Keyword Selection

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Keyword Selection Strategy:  

Targeting Websites for Keyword Search Terms

Whether you are creating a new website or trying to improve the rankings of your existing website, you must start with a clear keyword selection strategy. This may appear obvious at first, but the process of identifying keyword search terms and effectively targeting your small business website for search engines, can prove challenging.

Ranking your Small Business Website – It’s Not Personal

Remember, one of the most important ways a search engines will classify and rank your website is by the content on your website. When targeting your small business website for keyword search terms both on page SEO and off page SEO play a role – but this article will focus on keyword selection strategy. If you are just getting started, visit our SEO introduction page.

Your small business may be a market leader in its segment, but unless your website clearly defines its niche, you will experience the frustration of seeing smaller players (or less relevant businesses) rank ahead of you.

Trust me, I’ve seen this. Small business owners – and I empathize, I am one – illogically get offended at Google’s ranking of their small business’ website. Search engines do not personify websites nor do they have intimate knowledge of your small business niche. As sophisticated as search engines are, they interpret data. You need to ensure that data your website represents is what a search engine regards as optimal.

Where to Start? Keyword Selection Strategy!

When developing a client’s search engine optimization keyword selection strategy I tend to think of four things.

1. Keyword Relevance
2. Search Engine Keyword Search Volume
3. Search Engine Keyword Competition
4. Profit of Targeted Keywords

Generally speaking, because every small business situation is different, these are four areas to consider in developing an effective SEO keyword selection strategy.

Keyword Relevance

Select keywords that are relevant to your small business – obvious right? But as you work through the process you may not be able to define your entire company in 1 – 3 keywords. That leads to developing more web pages and website architecture – which is a separate discussion. Marketing Practicality works with clients to target relevant keywords at a high level and at a granular level. Suffice to say, start with the most relevant keywords for your business when optimizing your home page.

Search Engine Keyword Search Volume

The higher the keyword search volume, the more potential visitors – in general. This dovetails with relevance. So the perfect keyword selection strategy identifies high keyword search volume and high relevance.

Search Engine Keyword Competition

The web is not a small place, and if you haven’t seen this already you’ll notice that the higher the keyword search volume the higher the competition. If your small business is a niche player it is a more daunting task to rank for a single keyword term that is infiltrated with massive corporations with SEO budgets larger than your annual revenue. Try to identify keywords with high search volume and relevance with minimal competition. Make your piece of the web a smaller, but effective, place.

Profit of Targeted Keywords

Consider your business strategy in all of this. If your small business provides multiple products, look at your profitability. Do you have high-margin products or services with sufficient volume or high-margin products that could significantly increase their volume with the right exposure?

The Best Keyword Selection Strategy

The best keyword strategy would yield search terms with high relevance, high keyword search volume, low keyword search competition and high keyword (product) profitability. Sound easy? It isn’t. So what are your options?

• Professional SEO Assistance
• Long Tail Terms
• Develop Original Content
• Differentiate Your Small Business

Developing a successful website involves many factors and hard work. Consider differentiating your small business by casting a wider net. If you produce more content, a search engine will pick up more terms – which will generate more (qualified) traffic to your website and ultimately generate more revenue for your business.

To develop an effective small business SEO marketing plan which includes targeting your small business website for keyword search terms and effective keyword selection strategy – contact Marketing Practicality and learn more about Marketing Practicality’s SEO marketing service for small businesses.