If you’ve dabbled in search engine optimization, you know the importance of keywords in attracting organic and paid search traffic to your page. But “keyword stuffing”–filling your site with tons of keywords that are unnatural and awkward–is a major no-no for modern SEO.

But keywords do still have a place in any good SEO strategy. We’ll show you how to use Google’s keyword planner to find new search terms and keywords to target for your home inspection website.

Using keyword planner

Google’s keyword planner is a free tool is mainly used for paid keyword research, but it’s also a great way to get an idea of what your potential customers are searching for. The, you can write about those keywords on your site to attract more visitors.

To use keyword planner, sign up for an AdWords account using your email address and website.

Once you’re logged in, mouse over the ‘Tools’ tab at the top of the page. Select Keyword Planner from the dropdown menu.

Begin a search for new keywords by clicking ‘search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category.’ For the purpose of this example, we’ll use the phrase ‘home inspections’ with www.inspectorpages.com as the landing page.

Complete the rest of the form by filling in your industry, target language, and location. Then, click ‘Get ideas.’

The keyword planner will return a chart showing the search volume for this term over time–how many people searched for it in your area over a week, month, year, etc. You want your target keywords to have a steady or increasing search volume.

We’re going to be interested in the section beneath that chart. Click on the tab labeled ‘keyword ideas.’

Here you’ll find a list of keywords related to your industry, specific to your location. For each keyword, you’ll see the number of monthly searches, the competition level and the suggested bid (used for AdWords campaigns).

If we sort the form by number of monthly searches, we can see that the most-searched term is what you’d probably expect: home inspection. But as you work your way down the list, you’ll see some other related terms you might not be focusing on: building inspector, house inspector, etc.

Competition level

The next thing we want to zero in on is the level of competition for each keyword. You can see the first few on the list have a high level of competition, meaning there are lot of other people targeting those same keywords in your market.

But if we scroll down the list a bit, we can find several other similar keywords with a decent amount of search traffic but a low level of competition. These are the low-hanging fruits we want to reach for.

To capture people searching for these terms, you’ll want to make sure each of them are addressed on your website. Ideally, you’ll set up individual landing pages that specifically talk about each of these keywords. This will capture searches and lead them to other pages on your site.

How to capitalize on these keywords

Let’s say you decide you want to focus on ‘radon inspector,’ (assuming, of course, this is a service you offer). You’ll want to create a designated landing page on your site where you talk all about your radon inspection services. You could show photos, offer pricing and of course, include a call-to-action for interested customers to contact you. You’ll also want to be sure your location is mentioned on the page.

Because there are a significant number of people searching for this term in your area, but the competition is low, searchers will be more likely to land on your site than your competitors’ and, in turn, book a service with you.

As you can key, it’s easy to get lost in Google’s keyword planner, searching variations on any and every term related to your industry. And you should! It’s a free way to bring more web visitors in the door each month.

You can take this keyword research one step further into the paid realm by setting up AdWords campaigns for each of your target terms. Kissmetrics has a wonderful tutorial to get you started with your first campaign.

Want more free marketing tips and tricks? Follow Inspector Pages on Twitter.