When I get calls from clients asking me to optimize their firm website for search engines, my first question, ‘what do you want to optimize your website for’ always throws them off. They don’t immediately understand why the answer isn’t obvious.
If you are an Accountant your website should be optimized for ‘Accountant’ right?
Wrong.
This approach to choosing keywords for your website would be most difficult to implement because it would entail competing with all accounting firms regardless of specialty, target audience or geography. Today, a search for ‘Accountant’ on Google generates over 35 million results! I don’t think that you really want to be competing with all of them.
This approach to choosing keywords for your website would also be less likely to deliver targeted results because it is too broad. The list of results for ‘Accountant’ are literally all over the place. It includes definitions, resources, associations and accounting firms across Canada.
A better approach to choosing keywords for your website would be to expand your keyword into a phrase by adding on your specialty or target audience and the name of your city as well. For example ‘Small Business Accountant Toronto’.
So, your website needs to be optimized for ‘Small Business Accountant Toronto’ instead of ‘Accountant’.
Well it’s not quite that simple.
Think of each page of your website as an independent entity. Each of these pages represents a new opportunity to choose keywords for your website. In the example above, you may choose keywords for your services page that would be more specifically focused on your services rather than your target market e.g. ‘Audit Preparation Toronto’. This strategy to choosing keywords for your website enables you to reach a larger number of searchers, all of which are highly targeted.
Even if you are planning to work with a marketing consultant on your search engine optimization strategy, you will need to learn how to choose keywords for your website. Carefully choosing keywords for your website will not only help you to ensure that your website generates traffic. It will help you to ensure that your website generates the right traffic.
Related posts: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Don’t Dilute Your Brand For a Few Hits
Photo credit (top): brandis78
I also think that choosing the right keywords for your site may determine its success or failure.
Thanks for your comment keyword. I would agree that even if you do everything else right in terms of search engine optimization purposes, if you don’t choose the right keywords you won’t meet your goals for your website.
That said, this point only applies to websites that are being optimized for search engines. I have a number of clients in niche markets that have opted out of an SEO strategy and instead are relying entirely on offline marketing of their websites. In these cases, keywords are irrelevant.