In the land of plenty, the site with a keyword is king

If you’ve ever talked to a local businessman about their SEO requirements, you understand the big problem SEO companies face today. The question “what keywords do you want to optimize for” is usually answered with a list of about a hundred different words that cover all the products and services under the sun.

If the same company has ever done or is likely running an AdWords campaign (i.e. sponsored listings), then a huge keyword list is probably fine, but in the world of organic SEO, where you need to focus your efforts, you should get them to consider just a few words to get started. Unless, of course, they have an unlimited budget.

You see, SEO costs are generally calculated on a ‘per word’ basis and the amount of work invested for a particular word can be phenomenal if it is very competitive. But you can make things a lot easier for yourself if you go ‘niche’ and there are plenty of ways to do it effectively and also make sure you convert more.

The idea of ​​a niche product has been around for years and is nothing new to many businesses that thrive in any financial situation. It basically says “sell one thing and sell it well” and the benefits are multiple. For example, let’s say we are looking for a kitchen for our new kitchen. Are we more likely to buy one (which is a big buy, after all) from a general store that sells pretty much everything from food to hi-fi equipment, or will we probably be better off by a store that only sells kitchens?

For starters, specialty stores will likely be staffed by people who know their stuff well. They probably have trained people who can help you with the installation of your products. A store that sells everything under the sun simply won’t be able to offer the kind of specialized information that you really need.

But there is also a benefit for the store owner: they know that the people who enter their store are looking for a kitchen. There is no ambiguity and all you need to do is offer the right type of cuisine according to your customer’s needs.

So how does this translate to the web? Well I’m sure you’ve noticed more and more ‘niche’ websites popping up now and their seemingly supernatural ability to dominate search engines has surely made you sit up.

You see, Google has stated on many occasions that any website you create should be user friendly and also easy for visitors to understand and navigate. It also takes the relevance of a web page based on the pages that link to it, including the internal pages and the content of those pages.

If you sell kitchens online and that is your only business, then by default all of your pages will discuss this need and all titles, descriptions, and content will point in the right way. For everyone who views the site, including the big G, this is a cooking site and there is no mistake.

What’s more, people who find your site are more likely to link to it through social media because you may seem like an expert in your particular field. You will receive recommendations, reviews and people will trust you.

This is all fine if you only sell kitchens, but what if your website does it do you also sell other products? So what?

Well there is a very easy way to get the same effect with pretty similar results and that is to make sure you structure your site in a way that ensures you have multiple entries in the content.

Remember: Google sees every page on your site as your home page and is therefore the first thing to make sure whose do is optimize only for your home page. Trying to get all the products on the home page is useless; instead, create multiple landing pages that work on their own, regardless of where the customer comes from.

This is easy if you have a content management system and you can easily create a ‘department store’ effect online using this method. Also, make sure all your categories are well defined and easy to navigate and that people are flowing through the site and can find exactly what they are looking for.

If you do it right, not only can you make it easier for your customers to trust you, but Google will love it and we all want some of that.