As you know digital marketing is essential in growing your business and brand awareness. Your online presence and the ability to easily find your business and offer a user-friendly experience is critical to your growth and success. If you are marketing your business online (as I am sure you are), you know that driving traffic to your website with a solid and well thought out SEO plan is imperative. And the key to SEO is keywords. The more relevant and targeted your keywords on your site and anywhere you market your business online, the more likely it is that search engines will highlight your website to your targeted audience.
The best way to understand which keywords will be the most effective in your SEO ranking is to determine your niche and to understand your competition. This is even more important if you are marketing a small business. If you can hone in on a specific category for your business and understand the targeted audience that would search for something within that niche, you can create keywords that are specific and extremely relevant which will set you apart from the competition. It is easier and more likely to show up in search results if you establish a specific segment in the market for your brand. Think about your brand story and how you would describe it to someone if they asked about your business.
Hook Your NOOK
I like to say it because it rhymes : )
Try to get a handle (or hook) on what sets you apart from the competition, what unique attributes does your brand possess and how can you describe them with relevant keywords?
If you are a restaurant owner and you specialize in wood fired pizzas or the best happy hour in your area, make sure all of your marketing material on and offline reflect these things. It is unlikely you are the only fish in the local small pond, but the consistent use of content related to your specialty or specialties will drive your ranking in search results for these categories.
Don't forget your competition
A great way to understand keywords relevant to your own brand is to understand the search terms being used to find your competition. If you use search terms that you think are relevant to something your potential customers might be searching for and your competitors' websites show up at the top of your search results it is almost certain that search phrase is relevant and something you should consider when implementing keywords. Also, did your website show up in that search query? If not, you need to make some adjustments to your SEO plan.
In Essence SEO is all about Keywords
To maximize your SEO and grow your business it is important to truly understand your brand and your unique niche as well as your competition and how they are ranking with the use of relevant and targeted keywords. Building a SEO plan from the conception of your website is important as you decide on well written content utilizing keywords relevant to your niche and how you layout the site and label the images.
If you are a small business owner and would like some help with growing your brand and increasing your online presence with a well thought out and carefully implemented SEO plan or just need some guidance on understanding keywords and how they relate to your brand story, I'd love to talk with you and see how I might be able to help.