Key-phrase Research

A Step-By-Step Guide to Small Business SEO

So far this guide has covered many of the planning stages that ought to be considered before a new website business is launched. The advice offered up to this point is most relevant to internet start-ups or small businesses looking to venture onto the web for the first time. One of the most crucial SEO planning stages is key-phrase research. Key-phrase research should be conducted before you brief a web design agency and, as mentioned in Part Six: Site Architecture, it should be integrated into the brief for the technical set-up of your website. This article follows on from Part Eight: WordPress and SEO. To go back to the start of my guide click here.

Key phrase Strategy

Key-phrase research and selection is particularly important for small business enterprises that have SEO on their agenda. Many small businesses make the mistake of not conducting any research at all based on the assumption that they know which key-phrases people are likely to use to find their products or services when searching on Google or other search engines. This approach is very risky for two main reasons. Firstly, the reality is that people will often not use the search terms you expect them use. Secondly, and more importantly, by assuming that you can achieve a top ten result for your selected key-phrase (“Home Insurance”, for example) you are not factoring in the competition from other websites that are already optimised on this term. Brand new websites that plan to enter a competitive market are unlikely to achieve top ten results for “head” key-phrases (high volume, one or two word search terms) in any short period of time. This is because established sites have factors such as their age, link popularity and site content stacked in their favour. A good small business SEO strategy should therefore be based on realistic objectives, taking into account market competition and the intent of the key-phrases selected.

Identify High and Low Competition Key-phrases

The first step you need to take to clarify your key-phrase strategy is to identify high and low competition key-phrases that people actually use when searching online. One of the best tools to assist you with this is Wordtracker. Wordtracker offers insight into actual daily searches across all of the search engines. More importantly, it offers competition analysis metrics such as KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) and a snapshot of the number of websites that use specific search terms in their META titles and back-links (two important elements of SEO, which I will cover in more detail later in this guide). Wordtracker has also recently introduced a tool that enables you to import search data from Google, allowing you to compare actual monthly searches on Google for specific key-phrases against the number of other websites competing on these terms. This data will help you to identify high and low competition key-phrases that you can use as a basis for your SEO strategy. You need to bear in mind that high competition key-phrases will often require a very significant amount of development time and link-building work in order to achieve a good result. Low competition key-phrases, on the other hand, can often be targeted through effective on-site optimisation. This can be summarised as follows:

• High Competition Key-phrases = Significant Link Building
• Low Competition Key-phrases = Content development + onsite optimisation

Small Business SEO Strategies

A recommended small business SEO strategy is to start by targeting low competition key-phrases (whilst optimising your website structure for high competition phrases as a longer term objective). Low competition key-phrases are, generally speaking, also characterised by low search volumes. These phrases are known as the “long tail” search, as they are normally four or more words long in opposition to the “head” of the tail which are one or two words long. The chart below illustrates this concept.

An example head key-phrase is “web design” which would appear near the top of the red section. An example long-tail key-phrase would be “cheap web design company Bournemouth” which would appear somewhere in the orange section. Although long-tail key-phrases are searched less often than head phrases, they often show a greater level of intent to purchase or sign-up on the part of the person searching. Someone who searches for “televisions”, for example, shows much less intent to purchase than someone who searches for “cheap Sony 40’ flat screen television”. Targeting the long-tail search is therefore an ideal starting strategy for small businesses and internet start-ups for the following reasons:

• You can focus on building great content in the early stages of your website. By doing so you stand a better chance of ranking for low competition key-phrases whilst supporting your longer term plans to target competitive “head” phrases
• Less link-building work required for long-tail search terms. Although link-building is essential if you want to develop the overall trust and popularity of your site, you can still achieve results whilst you build your link profile.
• You can target local search terms where the competition is, again, less intense. You might discover through your research, for example, that there are very few web design companies based in Bournemouth but a reasonable amount of people looking for this service at a local level.

Key-phrase Research Checklist

• Start-up businesses should conduct key-phrase research before they contact a web design agency
• Never assume to know the key-phrases people will use to find you. Ensure that you use a key-phrase research tool to discover search volumes and competition
• Define your long-term “head” key-phrases and your shorter term “long-tail” key-phrases and build this into your web development brief
• Put in place a content development plan to target the long-tail

Part Ten

In part ten I will cover local search in more detail looking at how small businesses can maximise the potential of geo-targeting. Click here to go to part ten.