Basic Keyword Research

The first step of SEO for a local website is the most important step and is the base for all you do. That step is keyword research and selection of keywords for your small business website. If done correctly you should only have to do this once maybe twice if you do a pay per click campaign. Do this wrong and you will have to redo your website and change the content later on. You will have wasted time and money chasing after the wrong crowd.

Keyword research can cover a lot of different areas so we are going to narrow down this keyword research to just organic seo campaigns. By organic we mean what searchers would look for when trying to find a business in Google. We then are going to break that into three more areas that we will cover in this article. The first step is looking at the raw data. Then we will look at the sites that are in Google already. Finally we will put it all together by making some hard decisions on what to use.

How do we find the data involved in keyword research. There are many tools you can use but the fastest and easiest is the Google adwords keyword tool. Most people will tell you to go for the largest phrase and optimize your site for that keyword. This is actually not what you want to do if you want to rank for your local business. You are actually looking for “buyer phrases” not high search volume phrases. As a small business you want to find what local buyers are typing in because that is where your customers will come from. The other reason you want local buyer phrases is because you will be able to rank for it much faster than the more competitive general phrase.

Once you know what your keyword phrases are going to be it is time to do some research. Look up the sites that are ranking for those terms and write them down. Next go into the keyword tool like before and check the box website content and see what keywords come up. If you missed some keywords your competitors might help you find them. Next you want to look up their back links through backlinkfinder.com or another site like it. Find out where they got their links from and go get them also. Finally you are going to go into your browser and look up each site and do a view in the tab then page source. Here you will see their title, description, H1 tags and keywords. You can pattern your site after the top ones which will help you to get up there faster.

Now that you have done a lot of research you can make some choices for your keywords. You should have a list of hundreds of keywords and phrases to use. It is imperative to narrow the list down to a manageable amount. The fastest way to get clients coming in is to break keywords down by competition then searches. For competition go to Google search box and do an “allintitle: keyword” search without quotes into Google. Anything under 10,000 is very easy to rank for. Start with those phrases first which should immediately start the cash flow through internet visitors. While they are ranking well then target keywords with up to 25,000 “allintitle” and so forth up the line.

Obviously there is a lot more to be done but I had to limit the scope of this article. If you can use these free keyword tools then you can be successful in your keyword research. At some point you will want to dig further and analyze with some other tools. At that time have an expert do this for you.

How to Handle a Bad Economy

The more news I read the more I hear that small business is really hurting during this economic downturn. While I understand the anxiety that many business owners face, one must ask, what are you doing about it? Are you just complaining or are you taking new steps to drum up business. With less money floating around now is the time to be aggressive versus sitting around hoping and complaining that they just walk through your door.

Let’s look at the average consumer these days. Getting a good deal is very important to them. That is why nearly 80% of local buyers will shop via the internet first. This is fast and requires no outlay to find a good offer. Once they find that offer they buy it over the internet and have it delivered. NO THEY DON’T! While a good price is important it is still more important to know they have someone standing behind the product. The last thing anyone can afford is money that is wasted through an unscrupulous internet seller, so they will purchase it locally almost 70% of the time.

This then begs the question what are you doing to get in front of this person? Are you just there hoping they will find you? This is what I mean by being aggressive in your small business. First make sure you are ranking high in Google for all local search terms. I won’t go into numbers but you need to be on the first page or people won’t find you. When they do find you it is imperative you drive them into your store.

Next, you must be making a splash in social networking. Not only do these sites rank high, there are thousands of potential buyers there. They congregate to discuss things and some of the discussions will be about have you ever bought X? If you sell X wouldn’t you want to be in that discussion?

The internet is a lot like being in a mall with buyers all around. Do you close the storefront? No you put deals and specials at the door that almost begs consumers to come in and check out your store. You give away little knick knacks that almost guilt the shopper to come in. You hand out coupons all over the mall to try and drive people into the store. The owner stands in a place to welcome and introduce themselves inspiring trust.

So know look at your website like it is a storefront in a mall. Give away coupons to get them to come in. Make sure you list your loss leaders on the front page to keep people at your store. Use social sites to get them to know and like you. They will be loyal if they know, like, and trust you.

These are all things you can accomplish on your own to drive up sales. They do take time and effort but will be worth it now and in the future. The difference with marketing on the internet it stays versus other advertising that needs to be constantly run. If you don’t think you have the time or expertise, look up a local seo person to help. They are small business owners like yourself and understand how to implement this strategy at the best cost for you. I, of course, would be willing to help!