Gathering keywords: Thinking about your customer's (imperfect) intent

Now that we have our keyword matrix in place and an emerging understanding of how to approach our keyword strategy, we will want to begin to build out our keyword list—the "collection" phase.

This part of keyword research is relatively easy: just throw everything into the pot. We'll narrow our list later. To build out your keyword list, you want to think about the services and products you offer and think of every possible word and combination of words that people might use to find what you sell.

It's important to think of not what words you use to describe your product,

but what words your potential customers use.

Your customers might not use the same terms that you use; they might use derogatory terms, abbreviated terms, misspelled terms, or lingo terms. One illustrative example is cosmetic surgeon/plastic surgeon. Doctors who work in that field refer to themselves as "cosmetic surgeons." The term "Plastic surgeon" does...