When doing an SEO and keyword research proposal for a client, I often ask them what keywords they plan to be on the first page for. Almost always, I find that the client does not fully understand the value of search in relation to their target market. I have discovered that more often than not, the client will propose keywords applicable to a global market, despite their market being local (for the most part).
Take one client of mine, for example. When starting their SEO campaign, they mentioned they wanted improved search rankings for terms like “gates”, “driveway gates” and “aluminum gates”. After doing a bit of background, I found out that they do not market globally, but only locally to the Vancouver, BC geographical area. This tells me first of all, that if I were to help them gain first page placement for the terms they asked for, it would require a lot more time on my part and a lot more of an investment on their part for little or not return, as someone from San Francisco, for example, would have little need to ask for an aluminum driveway gate from Vancouver that is not sold anywhere but to the Vancouver market. Therefore, I gave my recommendations for expanding their desired keywords to a more long-tail, local approach. For example, the term “aluminum gates” they initially wanted to place for was recommended to be changed to something like “aluminum gates vancouver”. This way, the competition is significantly lower (meaning faster SEO results) and the marketing is fully targeted, on top of a much less costly investment on the part of the client.
The flip side to all of this consequently means less traffic, as “aluminum gates vancouver” as a keywords is going to bring in much less traffic than a keyword like “aluminum gates”. However, there are ways to compensate for this loss in traffic…pay per click advertising. When a PPC service like Google AdWords is supplemented, a client can capitalize on additional search traffic not necessarily searched with a geographical specifier, like “Vancouver”. To do this, we simply tell the PPC interface to only generate ads from within the clients’ target market, including only the keywords we choose. For example, if a searcher types in “aluminum gates” into Google, but is located within the Vancouver area, we can ensure our ads appear in front of their search results. Together, integrating the proper SEO terms into a website as well as capitalizing on PPC traffic will help ensure a successful online campaign.
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