Keyword Selection for Local SEO

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.

 

The Benefits of Hiring an SEO Expert

Small, medium and large sized business owners are finally starting to recognize the power of the Internet. They realize that if they want to succeed in today’s digital business world, establishing an online presence is a definite must. And the best way to do this is by dominating the search engines.
When your business has top search engine rankings, customers and potential prospects alike tend to look at you as the authority in your market. They equate high rankings in the search engines with the best of breed in companies in your industry. While this is not always necessarily the truth, you can still use this valuable association to your advantage.

Maybe you’re still not convinced that outsourcing SEO to is the right move to make for your company. We’ve decided to share four benefits with you today in order to truly help you understand the value of this service.

Business Benefit #1: Major Time Saver

First off, if you have come to realize the value of search engine optimization as part of your online marketing plan, then you’ve also come to realize just how difficult it can be for somebody brand-new trying to learn the ropes.
In all honesty, it’s always wise to leave SEO to the experts. Because even if you learn everything about optimizing your website for the search engines, it could all change in the blink of an eye tomorrow. Google will put out another update and change the game entirely.

For those of you looking to save time, it will be difficult to keep up with all of the ups and downs of search engine updates. You must have the ability to spare some of your precious moments toward this endeavor. In fact, if you are a very busy person, it will be impossible for you to continue to keep up with all of the many aspects of SEO.
Instead, trust a top quality outsourcer that is ready and willing to help. These experts stay on top of everything search engine optimization related, and can help you weather any storm caused by a Google update.

Business Benefit #2: Achieve Real World Results

Second, please realize that it’s difficult to achieve the desired results if you do not have a working knowledge of search engine optimization. Let’s face it. This stuff is really complicated and it can take years of your life in order to master this skill.

Outsourcing SEO is the much better choice. You will hire an SEO expert that knows everything about search engine marketing. This individual or company will have put in the time in order to master this craft.
On the other hand, you need to continue to run your business. You need to keep your schedule open so that you can provide the products and services that are the lifeblood of your company. Learning an entirely new skill could complicate your current business model and eventually end up hurting your company over the long run.
Let the experts handle the search engine optimization. You should focus on growing your business and providing top-quality products and services that your customers will love. This is the true recipe for online success.

Business Benefit #3: Positive ROI

Third, if you are new to search engine optimization it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to achieve a positive ROI in a relatively quick amount of time. There are too many skills to learn. There are too many courses to buy. There are too many mistakes to be made when you are new to SEO.

But, by hiring an expert organization to handle your outsourced SEO, you’ll have an opportunity at achieving a positive ROI relatively quickly. Every marketing campaign takes a little while to iron out the kinks, but when you have an expert working alongside you the kinks will be ironed out a heck of a lot quicker.
You know it as well as we do. Marketing on the Internet is the only way to truly succeed in today’s digital business world. But it is not the easiest thing in the world to accomplish. So having expert search engine optimization outsourcers in your corner is the fastest way to put yourself on the road to success.

Business Benefit #4: Marketing Confidence

Finally, every business owner wants to feel confident that his or her marketing plans are going to be effective. When you have an expert search engine optimization provider helping you along the way and putting together a marketing campaign on your behalf, you’ll have no choice but to achieve lasting online success.
While there are certainly no guarantees in this life, letting an SEO expert help you gives you a much better chance at achieving search engine dominance than you would have if you attempted it on your own.

Is SEO Right For Your Business?

Once you’ve decided on your target audience or user demographic, it’s time to do some basic calculations to see if hiring a professional service is right for you and your situation. In most cases an SEO consultant should be willing to help you evaluate your situation to see if it is worth it. Ok, so doing a load of calculations might not be  a fun thing to do, if it can potentially save you money in the long run, it is well worth the trouble.

There are three basic quantities that factor into the equation:

1.) Customer Value
2.) Search Volume of your Target Keyword or Key phrase
3.) The Cost of Search Engine Optimization.

It’s easy to imagine that if you were able to rank #1 for all of your targeted keywords, the cost of SEO would be well worth it. While that might be the case in some instances, the answer is oddly not quite that simple. While the values above can give you a good example of how much money spent on SEO would be worth it, there are many other factors that also come into play. Site conversion rate, the lifetime value of a customer, but to get started let’s do some basic maths.

If you’re keywords have very low search rates, and you are only able to make about 100 euros a year from ranking #1 for all your keywords, then SEO will put you far into the red and is probably not a wise investment for your company. If the target ratio of profit for ranking #3 for your keyword is 10 times the cost of SEO, then that ratio would make it well worth the cost of hiring a professional to take care of your Search Engine Optimization needs as the profits far outweigh the cost.

In order to make an educated decision regarding the costs of SEO and the benefit it could have to your company, it is important for you to conduct accurate and complete keyword research. Otherwise, the calculations above are impossible.

The ability to find factual information and accurately calculate potential outcomes is one of the primary reasons many marketers prefer optimization to social media marketing.  Although Social Media is an effective and useful tool, it is nearly impossible to accurately predict the outcome of a campaign due to the lack of detailed information.

In many cases a costly Social Media campaign might drive traffic to your site, but, but provides little if any actionable progress. Many online marketers make the mistake of investing large amounts of capital into social media campaigns that yield little if any outcome, target the wrong demographic, or are simply mismanaged. In many instances social media marketing companies sell website owners a host of features and specials that result in no earnings whatsoever.

Calculating the feasibility of SEO for your website can be much more accurate if you use PPC or Pay Per Click information. PPC is a great way to spread the word about your website; the downside is that it can be extremely costly with costs increasing exponentially every year. Because of low quality SEO providers who lead to Google penalties instead of high ranking sites, many site owners opt for PPC as a safer alternative. PPC can be very profitable, and some companies like Amazon for example, sink millions into PPC advertising every month. For small businesses, without the bottomless advertising budgets however, hiring a quality optimization service can drive the same traffic to your site for a much lower cost.

Understanding how Google & other search engines see your site is the first step to correcting any SEO issues and marketing your site for success. Knowing whether your site is indexed by Google, has incurred any penalties,  is easily readable by Google or has strong on-page SEO is imperative to planning a strong campaign and the ultimate success of your website.

by Paul O’Reilly

What is SEO?

What is SEO? This is the question on many business owners lips.
“What is it and what can it do for my business?”
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. I know, before your eyes glaze over
in the expectation of online marketing waffle! It is basically setting up your website so
it will rank higher in the search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo etc).
The higher you rank, the more traffic (customers) you get to your site.
Ultimately resulting in higher profits.

by Paul O’Reilly