One of the most overlooked yet extremely vital part of a proper search engine optimization program is the initial keyword research. A wise man once said nobody plans to fail, they just fail to plan.

Most people gloss over this aspect of the program and just pick keywords at random because they think that’s what people are searching for.  They never look at the data, do the research, pick apart the competitors or analyze the results. They assume that since it is their company they know what people are looking for and ultimately make this critical mistake.  This mistake will cost them thousands of dollars and set them back months.

Let’s take an OB/GYN’s office as an example. Let’s assume you’re the office manager for an OB/GYN’s office in Dallas Texas. You’ve been working there for 10 years and you know your customers, you know your staff, and you think you know what people are looking for. You start an SEO campaign and go after a keyword such as obstetrics and gynecology. While this is exactly what you do, it may not be what people are looking for. If we do our research on those terms, you will see that the traffic is low, the competition is extremely high, and the results that it delivers would not be what you are expecting. Most women would not type in this term to find an obstetrics or a gynecologist. Our data shows that in the Dallas market and keep in mind every market is different, but in the Dallas market women are more likely to use the term OB GYN in the search results. On top of that, if they are looking for a doctor to deliver their baby, the term baby doctor ranks high, has lowering competition, and has more traffic than obstetrics and gynecology. This means that as an SEO company I can rank their office on baby doctor faster than I can on obstetrics and gynecology. I can achieve a faster ranking that delivers more traffic, more patients, and since it’s obstetrics has a higher profit margin to their practice. If the office simply chooses keywords at random, by the time they realize that they’ve chosen the wrong keywords it may be six months to a year and they would need to restart the program to focus on the proper keywords.  These are some of the reasons why it is vital to determine the very best keywords from the start.  Do your homework and do the research, and then when you start your SEO campaign you will be ahead of most of the competition.

At SEO ONE we sometimes spend up to 30 days researching the keywords alone.  Making a mistake at this point is critical since this is the foundation upon which everything else is built upon and if it is a faulty foundation everything else will fail.  SEO ONE, is owned by Dan Stalfire.  Dan has over 20 years of digital marketing experience and is rated as a top expert in search engine optimization.  To learn more visit www.seoone.com or call Dan at 877 4MY-WEBB