When researching target keywords, hidden SEO opportunities are a pleasant surprise.
Hidden SEO opportunities aren’t necessarily a rarity. They’re actually a lot more common than most people anticipate, provided you do the research properly and delve deep.
Part of the problem with poor SEO stems back to a lack of time invested in target research. I’m often reminded of the phrase “Fail to plan, plan to fail”. It is very apt when it comes to choosing your targets.
SEO targets beyond the obvious keywords
Clients frequently open conversations on target keywords and phrases by being very specific about what they want to rank for. Their comments and requirements need to be taken seriously, but the research process can reveal targets they’d never even considered.
Think like the customer with no knowledge
There is one primary reason for this – businesses rarely think like the person looking for their products or services. They think they do, but they’re in an impossible position unless they have a very insightful marketing person or department.
The Widget SEO Example
For example, if you sell Widgets, and they’re primarily “Black Widgets, you’ll want to be No.1 on Google for “Black Widgets”. That is understandable. If your customer knows they want a Black Widget, or what one is, you’re in a good position. The reality is that a huge number of people won’t even know they’re called Widgets, let alone Black Widgets.
Delving deeper into the SEO opportunity
Let’s imagine that Black Widgets are used in Caravans for a specific purpose, such as a security alarm. If I’m new to caravanning, and I want a security alarm, yet I’ve never heard of Black Widgets, I’m probably going to go searching for something related to “caravan security” instead.
We can then take this a step further by looking at all the potentials words and phrases someone might use when searching for “caravan security” devices.
They might not even use the word “security”. What if they use the word “alarm” instead? We’ve gone from targeting “Black Widgets” to the realisation that there is traffic out there for phrases that might include “caravan alarm” or, being more specific, even “alarm to fit caravan”
Hundreds of SEO keyword targets
I’ve never researched caravan related security systems. However, I can assure you there will be hundreds of phrases related to them that the public use. Not a few, but hundreds. Collectively, the could swamp the volume of searches for “Black Widgets”.
That is a very rough example. There’s a lot more work required to hone in on what opportunities exist, but I think you’ll have grasped the point.
The SEO research potential
None of this is a problem. It is a superb opportunity for those that put the effort into SEO research. It is a very powerful tool for new businesses that have low visibility and no Google rankings.
How do new companies get ranked on Google?
When you’re a new company, the task of obtaining any visibility whatsoever in Google Search can be daunting. If you’ve got competitors that have been online for years, it might seem like an impossible task. It isn’t impossible, you simply need to be sensible. You’ve got ot appreciate that it is going to take time to catch them in most cases.
SEO won’t work miracles, or will it?
Unfortunately, most new businesses completely underestimate the ground they need to make up. They also have a habit of expecting miracles. I’ve always said that SEO isn’t a black art. It is a logical process that follows a lot of rules and a requires a lot of focus. Pulling rabbits out of hats isn’t something you can do with it. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t attract the attention of Google if you’re laser focused on what you’re looking for.
You need to find the target phrases that others have missed. Most businesses and SEO companies miss target phrases that are screaming to be capitalised on. They’re the hidden SEO opportunities.
Quick Dynamics SEO research
One of my clients approached me in a position that wasn’t too dissimilar to what I’ve described above.
Stuart Hardman is the founder of Quick Dynamics. They specialise in the implementation of Microsoft Business Central (often referred to as Microsoft Dynamics because of the stable of products it belong to) for small to medium sized companies. However, their USP is that they’ll do it far faster.
Microsoft Business Central is a Saas (Software as a Service) ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. It provides the software required for SME’s from a finance, sales, warehousing, reporting, distribution and many other perspectives.
Stiff competition
It is a popular ERP choice that is supported in the UK by companies that help you plan and deploy it. There is a lot of competition for every customer looking to implement Business Central.
Many of the companies that can help implement it have been around a considerable length of time. They’re established, some are large with good resources. There is an additional issue – they all have the foundation of a website presence.
Complacency can hurt your competitors
You might expect companies in the SaaS sector to have very good websites, and indeed some are. Others are fantastic examples of something I mentioned earlier in this blog – i.e. how easy it is to miss opportunities. This can usually be traced back to an air of complacency or their focus being on other areas of the business. It is very easy to take your eye off the ball if your business has been trading for several years, or more, and you’ve got a lot on your plate.
The USP of Quick Dynamics, being able to give customers a fast ERP implementation, didn’t mean that they had obvious and easy opportunities to exploit. Competitors were also attempting to capture traffic for fast ERP software deployment, albeit perhaps not as a primary form of revenue.
Understanding the way users search
When I initially spoke to Stuart, some of the target keywords and phrases stood out. While they centred around the business ability to implement Business Central quickly, they were still reasonably short in terms of what Quick Dynamics expect a Google user to search for.
If you’re unfamiliar with forms of search phrases, it might help for me to broadly categorise them for this purpose:
- Short-tail – short phrases such as “Business Central”
- Long-tail – longer phrases such as “Implement Business Central quickly”
Dig deeper into the SEO data
In this case, even many of the long-tail search phrases were going to be difficult to obtain reasonable visibility and Google rankings for. Any business in the tech-sector has usually looked at their website visibility at some stage, so Quick Dynamics were faced with the classic mountain face of a long, hard, climb ahead.
