SEO agencies vary in their approach, one of the reasons that the costs vary so wildly. At the more commoditised end of the market, there are certain areas where processes can be reduced or omitted in order to reduce the price. One of these areas is keyword research and selection.
A full keyword research process can take me half a day in some industries, pulling together the best selection of terms to meet the customer’s needs and matching the potential of the site. However, we have often come across quotes from other companies that don’t have the keyword research phase. Commonly, in these cases, the customer is asked to supply a list of keywords for the site to be optimised for. Whilst in some cases, this is an informed choice, using data such as PPC results; in others the poor client is making a stab in the dark.
Having a fixed list of keywords means if they don’t drive traffic they will still be promoted. Having number one positions is great, but if they don’t bring any visitors it is really only any use for bragging rights – it won’t increase your business.
On the other hand, targeting too competitive a keyword list at an early stage is a recipe for disappointment, and can leave companies thinking that search engine optimisation doesn’t work, when in reality the choice of keywords meant they were trying to run before they could walk.
Using real data to change the keywords is the way that we generally find works well. Once a site has been active for some time, we can use the traffic it is getting from search engines to find out what has more potential. This sometimes means playing to the site strengths, targeting keywords that dovetail well with existing content. Other times, it means evolving the list to target increasingly more competitive keywords as the site gets older and has more authority.
Change of business focus might mean a new keyword, or the removal of a previous keyword. Industries change, and the words that go along with them evolve, so your keyword list may need to evolve alongside.
SEO has increased in difficulty over the last year or so, as more players come on board, algorithms stabilise and domains age. Keyword research has become an increasingly important task, balancing customer needs, traffic with achievability. But your keyword list should be a living, changing thing, moving with the times and the progress of your optimisation campaign.
