Developing a Niche Strategy for Search Engine Optimization

By Joe Zarrett
Verndale

The goal for most Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaigns is to generate a top 10 ranking on the Web for those keywords and key phrases that best describe your products/services or customers’ needs. But what if those terms – the ones most frequently searched on – have you jockeying for position against tens of thousands of competitors? Does it make sense to invest significant resources to try to capture and sustain these rankings?? Or are you better served by developing a niche strategy that returns better quality traffic?

When less is more

For most companies, a niche keyword technique – targeting the most popular, but least competitive keywords – produces the greatest return on investment for your resources. But how do you identify and target the words or phrases that will support a niche strategy?

First, build your keyword “universe” by listing the most obvious and important keywords for your business. Don’t forget to consider how each user group may uniquely search for your products/services. For example if you’re an accounting firm based in Boston, a prospective client may search for “Boston Accounting Firms” while a prospective employee may search for “Accounting Jobs in Boston.” Also, within each user group you’ll likely need to support a broad range of industry expertise. Consider using general terms ,as well as industry terminology, to accommodate the search characteristics for each sub-group.

Next, use a service like WordTracker or the Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool to evaluate the popularity of the search term. Identify variations of the term that while popular are less competitive. These are the terms you’ll use to build your niche keyword list. Before you log-off, check for common misspellings, as well as for differences in search popularity between singular and plural phrases.

Once you’ve established your list, you need to integrate these keywords within the code structure and content of the web site while being careful not to overuse or ‘keyword stuff’ too many terms on the page. With proper implementation, monitoring, promotion and content updates, your site will be highly visible to the people who are most likely to want your services or buy your products.

Fall 2006 -Volume 16, Number 4

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