Keyword selection is the backbone of your search engine optimization strategy. Your choice of keywords can be the biggest factor in the success of all your SEO efforts, but how do you make sure you’re choosing the “right” keywords for your business? Here are 3 tips to keep in mind when building that initial list:
1. Focus
It can often be tempting to try and target as many terms as could potentially be relevant to your services or products. But, unless you also have a massive amount of content and unlimited time (and budget), you must resist the urge. While keyword variations are important (see number 3), you don’t want to spread yourself too thin by shooting for so many different terms that you lose your site’s keyword focus. Ask yourself, what is the core “theme” (or “main keyword”) of my business. Every other term you target should be within that theme, and should be naturally limited by your site’s content and your link building and SEO budget.
2. Know your limits.
Why are Super Bowl ads so expensive? Easy, right? Those are coveted spots and companies who can afford to do so will pay top dollar to feature their ad in front of millions of viewers, many of which might be anticipating the ads more than the actual game. If a company is willing to pay millions of dollars for an ad spot, then obviously another advertiser couldn’t expect to come in with $5000 and compete for that spot.
Although you are not “bidding” on organic listings on Google, the more coveted a keyword is, the more you need to “pay to play.” Know who the top players are for the terms you want to target, and what they have done to get there. If you are a small company or brand new site coming on the scene with a limited budget for marketing and link building, you are not going to be able to compete for terms that are dominated by massive sites with established brands and reputations – and budgets to match. Be realistic about how much you have to invest, and how much your competitors are investing, or you’ll be spinning your wheels.
3. Don’t Ignore Long Tail Variations
If you focus all your efforts on a handful of “top searched” terms without incorporating long tail variations into your strategy, you are missing out on valuable potential traffic from these long tail terms. Plus, you are way more likely to achieve rankings with staying power if you include some natural variations of the top terms you are targeting. Optimizing for a keyword theme which includes more specific variations will look natural to the search engines, as well as enable your site to rank for many relevant phrases which you are not specifically tracking. Plus, these long tail terms can often be the most qualified source of leads or sales, and often will indicate a potential client or customer that is further along in the buying cycle.
There are of course many factors that go into any successful SEO strategy, but if you aren’t targeting the right terms for your business, you will be wasting your time and efforts with everything else you do. Unsure whether or not your SEO company has been targeting the right terms? Contact us for a free analysis.
