Choosing Your Target Keywords (Super Important!)
Paige will ask you to select up to 10 target keywords during setup. These keywords are a big deal—they’re the foundation of how Paige trains Google to understand what your business is all about. Paige will also track how these keywords improve over time using heat map audits.
Here’s how to choose them the right way 👇
Why Only 10 Keywords?
By default, Paige limits you to 10 keywords on purpose.
More than 10 can dilute your core message
Too many similar keywords can confuse Google
Confused Google = worse rankings
Don’t worry—this does not limit your growth. Paige will automatically use hundreds of long-tail keyword variations behind the scenes so you can still rank for way more searches.
Pick Keywords That Truly Represent Your Business
Your keywords should:
Clearly describe what you actually want customers to hire you for
Reflect the most important services or products you offer
Not be “stretch” services you barely provide
Be local search oriented to ensure it brings up a Google Maps result. For example, "Siding" should be "Siding Contractor" (it changes the search for a product to a service). If your Target Keywords trigger product results on Google your audit reports will likely appear all red.
If a keyword doesn’t really matter to your business, don’t include it—even if it has high search volume.
Use Paige’s Suggestions (But Be Strategic)
Paige will suggest keywords based on highest average search volume, which is great—but don’t just pick the top 10 blindly.
Best practice:
Choose a mix of harder + easier keywords
Make sure each one has enough average monthly search volume
Avoid picking 10 ultra-competitive keywords if easier wins are available, as long as the easier ones actually have volume.
👉 Average search volume is an estimate of how many people close enough to your business are searching for that keyword each month.
Be Careful With “Near Me” and City Names
To keep content sounding natural:
Add “near me” to no more than 2 keywords
Add your city name to no more than 2 keywords
Why?
You don’t want all your content to sound like:
“Are you looking for this near me?”
“That near me?”
“That near me?”
Paige will automatically work your target cities into content anyway, so you don’t need to force it into every keyword.
Avoid Keywords That Are Basically the Same
Try not to choose keywords that are almost identical.
For example, these are too similar:
“Plumber services”
“Plumbing services”
“Professional plumbing services”
If all your keywords overlap heavily:
Paige won’t have many different topics to talk about
Content can start to feel repetitive
Rankings may suffer
Instead, aim for variety across your core offerings but don't include keywords that aren't actually important for your business.
The Big Picture (Don’t Stress)
To recap:
You only need 10 strong, representative keywords
Paige uses hundreds of long-tail variations automatically
Google gets clearer signals
Your content stays natural
Rankings improve over time 🚀
Take a few extra minutes here—this step sets everything else up for success.