Before you start thinking about your SEO, you need to stop and think about your keywords! Knowing your business does not mean knowing what keywords people would use to find you online. I come across this situation time and time again.
Keyword Story 1
An online trip planning company hired me to SEO their website. When I asked them what keywords they want to target, their answer was a combination of geographical names with the words "attractions" and "events". For example, "Ottawa attractions" or "Ottawa events". When I did my keyword research, it turned out that people were not searching for "attraction" and "events" as much as they were searching for "things to do".
Keyword Story 2
A financial firm hired me to SEO their website for what they thought would be their best keyword - "financial advisor". While this keyword was good and useful, there were other keywords that were much more popular with users and had higher chances of generating steady traffic: "financial services", "tax services", "tax preparation", "income tax preparation", "pension plans".
Keyword Story 3
A software company offering online moving tools hired me to consult them on the best way to approach SEO. Their initial idea was to capitalize on "moving tools" and "online moving tools". It turned out that what users searched for was actually "moving checklist" and "moving tips".
My Keyword Advice
I cannot emphasize enough that finding out what keywords are used by your potential customers is the first most important thing in your search engine optimization project.
Wordtracker, an SEO industry veteran, provides a free keyword research tool that allows you to see the popularity value for a given keyword and its synonyms. Please keep in mind that the values Wordtracker generate should be interpreted in relative terms, not literally. Key in some very popular word, like "beauty products" or "travel" and note the popularity values. Then, key in some general terms in your field and note their popularity values, and after that key in your target keywords. Comparing all three values would give you a good idea as to how popular (and competitive) your desired keywords are.
Note that Wordtracker is based on real life keyword queries performed by users in the past few months. If your project is large and you are targeting many keywords, consider buying a paid subscription to the Wordtracker keyword software. For a small project, a free trial might suffice. For more keyword tools, refer to my SEO Ottawa website: Resources > Keyword Research.
