More valuable than search rank alone – is rank for the right keywords.
When you enter keywords for a search, the search engines try to respond with the web pages that:

1) Are the most relevant.

2) Are the most authoritative.

You might rank high for your company name, address, or trademark product names with little or no SEO work. If you are the only company with that name, of course you are the most relevant for that name. If it is a local search for the area you are located this makes you even more relevant. Searchers that already know your company name, location, and unique product names are likely high value prospects, and maybe even existing clients.

But what about those prospects who don’t know your company but seek your product or services? For example, you may have a shoe store that is well known and some clients search for your company name “Business Pro Shoes of Virginia”. No one else has that name and it might be easy to rank well for it. What if you could rank well for “shoes for businessmen”? This would be more competitive, but this being your specialty, it is totally relevant to your business. It is also a term that can bring new prospects to your website, who don’t already know your company.

There is an even larger stream of searchers for broad terms like “shoes”.  But this is not as relevant to your business, it would be highly competitive, and almost impossible to become the authority on such a broad keyword.

Before you invest in SEO you must determine high traffic keywords that are relevant to your business. There are various tools available that can report estimated searches of keywords and find similar keywords. One such tool is SEMRush. At Internet Ad Management we also have the capability of discovering the SEO and pay-per-click keywords used by your competition. Keyword research is the foundation of an effective search marketing effort.

A high organic rank is most useful when it is for high traffic, relevant keywords. Similarly, a search marketing ad campaign is most effective with the “right” keywords. What have you done to determine relevant keywords for your search marketing?