“Content is King” in the world of SEO. Though there are hundreds of other factors that have a say in your ranking possibilities, content is the one you have the most control over. Small businesses trying to compete against the big guys often have to find their niche in search with more specific searches, as they can’t compete in strength with the big guys. However, these specific searches are a great gateway to gain visibility and strength. Adding specific and helpful posts to your site in a considered way can gain you fairly immediate ranking exposure, which can also lead to links and more ranking strength from those that find your content and link to it.
What is Specific with Keywords and Searches?
Specific is anything off the broader search terms. In SEO, we sometimes call these the long tail keywords. The more specific a search is, the closer the searcher is to typically buy what you are selling. For example, a search for “used cars” is very broad focused and competitive, and typically is done very early in the buying process, or even outside the buying process. It could be someone searching because they are doing research for a story or report. A search for “certified pre-owned 2016 Toyota Highlander” is going to be searched far less often, but it is also more likely this searcher is closer to buying that specific item. It also drastically reduces the competition. You are no longer competing against every page on the internet with used cars, but a much narrower focus.
Other Ways to Narrow the Focus
Geography: The most obvious and useful way to narrow searches is to add geography. This is especially relevant for smaller local businesses. By focusing on a “Monmouth County CPA” for example, you are reducing the competition from every CPA in the world to your area, and most are going to be searching for that local CPA to help them. This is how you gain presence and exposure, by narrowing down. You will still have competition but you will lessen it considerably, and if you can couple it with the other half, being helpful, which I will touch on later, you will likely gain a lot of exposure and strength for what you are doing.
Specific Sub-Services or Features: Other ways to narrow the field is to focus on more specific pieces of your services and addressing them in more depth. Someone that does SEO can focus content on WordPress SEO or Joomla SEO. Accountants can focus on “CPA for Contractors” or “Accounting for high net worth individuals” etc. Creating content that helpfully and specifically addresses these areas will shorten your path to getting found. These searches don’t have as much volume, but if you also pair them with geographic targets, you may find yourself on the first page within a day or two.
As an example, I did a recent post and short video in the Nyhavn section of Copenhagen while on vacation. Within a couple of days of posting, I was on the first page for Copenhagen SEO and in multiple spots on the video results. Even more specifically, I was all over the top of the first page for Nyhavn SEO. Google even chose to show the knowledge panel for my business for the Nyhavn search. Nyhavn is a big tourist area within Copenhagen.
Be Helpful with Your Posts
The other piece of the puzzle is to make sure you are actually helpful. If the content is good and helpful it has more shelf life because more people will click on it and stay on it. Google sees who stays on the article and who immediately bounces back to Google. If you are providing good and useful information to the user, it will stay longer and it will also potentially generate links as you have created useful and helpful content for people to send others to, addressing a specific problem, issue, or service area in a way that hasn’t been dealt with before. Being helpful and useful is the key to longevity. Many businesses create generic pages to try to hit town names, etc. but if you can actually create something useful, you can pass stronger pages and have staying power. If you are a local business, it can be helpful to post about something useful that may not necessarily be your direct service, but be helpful for the local community. This can generate links and strength that will help boost the rest of your site. For example, “things to do in the heat in [insert town name here]” or “best dog activities in [insert county] county”. These types of posts may get you strong local links so that the Google algorithm sees you as a local authority, which can stretch to your business posts as well.
I recently posted a list of the biggest cities in America to be used as negative keywords for Google Ads campaigns. I put this in a blog post because it took me some work but I thought it would be helpful. I figured if I needed it, others may too. I recently got a new client from Dallas who had found this list and needed help with their search campaign and appreciated my post and credibility from that post. It can help in many ways.
If you need help with your content strategy, please give us a call. You Can Be Found is an A+ BBB business, Google Certified Partner, and has been around since 2006. We aren’t one of those companies that disappear in 6 months. This is what we love and this is what we do.
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