Being successful in marketing your local business online is very dependent upon finding out what search phrases or keywords people are using to find you in the search engines when they are ready to buy. Trying to rank for the wrong keywords is like trying to fish in a pond where there are no fish. You may get the sense that online marketing doesn’t work.

Finding the right keywords is like finding a fishing pond stocked full of hungry fish and while knowing what bait to use to get them to bite.

You may think you know what terms people are using but you need to use research to make sure. Business owners tend to think from the point of the business. The correct way is to think like the customer who is starting their search. Those customers are going to start with a more general keyword that fits what they are looking for.

Also, there’s a difference in keywords that they use when they are gathering information and for when they are ready to buy. Ranking for the “looky loos’” keywords is not where you want to be.

For example, you are looking to do online marketing for a local business that is a moving company in Dallas. What keywords should you pursue? The term “Dallas mover” has about 95 searches per day on it. That’s not bad. But, if you make it “Dallas moving” then it jumps to 398 searches per day. That’s about four times as much. Then if you choose “Dallas movers” it increases to 1,989 searches per day. This is about 20 times the original search term traffic with the addition of a single letter.

But, you can’t judge a term on traffic alone. There’s a measurement called Online Commercial Intent (OCI) which measures whether the person is likely to be looking or buying. The term needs to have an OCI of at least 70%. Here are the OCI ratings for those three terms

Dallas mover: 80%
Dallas moving: 60%
Dallas movers: 80%

Thus, it would be best to rank for Dallas movers but it would be better to rank for Dallas mover than Dallas moving even though the traffic is greater. An analogy would be, it’s better to fish in a pond with 95 hungry fish than a pond that has 398 fish that aren’t interested in eating.

To have success in local business online marketing in Dallas, you need to know what keywords to pursue. It’s not just a simple matter of pursuing the terms with the highest traffic. You have to determine which terms will be the most effective in bringing in more money to your business. A local business online marketing consultant can help you determine the most profitable strategy for you.