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The tech-savvy entrepreneur knows that the best ways to increase organic traffic to her website are content marketing and SEO. But even with plenty of site traffic, how can a small- or medium-sized business possibly hope to compete with Internet giants in search engine visibility rankings?
Adriana Tica illuminates the heart of the issue in her recent piece on SiteProNews. She writes, “The most important question is not ‘how much traffic can we get?’ It’s ‘what does this traffic bring us?’” Instead of focusing on sheer numbers of page views, business owners should zero in on how to increase revenue by converting site visitors into customers. Attracting those customers is all a matter of optimizing for the right keywords.
“User intent should be at the core of your keyword research,” Tica says. “Before writing even a single word, you need to know to whom your copy should appeal.”
For big companies who don’t need to boost sales right away, generic keywords provide a good strategy to increase brand awareness. But for smaller businesses, Tica suggests using highly targeted keywords to achieve maximum ROI. While targeted keywords bring in less traffic than generic ones, they’ll draw the kind of visitors you can more easily convert into clients. Instead of striving for so-called vanity metrics, try to engage people who want what you’re selling.
For example, consider someone searching for a pair of high-end stereo speakers. Many consumers these days spend hours doing research on products before making a purchase, and are likely to know exactly what they want. If your Denver business sells refurbished professional-grade audio equipment at a discounted price, you’ll have more luck optimizing for “refurbished stereo speakers Denver” and “discount professional stereo equipment” than simply “stereo speakers.”
That doesn’t mean you should start writing for specific keywords with joyful abandon. It’s important to employ a well-thought out content strategy if you hope to heighten your ROI. Luckily, there are tools available to aid your research. Moz has an excellent keyword explorer that shows in general which sites rank how well for which keywords, while Google offers more specialized analytics pertaining to your company in particular.
When it comes to content, Tica warns not to overextend yourself by casting too wide a net. You may need to work hard—very hard—to outrank the competition, which means more content is necessary. But it’s the quality and relevancy of your content that matters. Keep your keywords in line with the types of queries you’d expect from your target audience, and remember to use your content strategy as a way to bolster your business goals.
Content marketing and SEO don’t have to be headache-inducing endeavors. With careful keyword research and some solid strategy, you could be seeing a bigger ROI in just a few months.