5 Reasons You Need to Refresh Your SEO Keyword Strategy Every 12 Months

For most companies, website traffic is a key factor – maybe the most important factor – in getting new leads and making sales. And the best traffic is the FREE traffic that you get by ranking #1 on search engines for keywords that matter most to your business.

Of course, nothing in life is really free, including web traffic. For the search keywords that matter, it will take you time and resources around search engine optimization (SEO) in order to rank #1 on a top search engine like Google. But once you are there, the clicks are free all day, every day. And that feels pretty amazing.

 

The Importance of a Keyword Strategy

At any given time, you should have 15-20 focus keywords around which you build your SEO activities. Identifying these specific keywords out of the thousands of possible keywords constitutes your keyword strategy. Falling behind on the most important focus keywords to your business could translate to thousands of dollars in lost sales opportunities each month. That’s how high the stakes are.

 

Here are 5 reasons why you need to revisit and revise it every 12 months.

1. Your prospects’ needs change:

Your prospective customers may have experienced a shift in their needs and how they view them. Sure, they still need what you offer, but they may look at it differently.

Example: Your company sells and installs residential swimming pools. Customers used to search on Google for “new pool.” But these days they are thinking more holistically about the entire backyard design, so they look for “design for backyard with pool.” If your keyword strategy fails to capitalize on this trend, you’ll soon be missing out on profitable traffic.

2. Language evolves:

Each year, there are appreciable differences in how the culture around you thinks about and describes their world. Over time, language evolves to reflect changes in culture.

Example: Your company runs a directory for people interested in investing in blockchain-powered technologies. Three years ago, everybody was searching for “blockchain investing,” but now people are searching for the individual blockchain-powered technologies, such as “cryptocurrency,” “nft marketplace,” and “smart contracting.”

3. The competitive landscape for organic search traffic is always changing:

Each and every minute, your website is constantly competing with other websites for a limited supply of keyword searches. As your competitors rise and fall in the search rankings for certain keywords, your own website’s rankings position can and will change over time. You need to monitor this and evolve your keyword strategy to mirror it.

Example: You design, sell and support an accounting software platform for small and midsize retail businesses. For two years, you have owned the #1 ranking for searches on the keyword “top retail accounting software.” But recently, three competitors have become more aggressive with their SEO strategies and now you are ranking #9 for the same keyword. You have some decisions to make about how to respond.

4. Your business is evolving:

If you are like most companies, you evolve your business model in order to stay relevant to your customers. As you expand, discontinue or modify products or services, the focus keywords included in your keyword strategy need to evolve.

Example: You have operated a weed treatment service for residential lawns in your city. Now, you plan to add a new line of robot mowers available for rent to your clients. This opens up a whole new realm of possibilities and requires the keywords to match.

5. Your website is evolving:

Ideally, you are constantly adding new content to your website. Web content can include blog posts, product and service-related content, and “About Us” content like company mission and history. Each new page of content requires a new focus keyword, which you will use to guide the creation of your meta title, meta description and visible text copy.

Example: You run an HVAC company and have invested in new vent dust-removal technology that you are excited to share with your customers. So, you have created a new Service page for this offering, as well as five new blogs planned over the next few months. You are going to need new variations on the “vent cleaning”-related keywords you have been using for the past 3 years.

If you think it’s time for a keywords strategy refresh, contact MindEcology and we’ll get you back on track.