After the initial at-a-glance research, the fuller phase of SEO research began. You could read countless articles online about SEO research and most of them will give you step-by-step guidance on the basics. Theoretically, a business could run off and do what they say. In my experience, 99% of them will miss the opportunities that are staring back at them.
Get the client input, they know their sector better than you
I compiled a spreadsheet after the core of the SEO research had been completed. That was sent to Quick Dynamics. It contained over 1,600 lines of potential target keyphrases but wasn’t the finished product.
I find it useful to send an unfinished spreadsheet to client, giving them an early view of what the landscape looks like. There is a very clear purpose for doing this. My expertise is in compiling data related to SEO, coming up with a strategy and implementing it. The client expertise is in their sector – they’re much better placed to sift out things they’re not interested in and point out things they might want to pursue.
The hidden SEO opportunities come to light
With Quick Dynamics, one or two opportunities had come as a surprise and piqued Stuart’s interest. Further exploration of those target keyphrases revealed that they could be grouped together – as they were broadly related to two things Google users were looking for.
In compiling those two groups of phrases, it became evident that searchers had very little, if any, knowledge of Microsoft Business Central, or indeed the parent product – Microsoft Dynamics.
Cumulative value of low volume searches
Their interests were focused on obtaining information to solve a business problem, in a variety of connected way. What was particularly interesting was that the groups of key phrases were accumulating a good amount of search volume.
You’ll often find that long-tail searches have very little search traffic associated with them, but these phrases weren’t getting 0 or 5 searches a month. They were of far more interest and, cumulatively, potentially valuable.
Both groups were a surprise to Quick Dynamics. They had something in common that I’ve mentioned earlier – the end user was using different search terminology to that which Stuart would have expected.
It was a classic example of discovering that, without advance knowledge of a product or service, business owners are surprised at how people construct a search phrase. That level of surprise can go beyond the product or service. It can include the choice of basic words that people choose, and that became apparent for Quick Dynamics.
Keywords and phrases catch the client’s eye
From the two groups of phrases, one word in particular stood out in Group 1. There were 2-3 words that caught Stuart’s eye in Group 2, and none of the phrases in Group 2 would have been targeted had we not seen what some of the target audience was looking for on Google.
Swift results in the form of keyword rankings
In a short space of time, Quick Dynamics were ranking No.1 on Google for two of the phrases in Group 1. They always knew that rankings for phrases in Group 2 would be a longer term goal, but we also know that the competition is weak in terms of being aware of the phrases, never mind actually pursuing them.
If you’re wondering why I’ve not mentioned what the phrases are – Quick Dynamics would potentially lose their competitive edge if I was to publish them. The last thing you do is give directions to something valuable if there is a risk they’ll go and steal it!
Some people refer to these types of targets as “low hanging fruit”, and I think that is appropriate. Finding the fruit isn’t as easy as walking into an orchard.
SEO research isn’t a one-off process
There’s another aspect to SEO research that applies to Quick Dynamics and any client – you don’t do it once. Trends change, user habits change just as quickly, and the world doesn’t stand still. What you discover today might be very different a year from now. Targets need to move with the trends, and you might find a new target tomorrow that will reap reward.
Quick Dynamics operate in an extremely fast moving sector. Microsoft Business Central is changing all the time, as are the needs of software users, and the financial modules of any SaaS system are impacted by legislation at times.
They’re also faced with the challenge that every business faces when it comes to retaining positions – competitors will eventually spot the advantage you’ve gained. SEO research, competitor monitoring and the early identification of opportunities is vital.
Rely on the client knowledge to isolate keyword value
The SEO research process is a combined effort. You need the SEO experience to see through the data and think laterally about where the hidden SEO opportunities might be. The client, the business owner, needs to help isolate the potential value and what they want to aim for from the detritus or low value opportunities.
There is an advantage when working with people like Stuart. If you’re used to fast ERP implementations, you’re used to dealing with a lot of data and understanding that efficiency and priorities matter. It also makes the process of explaining where the SEO is going, and why, easier. Nonetheless, the client still has to buy into the strategy and understand the importance of SEO research.
Summary
If you’re looking for hidden opportunities in a sea of seemingly impenetrable competitors, look deeper, broader and try to think like someone with no knowledge of your product or service would.
However, obtaining the data about what people are searching for is only half of the battle.
Interpreting it and spotting trends and associations between searches is where the real value of SEO research comes to the fore. It tells you as much about your target audience as any survey could, indeed it might be argued it tells you more.
When working with a client like Quick Dynamics, the task is easier. That’s because they were quick to spot the opportunities. They knew what they wanted to look for, the type of visitor they didn’t want, and they also understand the need to pick up traction as time passes.
They work in a sector consumed by data and processes, so there is a parity that helps speed the SEO research phase up.
Quick Dynamics were as intrigued as I was with some of the data. It revealed words and phrases neither of us would have envisaged were being searched for. On reflection, they make perfect sense.
But, you’ve got to find the hidden SEO opportunities to target them.
Feedback
I welcome feedback on all my blogs. If you’ve any comments to add, I’ll always try to reply.
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