line on a service page or a question in your FAQ.

Step 3: See what already brings people to your site

If your website is connected to Google Search Console, it already knows which searches show your site. This is the most honest list you can get, because it is your own data.

1. If you have not set up Search Console yet, add your website as a property and verify that it is yours. See: Add a website property to Search Console (opens in a new tab)
2. Open the Performance report. It shows the past three months by default. See: Performance report (Search results) (opens in a new tab)
3. Select the Queries tab. These are the words people typed when your site showed up.
4. Look for searches with many impressions but few clicks. Those are words people use that your page may not answer clearly yet.

Step 4: Compare two ways of saying it

Not sure if people say gutter cleaning or gutter repair? Google Trends lets you compare them.

1. Open Google Trends and search for your first phrase. See: Get started with Google Trends (opens in a new tab)
2. Add a second phrase to compare. Then narrow the location to your state. See: Compare Trends search terms (opens in a new tab)
3. Read the lines as relative interest, not as a number of searches. Google scales the results from 0 to 100. See: FAQ about Google Trends data (opens in a new tab)

Step 5 (optional): Get search estimates from Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner is Google's tool for advertisers. It suggests related keywords and estimates how often they are searched. You need a Google Ads account, and Google asks you to finish the account setup, including billing information, before you can use it.

1. Open Keyword Planner from the Tools menu in Google Ads and select "Discover new keywords". See: Use Keyword Planner (opens in a new tab)
2. Enter a few words about your service, or your own web address, and select "Get results".
3. Do not worry if a very local phrase shows no data. Google says keywords with very low search volume are not shown. A small number of the right searches can still be worth a lot to you.

Add your town

Plumber is a fight you cannot win. Plumber in Meriden CT is a fight you can win. Far fewer people search for it. But the people who do are usually close by and ready to call someone. Mention the towns you really serve in plain sentences. Do not paste a long block of town names onto a page. Google lists that as an example of keyword stuffing.

Put each keyword on its own page

Do not pile every service onto one page. Give each service its own page, and give each page one main phrase. A page about everything is hard for people and for Google to match to any one search.

1. Use the main phrase in the page title. Google says a good title is unique to the page, clear and concise, and describes what is on it. See: SEO Starter Guide: The Basics (opens in a new tab)
2. Use it again in the main heading and once or twice in the text, where it reads naturally.
3. Answer the questions from your list on that page, in your own words. See: Writing Website Copy That Sounds Like You
4. Read the page out loud. If it sounds like a robot repeating itself, cut the repeats.

Do not stuff keywords

Repeating the same words over and over does not help. Google calls it keyword stuffing, and it is against Google's spam policies. It also tires out the people reading. Write for the customer. Google says its systems can understand what a page is about even when it does not use every exact phrase.

Common questions

Sources and further reading

• SEO Starter Guide: The Basics (opens in a new tab) · Google Search Central
• Spam policies for Google web search (opens in a new tab) · Google Search Central
• Visual Elements Gallery of Google Search (opens in a new tab) · Google Search Central
• Performance report (Search results): Overview and basic setup (opens in a new tab) · Search Console Help
• FAQ about Google Trends data (opens in a new tab) · Google Trends Help
• Use Keyword Planner (opens in a new tab) · Google Ads Help

Use your customers' own words, check them against what Google shows you, add your town, and give every service its own page. Write for people, not for the search box.