Reading Santa’s Letters: Keyword Research Basics

Welcome to Day 13 of the MyWebHost Advent Calendar! 📜 We have entered Week 3: Content & SEO.

We have built the workshop, tuned the engine with NVMe, and prepared for traffic spikes. Now, we need to fill the shelves.

But what toys should the elves actually make?

Imagine Santa sitting in his workshop in November. He doesn’t just guess what children want. He doesn’t decide to manufacture 50,000 wooden ducks just because he personally likes wooden ducks. If he did that, Christmas morning would be a disaster of disappointed faces and unwanted gifts.

Instead, he reads the letters.

• “Dear Santa, I want a Lego Star Wars X-Wing.”
• “Dear Santa, I want a pink bicycle with a bell.”

He gives the audience exactly what they asked for. He uses data, not intuition.

In the world of websites, these letters are Keywords.

If you are writing content based on what you think is interesting, or using industry jargon that your customers don’t understand, you are guessing. You are building wooden ducks in a world that wants X-Wings.

Today, we are going to learn how to read those letters. We will show you how to find the exact phrases your customers are typing into Google, so you can show up at the top of their Christmas list (Google Search Results) with the exact answer they need.

The Two Types of Letters: Short vs. Long Tail ✉️

Not all searches are equal. In SEO, we split keywords into two main categories based on length and specificity. Understanding the difference is the key to ranking a new website.

1. Short Tail Keywords (“The Vague Wish”)

These are broad, one or two-word phrases.

• Example: “Toys”, “Hosting”, “Plumber”, “Shoes”.
• Volume: Massive (100,000+ searches a month).
• Competition: Impossible. If you try to rank for “Shoes,” you are fighting Amazon, Nike, Wikipedia, and massive corporations with multi-million pound marketing budgets.
• Intent: Confused. If someone searches for “Toys,” what do they want? Do they want to buy a toy? Are they looking for a toy museum? Do they want to watch the movie Toy Story? You don’t know, so you can’t satisfy them.

2. Long Tail Keywords (“The Specific Request”)

These are specific phrases, usually 3, 4, or more words long.

• Example: “Best wooden train set for toddlers under £50”.
• Volume: Low (maybe 50 searches a month).
• Competition: Low. Amazon doesn’t have a specific page optimised for this exact sentence. You can beat them.
• Intent: Ready to buy. This person knows exactly what they want. They have their credit card in their hand; they just need to find the right shop.

The Strategy:

As a small business, ignore Short Tail. You won’t rank for “Plumber.” It is a vanity metric.

You can rank for “Emergency boiler repair plumber in Bristol.”

Long Tail keywords account for 70% of all web searches. That is where the gold is. It is better to have 10 visitors who all buy, than 1,000 visitors who bounce immediately.

Understanding “Search Intent” (The Why) 🤔

Before you pick a keyword, you need to know why the person typed it. Google categorises intent into four buckets. You need to match your content to the bucket, or Google will ignore you.

1. Informational (“I want to know”)

The user has a problem or a question. They are not looking to spend money yet.

• Keyword: “How to fix a leaking tap”, “What is NVMe hosting?”, “History of Christmas trees”.
• Content Needed: A helpful blog post, a “How-to” guide, or a video tutorial.
• Goal: Build trust. If you help them fix the tap today, they will remember you when they need a new bathroom installed next month. This is where you demonstrate your E-E-A-T (Expertise).

2. Navigational (“I want to go”)

The user already knows where they want to go; they are just using Google as a shortcut.

• Keyword: “Facebook login”, “MyWebHost contact page”, “BBC News”.
• Content Needed: Your login page, contact page, or homepage.
• Goal: Get them to the right place fast. Do not try to rank for someone else’s brand name (e.g., “Facebook Support”)—it rarely works well.

3. Commercial Investigation (“I want to compare”)

The user is in the “Window Shopping” phase. They know they want a product, but they are weighing up their options.

• Keyword: “Best cheap hosting UK”, “iPhone vs Samsung”, “Top 10 running shoes 2025”.
• Content Needed: A comparison table, a “Best of” listicle, or an honest review.
• Goal: Persuade them you are the best choice. This is the battleground for affiliate marketers and service businesses.

4. Transactional (“I want to buy”)

The user is ready to spend money right now.

• Keyword: “Buy WordPress hosting”, “Plumber near me”, “Nike Air Max size 10 sale”.
• Content Needed: A product page with a big “Add to Cart” button, or a service booking form.
• Goal: The Sale. Do not clutter this page with 2,000 words of history; just make it easy to buy.

