Hi friend,
Lance here. Today I want to talk about something I’m calling “kickstart keywords.”
Kickstart keywords are searches in search engines or AI that begin an exploration of a topic(s).
Example: “mortgage calculator”
You search for a tool like this because you’re curious or need one, and soon after you’ll be asking additional questions around the topic of mortgages:
- What are closing costs and how much are they?
- How are interest rates determined?
- What do you need to get pre-approved for a mortgage?
And so on.
Kickstart keywords are everywhere and can be gold mines for businesses that want to build authority and both create and capture demand (there’s a difference between those two).
Demand creation: You get someone interested in a topic, service, product, etc.
Demand capture: You are the one they go to buy.
Kickstart keywords are a great area to begin building demand creation and brand affinity.
But depending on what your kickstart keyword is, it could be more or less challenging becoming the one who creates and captures the demand.
More challenge comes from:
- Long buying journeys (like buying a house).
- Previous brand affinity (like me only wearing Nike’s for running).
- Going after extremely competitive terms (like mortgage calculator).
When you are trying to rank a page and have a target keyword(s), which is how you do SEO, you should be looking for those kickstart keywords.
When you identify kickstart keywords, make sure you explore all the different routes people could take AFTER and provide them:
- [MOST IDEAL] Content sections and links to other pages, articles, tools on YOUR website, or
- [LESS IDEAL] Links to other great resources across the web.
