Last week I had an interesting meeting with a client that was in a onboarding phase. The client has a newish brand with very little visibility online or history for this new brand that was launched in May 2021.

The client is subscribed to my SEO services and the meeting was to review the keyword targets for the service that I am delivering. An SEO discussion I had with a client:

From the Client: “Shaneo, we appreciate your keyword research buddy, but you’ve recommended we go after obscure terms with very low search volume? I’m not sure that tactic aligns with our objectives”

From Me: “We need to crawl before we walk, we then need to walk before we run, this is a new service you are offering and there are pages and pages of competitors who have years of history. You can compete but you cant do it overnight we need to think about this as a 12-month plan if SEO is your preferred method of growing the service. Or we can run paid advertising and show up today but for 4-5 times the cost of SEO. Its your choice how we do it and my choice how we get there’.

How To Assess Intent Based Targeting

1. Your domain has little history or authority, you are basically brand new in Google’s eyes.
2. Your site coverage is TOO thin to go after the terms you suggested and as part of the SEO strategy we’ll build those pages out within your budget and within the proposed scope of work and
3. The terms I suggested had VERY HIGH cpc’s which suggests that the conversion intent is likely to be MUCH higher”

Maybe in hindsight I should of led with point 3, oh well next time. I do try to help educate business owners when I present my strategy as not everyone understands SEO and the power it has in growing businesses.

Why I Recommend Intent Based Targets

NEVER put low search volume queries down, ever. In fact, some of my greatest achievements from an ROI perspective came from building out huge swathes of long-tail based on ZSVK (zero search volume keywords).

The longer-tail the search (the more specific it is) the more likely you are to generate a conversion. My plan is stack up a lot of long tail keywords and once we have the traffic we can start to move towards those higher search volume keywords.

My guide to types of keywords.

In fact, my SEO strategies usually work back to front in that I’ll shun high search volume terms for mass lower search volume terms where there are huge competition gaps, rich snippet opportunities and a chance to generate a MUCH higher ROI.

Generic search terms are often impacted heavily by localisation, device and obscurity when it comes to conversion value/intent.

My Own Analysis Informs The Tactic

I always do my own website audit to see what we have to work with and the analysis of opportunity or risks associated with competitors. A risk would be targeting things that a household name brand is targeting when you are a startup thats just a pipe dream. We have to target the long tails first.

That’s not to say I don’t go after bat-shit crazy competition keywords (I do) just, further into the relationship. It also depends on the client. If they have trust in me to get the small wins first and continue to trust me when it comes to the very competitive targets then we are going to succeed.

My large clients want big terms? and I go for them.
Large clients want huge volumes of long-tail traffic and I agree with this and go for it, having brand history, trust and authority in their category allows me the opportunity to do this at scale.
All I ask is my clients and prospective clients have faith in me to hit the targets we agree on, I do this every day I live and breathe it and I bring the client on the journey.

Smaller businesses just CANNOT compete on small budgets for high-value terms without a real concerted effort and patience/persistence (unless they are in some obscure industry with low competition).

NEVER discount low or zero search volume queries (ZERO doesn’t mean zero, it just means zero as per keyword tools but no ZERO in reality).

Low competition + high CPC + queries of 4 or more words = Goldmine.

If we are getting into the weeds around keywords and search volume I start to set some red flags with the client who I am happy to advise if they want to go after terms that they have set in their mind. But I still recommend the strategy thats the best for growth of the business.

There is a pattern emerging and partly due to COVID where you get a brand new “marketing associate” or “Account Manager” who was at university or was working at BP last month is the person who is telling you that your keywords need to be your band name only. Huge LOL from me but this is a reality from the big agencies.

This type of person does not have the in-field experience to give you business advice plain and simple. They can barely read and assess the changes in Google SERPs, changes that impact millions of businesses and websites daily.

The other problem you will face is the ex-agency freelancer (I am aware that is where I am coming from)  who was brand new at the agency, they got a taste of success and learnt/stole the agency process and decided to build their own 1 man band.

Pretty much this is a young hungry person who wants to carve out their own thing. They want the laptop lifestyle so bad they don’t really care how they get there. I’ve encountered enough of these overnight agency startups to know how to unbundle their business model.

Linkedin Job now showing [enter new freelance agency name] and status update “Hey guys, after a wildly successful run with [ABC agency] and I’ve decided to go out alone. All my hard work has paid off and if you could share my new business with your friends and any business owners who may need help with SEO”. This is the exact word-for word 5 out of the 6 people who did this used. L

They flash a new LinkedIn title weekly, they go from intern, marketing associate to expert and Guru then leader in a matter of weeks. The real danger is that these unqualified people actually have control of businesses’ marketing channels, leads pipelines and advertising budgets have never really done this A to Z before they only know letters D, E and F and flounder on week 3.

I also have to clean up the mess that they make when they take on an actual business. I have been cleaning up the mess they make with businesses by auditing and then reorganising the websites that these fly-by-night freelancers had the pleasure of working.i

Sadly this truth is real. This wildcard is now released out into the wild and will be advising businesses on how to spend their marketing budget and what direction to take their business objectives online.

I am having some post traumatic stress from cleaning up the mess of these people each and every week. There is no real business experience used in any of this. Its semi-automated research from spy tools that guides their every move. Never in any of their recommendations and strategies if you can call it that reflects the business objectives and in market behaviours.

When you work with me you work with a fellow business owner, I have employees, I pay taxes, I have deadlines and customers just like real business owners. I have been in business for over 20 years and I can relate to your objectives of making more revenue while decreasing operational expenses.

Have faith in the process. I will find you the best keywords, the best targets, the best customers, audiences and gaps in the market to build momentum online. That is my pitch and thats my ethos on doing good business. The choice to work with a gimp in a fancy suit or a real-world tactical specialist who understands business is yours. It starts with filling in a form here.