Use your keywords to influence who will find you
When you go online and search for your alpaca farm, how do you rank?
If you search on your ranch's name, you probably show up pretty high. But remember that most of the people searching out there probably are not searching on your ranch's name.
Keywords (or keyword phrases) are the foundation for any search engine optimization efforts for your web site. They determine who will find your web site and where they will find it, so it's very important to begin with a solid list of keywords to target.
Let's delve a little into the mindset of people who are searching for information on alpacas online.
Those who are serious about getting into the alpaca ranching business or buying alpacas may be searching on terms like:
You'll notice that these terms are quite specific. They indicate intent by including words like "buy", and they often indicate a geographical area. People who search on terms like these are more qualified - in other words, they are closer to taking action.
On the other hand, picture the person who is searching on words like these:
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Alpacas
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Fleece
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Alpaca breeding
People who search on generic terms are more likely to be at the very start of their research. It will be a long time before they decide to get into the alpaca business - and they may decide it's not for them. So this type of keyword is not thought to be profitable to target when you are just beginning your optimization efforts.
Of course it would be fantastic if your alpaca web site were ranking on the first page of Google for the term "alpacas". But you'll have your work cut out for you to gain traction against the 1.49 million other sites now vying for that word! Take a look at the sites that are ranking on the first page for "alpacas", and you'll see established authority web properties like Alpacas.com (which by the way had a team of optimizers working behind the scenes to build that ranking - us!)
General keywords can take a long time and a lot of resources to show ranking results. That's why we recommend every alpaca rancher first start with more specific terms that are less competitive. If your ranch is in Florida, you'll see more success with "alpacas for sale Florida " competing against only 12,000 sites.
If you're still not convinced, consider this: when you target the more specific terms, you are automatically including more general ones! Did you notice that all of the longer terms also include some version of "alpacas"?
Finding Your Keywords
Here are a couple steps you can take to find your keywords:
1. Brainstorm a list.
Come up with words and phrases you would like your alpaca ranch to be found under. Check out the terms your competitors are using in their site copy and keyword meta tags. Also, look at your server logs to see which phrases are drawing your current visitors.
2. Add modifiers.
Add geographical keywords, including city, state, and maybe even zip code. Include adjectives that accurately describe your farm's services (affordable, first-rate, top, leading, big, small, experienced, etc.).
3. Analyze your keywords.
After you come up with all you can think of, find out how often those terms are actually entered in the search engines. Both Yahoo! and Google's paid search programs have free tools that will give you an idea of how often a keyword is searched on, how competitive it is, and suggest potential keywords you may have missed. Wordtracker.com offers a more advanced version that you may find to be more reliable, and it even predicts traffic volume from each keyword.
Of course you can also call on a reputable SEO company such as SEO Advantage for a comprehensive keyword study and consultation - a wise choice when you are serious about your alpaca web site's rankings. |
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