If you run a small business it is unlikely that you will have endless amounts of money to spend on marketing. For that reason you need to look for ways to get top search engine rankings without needing to take on the big boys. This article will give you some advice and tips on the best way to target your website to customers.
The first thing we will look at is how to select a group of keywords to choose from and then we will focus on the best forms of keywords for small businesses.
Finding Your Keywords
To many people this appears to be an easy exercise and they think it is just a matter of deciding what you want to come at the top for. However it is not that easy and you need to make sure that the terms you use are the ones that people are actually searching for. Suppose for instance you have chosen a phrase that you think is perfect but there are only 10 searches per month for that phrase what real benefit is there for appearing at the top of the search engines for it? In reality very little so you will be wasting your time and money focusing on it.
So how to you go about selecting keywords? Below is a quick overview:
1. Brainstorm - Write down as many search terms as you can think of. As your friends and family to come up with ideas as well so that you can get as many ideas as possible. You can also use a keyword tool to get some other ideas as well.
2. Research - You now need to research your list of keywords. This means using a keyword tool to find out how many searches there are for each of your keywords on a monthly basis. You should also find out how many results there are for each of your keywords. Once you have done this you will be able to calculate the value of each keyword or the KEI.
3. Selection - You can now select a shortened list of words. You should firstly eliminate those words with a search volume that is too low to be worth looking at. Really if there are less than 100 searches per month you will find there is little value in the phrases. You should also remove phrases with a KEI of less than 0.1 as these are far too competitive to look at.
So you now have a decent selection of keywords but this still leaves you with the dilemma of what the best one to choose is.
Selecting Keywords for a Small Business
You should analyse your keywords for how general they are. The more general the harder it will be to optimise for them. The reason for this is that all the big companies will go for the general terms and they have a much larger budget to throw behind it. This means that it is unlikely you will ever get anywhere with them and if you do it could take several years and a lot of expense.
The best way to look at this is by considering an example. Let's suppose for your business you supply office furniture to businesses. You might find that a generalised term like office furniture is completely dominated by the big companies and so would be difficult to break into. However if you were based in London you might find a term like office furniture supplies based in London is much more effective for your business.
Remember the biggest aim of search engine optimisation is to generate you more traffic and so more business. For that reason you should target keywords and phrases that will benefit your business the most.
Don't have a blog? You are late to the party, but still lots of time and opportunity. Here are a few eye popping statistics: Over 12 Million American adults have a blog Over 57 Million Americans read blogs Just over 20% of the most popular websites are blogs and the most important, over 50% of blog readers also shop online. Having a blog changes your website from a passive brochure into something much more interesting. Blogs are always updated and always changing, giving your browsers reason to come back. And, rather than just passively looking at what you choose to show to visitors, blogs allow visitors to interact with your site, leaving comments and discussing your posts among themselves online. In this way, you build a community around your business and a ready audience. The value of contact and feedback from your web visitors and customers cannot be under-estimated. Conversations with your customers are a goldmine for getting to know them, new product ideas, and problems with existing products or services. Blogs make it easier for your clients to reach you. Even though the Comments form on the blog, where browsers can fill in their comments, is very similar to the contact page on your site, the difference is that with a blog, browsers can interact with you on their terms. When browsers go to a contact page they are confronted with a web form and nothing else for them to do -- either they fill out the form or go somewhere else. With a blog, browsers can look around, browser articles and information and then leave a comment on any number of articles of their choosing, or leave multiple comments. Blog postings will help your search engine rankings like almost nothing else. Blog postings rank high and rank often. Contributing regularly to your blog increases the size of your site and the breadth of you keyword coverage which the search engines loves. Blog postings and Blogs in general attract links from other websites. With the open and 2-way communication that blogs give small business, you can react fast. If you have a difficult few months, and clients become annoyed, you can explain fully on your blog what happened and why and what you are doing about it. Obviously, it is better if things go smoothly, but if they don't you have an outlet. Blogs are a great way to establish your reputation as an authority in your area, and at the same time, a great soft sell tool. Very few people will purchase your services on the first visit to your website. However, if browsers can see a large library of material you have written, they have a chance to assess your style, opinions and ideas. Blogs allow browsers to look around and get a general feel for how it will be talking and working with you before they contact you. Not only does this increase the number of sales or leads you get from your site, but much more importantly, it will increase the quality of leads, since they are already pre-sold before they contact you.
Both Mercedes Aspland & Sameer Sharma are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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