Each day, millions of people use the web. Many of them are your target customers. But how do you get your website in front of these ideal clients? Just because you have a website doesn’t mean you will automatically be exposed to many users. And, even if you do have a lot of traffic, not all your visitors will be converted to real customers.
This is why targeting the right audience is more important than a site’s prominence. It’s actually quite useless to be become viral in front of those who will never buy your products.
Once your website appears in front of the right audience, all your effort will pay off. How will you get your site to the right audience? There are many ways to do so, and the most popular of which is through search engine optimization.
To get your website to your right audience, here are some tips you should take note of.
Long tail Keywords
SEO has become synonymous to keyword optimization while, in fact, keyword optimization is just one SEO strategy. If you hire an SEO expert, you will realize that even keyword optimization also has other parts, which serve as independent strategies. One of these keyword optimization strategies is the use of long tail keywords.
Long tail keywords are specific words that are added to the main keyword. For instance, your main keyword is “rubber shoes.” If your site contains such keyword, it may appear on search engine results page (SERP) for all the queries that include the keyword “rubber shoes” regardless of what kind of rubber shoes you are selling. Most users who type in such keywords haven’t decided which type of rubber shoes they are looking for.
The problem with such a keyword or key phrase is that it’s too general. It’s true that there are a lot more users for such key phrases, but also keep in mind that there are also a lot of websites targeting such keywords. The probability your website will appear on SERP is very low.
If you are targeting users who look for rubber shoes for kids, you can optimize your site and include a key phrase “rubber shoes for kids.” This will narrow down your target while reducing the competition for such a niche. Adding such specific words to a phrase in order to become more specific is what we call a long tail keyword.
In the past, many businesses would just use any keyword they wanted. The more general it was, the more exposure their site would get; however, that was in the past, and that’s not applicable today. With lots of websites doing the same thing, popular keywords is no longer the name of the game. Today, more and more companies are considering the strategy of using long tail keywords, and will take time before a very specific long tail keyword becomes competitive.
Have a Special Tool? Promote it!
Let’s say your a specialized doctor that has one of the latest and greatest MRI machines. You should have a page on your website promoting that machine and specifically why that machine is beneficial to your clients. Don’t skimp out on this sort of thing. It can really bring clicks in from the search engines if you have content that really shows off your equipment or your latest offerings.
Local Searches
Typically, if your target audience is categorical, it doesn’t matter where your audience comes from. Specific audiences such as young women may buy from you online wherever they are. On the other hand, if your target audience is location-specific, it’s a must your business appears on local searches.
Local searches work similarly with regular searches like what you can do when you type in keywords into a Google search box. In fact, you can perform local searches in the same search box, or you can get through it and find something on Google Maps.
You can also perform local searches on the search engines of internet yellow pages such as Yelp or Craigslist. When you look for a shop in a particular place like “auto repair shop in Chicago,” most of the pages you can see on SERP are coming from business listings from different directories, and vertical platforms that feature businesses from Chicago. If you have a business which is targeting a local market such as this, you will benefit a lot when you appear in the same local searches.
To optimize your site for such local searches, you can use a long tail key phrase such as “auto repair shops in Chicago.” Incorporating long tail keywords into your website is a good start, but there is more you can do to optimize your site for local searches.
You can create a contact form that mentions your specific address because a contact form is the one that is more prominent when it comes to indexing a site for local searches. While having a complete contact form, you can also put its link on your website’s footer, so every page of your site can also be optimized for local searches.
Another strategy is to look for some vertical platforms where you can enlist your business. These are directories that allow businesses to include their website in their profile page or business page. When such vertical platforms appear on SERP, there is a probability your profile page of your website will be featured in their snippets.
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is also similar with SEO in the sense that your website will appear on SERP for a particular keyword target. The difference is that you don’t have to optimize your site for organic searches. You can make your site directly appear on SERP for a specific keyword by advertising through Google AdWords.
Advertising through Google AdWords means you are buying a specific number of views for a specific keyword. This will enable your site to automatically appear at the top of SERP when your target keyword is typed in by your target audience. Regardless of your optimization effort, your site will stay there as long as you have not yet consumed all the number of views you have bought. However, if a certain number of views you have paid for has already been reached, your site will no longer appear in the next query unless you renew your campaign.
Banner Ads
Aside from Google AdWords, you can also advertise your site through banner ads. This is possible by signing up with an advertising network like Google AdSense. When you sign up with an ad network, you will be given an option where your ads should appear. There are categories you may choose such as business, health, travel, food, games, and more. In this way, your ads will only appear on sites that belong to a particular category you have chosen.
Social Media Groups
Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn offers features in which you can create or join a group that focuses on a specific interest. This is a great way to expose your website to a readily available audience. The best way to do this is to create a blog section on your site, and whenever you post a blog, you can share it to such social media groups.
Final Thoughts
Niche marketing has been around for quite some time since the introduction of affiliate marketing. Finding a niche in the market is not an easy task, especially these days in which competition is tougher than ever before. If your site is targeting a much wider audience, competition becomes higher. However, if you narrow down your target, you are more likely to become popular in a specific niche which is not fully saturated with competition.