As a local business owner looking to take advantage of all that the Internet has to offer, tapping into search engine optimization is a great way to expand your reach. What you might not realize is that the backbone of effective search engine optimization comes down to proper keyword selection.
Without knowing the best keywords in your market – basically the phrases that your customers are searching for – you’ll have a difficult time succeeding with SEO. Now that you understand the true value of keyword selection, we would like to share some more information on this important topic below.
How Keyword Selection Can Make or Break Your Business
Many business owners – especially local small businesses without a lot of time or a large budget available – often have to rely on local SEO service providers so that they can take advantage of the valuable search traffic online. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this. But what these business owners do not realize is that the local search engine optimization provider must know and have mastered keyword research in order to provide their business with the biggest opportunity at online success.
We aren’t joking when we say that proper keyword selection can make or break your business. If your website is ranking for the wrong keywords, or your search engine optimization provider is going after national, expensive and hard to rank for keywords, you’re basically just spinning your wheels. You will not see any success and you’ll be throwing your money away.
As an example, let’s say that you own a local plumbing service in Dublin. And as you know, there are many other plumbing services competing for the same business that you are trying to acquire.
Ranking at the top of Google for keywords including “Dublin plumbing services”, “plumbing services in Dublin”, “plumbers Dublin” and anything else that is similar will bring targeted customers to your website.
On the other hand, if you are going after phrases like “Ireland plumbers”, “plumbers in Ireland”, etc., you get the idea, if you are lucky enough to rank to begin with; you’re going to get inquiries from potential customers all over Ireland. This is a waste of time because you will not provide services in the areas where the majority of the people are calling you from.
Are you starting to see the value of keyword selection? It will put you on the map when done correctly, but when done incorrectly it can cost you a lot of money and waste your valuable time.
What to Avoid When Performing Local SEO Keyword Selection
Maybe this is straightforward, or maybe it isn’t. But it’s important to understand what to avoid when choosing keywords for local businesses.
With that said:
• Avoid choosing keyword phrases that people in your local market would never type into Google.
• Avoid picking one and two word keyword phrases that are not attached to your geographic location (i.e. plumbers, dog walkers, etc.)
To fully take advantage of proper keyword research, find a local search engine optimization provider that thoroughly understands the importance of this topic.