Selecting Keywords From An SEO Perspective
There are many factors when it comes to ranking in the search engines. One very important factor that many people do not consider is getting the keywords correct from the beginning. To us, this is the “foundation” of SEO. If you are building a home and the foundation is poor, you can have all of the bells and whistles that you want, but if the foundation is not strong, the home will not last. This is the same with search engine optimization. Everyone starts with picking the correct terms. A company can create a strong funnel of qualified, interested customers by selecting the right words to target. Conversely, a company can throw thousands of dollars away by going with an SEO company that does not research the keywords properly. We would like to guide you through the process of how to select the correct keywords for your business as well as what questions to ask an seo company that is preparing a proposal for you. Here are some important things to consider when picking out keywords.
1. Are people searching for your keyword phrase? One thing we run into time and time again is speaking with a business that used a different seo company that ranked them for several keywords, but they did not get any phone calls from it. I remember a specific example where a criminal defense attorney was ranking for 25 keyword terms for a very cheap monthly rate with another company (he declined our proposal because it was less keywords and more expensive). He called me frustrated that he was not getting calls. When I showed him through the Google Keyword Tool that no one was searching for the keywords that his company selected he saw the value in our proposal (even though we were targeting less words, there were almost 1,000 searches for those words). That lack of research costs him thousands of dollars even though he went a cheaper route. He’s now a happy client of ours.
2. Will the keyword convert into business? Okay, you have found a keyword that people are searching for on a regular basis. That’s step 1. Step 2 is making sure if you are ranking for that keyword term that someone has intent to make a transaction. This comes into play more with e-commerce than anything. Example: There is a big difference between targeting “artificial grass” and “buy artificial grass”. Now there will be several more searches per month for artificial grass, but which one will convert better? Well, if someone is actually typing in “buy” before a specific keyword phrase, they probably are ready to add to cart.
3. How successful is the company you’re about to hire? We have presented many businesses in the Dallas area with proposals and the common theme is that our proposal comes in right in the middle when it comes to monthly investment. We typically are not the lowest or the highest. The old adage of “you get what you pay for” is absolutely true when it comes to SEO. We dug a little deeper and found out what the “cheaper” seo companies are doing. It’s basically 3 things: 1. Performing really spammy tactics that achieve quick results, then have you penalized by Google (like a diet, or get rich quick scheme). 2. Going after keywords that no one is searching for so they do not have to require resources needed to go after competitive words. 3. Flat out lying. Our potential clients sometimes pass us other SEO proposals that promise page 1 rankings in month 1 or lock businesses into long-term contracts (1 year or more) for a very low monthly amount with no intent of actually getting them to page 1 (money is guaranteed either way).
When hiring an SEO company, be sure to do 2 things when it comes to keywords:
1. Ask to see the search volume of the keywords they are targeting to ensure people are actually searching for that word.
2. Ask the company to see a list of companies that they currently have on page 1 and have them show you the keywords and search volume of the words that they have ranking.
Typically our proposals require more of an investment because we target keywords that are highly competitive and have several people searching for them each month. This is how we actually get our clients more clients instead of just a ranking. We hope this helps you in the difficult process of choosing the right keywords and SEO company.
