Are Your Company’s Rankings Flat? Maybe You Need Better Keyword Research!

When starting an online business, information site, non-profit, or any other organization, it is truly important to look at the basics. Sometimes this may seem silly or so obvious that you forget the nuts and bolts you need to get your site started. The first thing that you should do is figure out what the goal is for your site. I know this is vague, but if you do not create the content that your business or site needs to grow, there is no point in starting the endeavor. If your goals are to sell more products or services, then you need to clarify what these may be. Do you want to sell $100 per client or sell 10 more pairs of boots, etc.?

Figuring Out Where You Are and Where You Would Like to Go is the Basis for Any Goal

This type of planning will then lead you to creating the content you need to make your goal become a reality. The guts to all content is what I just mentioned: the keywords! These are what your audience is typing into search engines like Google to find what they are looking for. Keywords can be short or long, and learning and using these phrases or words correctly can make your site grow, grow, grow. One- or two-phrase keywords are what are know as Short Tail keywords, and keyword phrases that are three, four, or five word combinations are Long Tail keywords. Website Goals and Targets

While this seems like common sense, many people make the mistake of trying to rank right away for a Short Tail keyword instead of a Long Tail keyword because their research shows that the searches on these singular words are higher. This is enticing, as you understandably may wish to target as many searchers as possible, yet if you refine your keyword to a long tail phrase, you are eliminating a lot of competition on the web and your website will grow more quickly.

For example, if you have a shoe store, you should not try to rank for “gym shoes” or “basketball shoes”. These are to general and will have you competing with companies that are virtually impossible to rank with, like Nike or Foot Locker. Instead, take that short tail phrase and tailor it to something unique to your store, like the city or street you are on. While the overall amount of hits for that phrase will be less, your conversion on sales, service, etc. will be much greater because you are targeting a search term with more specific relevance to your likely customers. Why try to target a global phrase when you are a local business, charity, etc.?

Keyword research does not stop at picking a few words and plugging them into your content, it requires knowledge of what your clients may actually be searching for to find you. An example could be that you sell power tools and have a section of your website that sells saws. You may have these listed as power saws, but the people searching your site or the web may be looking for “electric saws” or “cordless saws.” Knowing what people are actually searching for can help you more accurately tailor the content on your site to these terms. This is a basic example but it drives home the point of keyword research.

Do you know what your audience is searching for? Do you know where you rank for those phrases? Do you know what your traffic and conversions may be like if you were ranked 3rd, 2nd, or, more importantly, 1st? If you can enhance your site’s content with relevant keywords and monitor the results, you can climb your way up in the rankings and drastically increase the attention your site receives, converting into more business for you!

Meet Launch Digital Marketing

Launch Digital Marketing is a Chicago based digital marketing agency specializing in helping businesses grow their online and web presence.