Let’s get real for a minute. All of your competitors want to rank on page 1 in a Google search too. So how will you beat them out?

Many B2B marketers utilize search engine optimization (SEO) to improve their rankings in the search engines.  There are many SEO techniques to help search engines find your information, but selecting the right keywords and optimizing your site for them, is essential to success.

If you aren’t on page 1 now, simply incorporating the most popular keywords into your website isn’t likely to get you there. Just think of your own Google searches. How often do you go beyond page 1. Hardly ever, and that’s the point. Increasing traffic requires page 1 placement. Be honest about how your site compares to the competition. Does your competitor host a robust site with lots of content? Do they have three times the number of inbound links?  If so, consider something other than a head-to-head content strategy.

Where your B2B company fits in the competitive landscape should play a factor in determining the keywords you want to optimize your site for. Think about the keywords in terms of how well your business can rank for them. That’s where you need  start if you want to see results.

You can view your competitor’s keywords easily  by right clicking on a site and selecting “view source.” Don’t go after the same keywords unless you are prepared with the resources to do battle with loads of original content, social media and publicity. Instead, choose your keywords strategically.

Target Keywords with Lower Competition

This isn’t to say you should pick a keyword based on a lack of popularity. You need a certain amount of volume to make your efforts worthwhile. But use a tool such as the Google Keyword Search Tool to identify  less competitive terms first. For example, there are approximately 22,000 monthly searches for content marketing and a fair degree of competition, while content strategy also had 22,000 month searches, but far less competition.  Content Strategy has been the focus of several posts that are designed to improve our rankings on this key search term.

Target Localized Keywords

If your business is localized, adding keywords that are relevant for that market can improve your rankings when visitors search locally. Describe your business using your location. For example, we might refer to ourselves as Chicago-based content writers. A natural way to add geographic keywords are through testimonials, project showcases and press releases covering events. Photos can also be optimized for location through your alt tags.

Get Specific

We produce a lot of content that is relevant to business-to-business marketers in construction and foodservice. When you create your content around market-specific keywords, competition decreases and your chances of ranking on Page 1 improve.

Choosing your keywords as part of your overall content marketing strategy, based on solid research, makes far greater sense than following the crowd to page 2 and 3 of the search engine rankings.  Use your creativity to create geographic, market-specific and less competitive keywords and then follow through with the content focused on customer needs.

Writers: What do you want to know about SEO? I am speaking at the Construction Writers Association Conference in San Antonio in October and would love to hear from you. Leave your question in the comment box.