Learn how to do effective keyword targeting.

If you’re a small business designing a website, understanding keyword targeting is one of the fundamentals of success; but it’s amazing how many mistakes are made with it.

Most businesses don’t understand that you can actually rank for any keyword that you like, if you build enough back-links and prove to Google you deserve it; taking time to identify what it’s worth going after and then taking the steps to get there is basic to your online business.

Here are 3 of the main errors that online businesses make when it comes to this important part of your marketing strategy.

1. Not Getting Inside Their Customers’ Heads!

Another mistake online businesses often make is not understanding fully what their customers are searching for – this is key to targeting the right website keywords. In fact getting inside the minds of your customers is important to virtually every aspect of successful online marketing.

There’s no point pouring time and money into targeting keywords that nobody is searching for or that the type of customers you want to attract will not be typing into search engines.

Think about your ideal customer and what they search for just before they find you – this should enable you to put together a list of keywords you can target; cross-checking using the Google Keywords Tool will fine-tune that list.

2. Not Understanding Keyword ROI

It’s important to get ROI (Return on Investment) for what you spend on targeting keywords. This is often overlooked.

For example, if you spend a lot of money ranking well for a broad and highly competitive term like “home loans” but only have a $20 eBook on home loans to sell then it’s unlikely you’ll ever make a profit. This is poor ROI, as you don’t have the product to back up your target.

For a term like “home loans” all the big banks and financial institutions will be competing for Number 1 on Google; as a small business it’s unrealistic to compete on their grounds as it would take huge resources to do so; it’s far better to target other keywords that it’s easier to rank for, that still reflect your business and get a better ROI overall. Look for the quick, easy “wins” or the “low hanging fruit.”

3. Mistaking The Browsing Phrase For The Buying Phrase

People will visit product-based websites to browse or to buy; targeting buyers is important and it will come down to your keyword choices.

For example if you have a site that sells digital cameras you can spend ages trying to rank for “cameras”. It’s highly competitive and will take a lot of money to get it ranking at all. If you do manage it, you will get a lot of traffic, but will they necessarily be buyers? Actually many will be browsers who are not there to buy anything at all.

Traffic volume can be misleading. Sometimes it’s better to get fewer highly qualified hits than it is to get many unqualified hits.

To use the above example, if your site sells the Sony Handicam HDR-SRII it will be far easier to rank for that keyword phrase than “cameras”; you spend less time and money getting it to rank PLUS the traffic is qualified because most people clicking on your site will be interested in buying that particular model.

Understanding some basic principles and avoiding the three mistakes above with your keyword targeting will immediately give your online business a huge advantage over the others – because most businesses aren’t doing it correctly.

For other best-practices with getting your website created and ranking well check out the Competition Crusher workshop. It’s viewable for FREE right here: www.crusherworkshop.com.