How can Small Businesses Use Keywords for Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is a great tool to boost your online presence for small businesses. One of the main factors in a successful SEO strategy is choosing the right keywords. First, if no one is searching for the keywords targeted by your business, it doesn’t matter where you rank, as there will limited or no traffic to your page. Secondly, keyword research is especially important for small businesses, because competition varies greatly between different keyword groups. Usually broad keyword categories are highly competitive with large corporations dominating these. The solution for small businesses is to target niche keywords specific to their activity.

That is why researching keywords is essential for any business, but more so for smaller firms. When evaluating potential keywords for your site, be sure to ask yourself the following questions:

• Are these keywords relevant to my site?
• Will the information posted on my site be useful to a user searching for this keyword?
• Will traffic generated by the keyword help my business achieve financial or other goals?

An ideal keyword that can be targeted by your marketing efforts, will give you a “yes” for all three questions.

Keep in mind that while it’s great to rank high on widely used keywords that have thousands of searches per day, these are only about 20% of the total searches. The rest is made up of lower-volume but highly specific and unique search queries. What is great about specific search terms is that the user knows what he is looking for and is considered a more qualified lead.

Target Niche-Specific Keywords

A general keyword like “birthday flowers” might receive a high amount of searches a day, and if you are a florist, you might think it’s a great choice to focus your SEO efforts on. However this is a broad category; the user might not be necessarily looking for what you sell and instead maybe was looking for paper flowers for birthday decorations. As a result your marketing efforts will dissipate into search results that are not relevant to your business activity.

On the other hand, a search query for “lilies bouquet for 30th birthday” is a highly specific search term, one that identifies a customer much more likely to place an order.

The competition for breaking into the top search results for keywords is also a key factor when a small business decides on its SEO strategy. Popular keywords might have high overall searches, but the effort and time to enter the top of the searches will likely be out of reach for smaller businesses, especially in the beginning. Looking for niche-specific keywords is a much more effective method for having a successful SEO strategy for small businesses.