The Mistake:

If you try to sell a product on an “Informational” keyword (e.g., putting a hard “Buy Now” sales pitch on a “History of Plumbing” post), you will fail. The user wants to learn, not buy. Conversely, if a user searches “Buy Plunger,” don’t give them a 2,000-word essay on how plungers are made. Give them a product.

How to Do Research for Free (The Toolkit) 🛠️

You don’t need expensive tools like Ahrefs or Semrush, which, although they offer great data, cost £100/month to start. You can use free tools to read the “Letters” effectively.

Tool 1: Google Auto-Suggest (The Crystal Ball)

Go to Google.co.uk. This is the most accurate source of data because it comes directly from Google.

• Step 1: Start typing your industry. Example: “Dog walker”
• Step 2:Don’t press enter. Look at the list that drops down.
  • “Dog walker prices”
  • “Dog walker insurance”
  • “Dog walker jobs bristol”
• Step 3: Use the Underscore Trick. Type your keyword followed by an underscore (_) at the start or middle.
  • Example: “_ for dog walkers” might show “Insurance for dog walkers” or “Apps for dog walkers”.

These are real searches that real people are typing right now. Google is practically handing you a list of blog post ideas that have guaranteed traffic.

• Pro Tip: Always do this in an Incognito/Private Window. Otherwise, Google will just show you things you have searched for before!

Tool 2: AnswerThePublic.com (The Question Master)

This tool is amazing for generating “Informational” content ideas.

1. Type in your topic (e.g., “Web Hosting”).
2. It generates a visual “Wheel” of questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why.
   • “Why is web hosting expensive?”
   • “Can web hosting affect SEO?”
   • “Which web hosting is best for beginners?”

Action: Pick 5 of these questions. Write a blog post answering each one. You are now answering the exact questions your customers are asking, positioning yourself as the helpful expert.

Tool 3: AlsoAsked.com (The Deep Dive)

While AnswerThePublic gives you the “Top Level” questions, AlsoAsked digs deeper.

It scrapes the “People Also Ask” (PAA) data from Google to show you the relationships between questions. It maps the user’s journey.

• If you search “Web Hosting,” it might link to “What is the difference between domain and hosting?”
• If you click that, it branches off to “Do I need to buy them from the same place?” and “Can I host a website for free?”

This is incredibly useful for structuring your articles. The main keyword is your Title (H1), and the “Also Asked” questions become your sub-headings (H2s). By answering the follow-up questions in the same article, you create a comprehensive guide that Google loves.

The “Cannibalism” Trap: Don’t Compete with Yourself 🧟‍♂️

A common mistake beginners make is getting excited about keywords and writing five different pages about the exact same thing.

• Page A: “Best Plumber Bristol”
• Page B: “Bristol Plumber Services”
• Page C: “Plumbing Company in Bristol”

To you, these are different pages. To Google, they are identical.

Google gets confused: “Which page should I rank? They all say the same thing.”

Instead of ranking one page at 1, it ranks all three pages at 50. The pages eat into each other’s authority. This is called Keyword Cannibalisation.

The Rule: One Page per “Core Topic.”

• Have one amazing “Plumbing Services” page that targets “Plumber,” “Plumbing Services,” and “Emergency Plumber” all in one place.
• Only create a new page if the Intent is different (e.g., “Boiler Repair” is a different service to “Bathroom Installation”).

Summary Checklist: Your Content Plan

1. [ ] Brainstorm: Write down 5 “Short Tail” topics for your business (e.g., Cakes, Weddings, Birthday, Gluten-Free).
2. [ ] Expand: Use Google Auto-Suggest and the Underscore Trick to find specific long-tail variations.
3. [ ] Map: Use AnswerThePublic or AlsoAsked to find 5 specific questions for each topic. (e.g., “How much does a wedding cake cost?”).
4. [ ] Check Intent: Google the question yourself. What comes up? Blogs? Products? Make sure you write the same type of content.
5. [ ] Write: Create content that answers the question better than anyone else.

By reading the letters (Keywords), you stop guessing and start serving. You become the helpful elf that gives the people exactly what they want, exactly when they are looking for it.

🎄 What are Your Customers Asking?

Go to Google right now. Open an Incognito window. Type in your business name or industry. What does the Auto-Suggest show you?

Is there a surprising question popping up that you haven’t answered on your website yet?

Drop a comment below with the weirdest or most useful keyword you found!

Check back tomorrow to open Door 14!