There are many ways to bring in quality traffic. There is the traffic you earn over time from an established audience, the traffic you pay for, and that beautiful, targeted traffic you get from search engines. Getting your page to rank well on the results pages doesn’t happen by magic. It’s something that takes a lot of know-how, well implemented strategy, and the work to make it happen.
Your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy should start with thinking about your keywords. These are phrases your ideal customer is likely to type into the search box. Our job as site owners is to figure out what our ideal customer may search for and then optimize our pages so they have the best chance to rank well on the results pages for those search terms.
This means you want to create the right content that will appeal to them, but before you even do that, you start with keywords that will bring in the best results, meaning, a low bounce rate and a high conversion rate from the valuable traffic you bring in.
The Differences Between Niche and General Keywords
Niche keywords are long tail phrases that bring in highly targeted visitors. General keywords are broader terms that bring in a larger audience but that is less targeted.
So for example, someone looking to buy new shoes might type in “buy shoes” (a general keyword) or they may type in, “buy blue high-heeled shoes” (a niche keyword phrase). In the niche example, you have the advantage of knowing exactly what your visitor wants and you can deliver that to them, but there will be fewer visitors. With a general phrase, you will bring in more visitors but the term will be more difficult to rank well for, and a smaller percentage of the users will find what they are looking for on your page because their search wasn’t specific enough. You don’t know what the general keyword term user is truly looking for.
What Type of Keyword Is Right For My Site?
Companies like Walmart or Target create a lot of value from general keywords as they are trying to bring in as many visitors as possible and they sell such a wide range of products that it’s likely they will have something for most people.
Most online stores will find more value from the visitor looking for something specific. If you know what they want and can deliver that to them, it’s a perfect opportunity to convert.
How To Develop Keyword Strategies for Niche Marketing
Targeting a niche audience is all about focusing on them and serving content that meets their needs.
Start by creating content meant specifically for your audience. Once you know what your ideal customer is searching for, you can create content that is exactly what they want. This builds trust with the user as soon as they land on your page.
Use tools like our keyword suggestion tool to further research the keywords related to your niche.
If your website covers a broad spectrum of topics, break them down so you target a few specific niches to take advantage of long tail search traffic. So if your website is all about television shows from the 90s, break your content down by genre, so sitcoms, fantasy shows, talk shows, and so on.
The Better You Know Your Audience, The Better You’ll Do
If you’re a small business, if you only have so much to spend on a marketing budget, and if you want to see your conversion rate go up, then targeting niche keywords can be a strong strategy for you. The better you understand your audience, the better you’ll do creating keyword-rich content that speaks to them.
