Marketing Monday Newsletter #19, Can I Rank For General Terms

Can you get me ranked for general terms like ‘lawyer’?

Ranking for a general term is possible but competing for it is to be expected. When you refine your strategy, you can better allocate your resources to find higher-performing keywords without having to outbid competitors. This is because the words people use to search can lead to high-traffic phrases, and you need to focus on several variations of these words to have the most impact. This essentially means focusing not only on the job label but also on the services and sub-sections of the industry.

Focused Keywords

Focused keywords generate the most traffic and usually have the highest competition. For example, the term ‘lawyer’ would fall under this section. While it will likely be a keyword on the home page and the focus of your site to some degree, that doesn’t mean it is the only focused keyword you should have.

The more you expand your site, the more keywords you can focus on; each page should use a few variations to ensure maximum value. These focused keywords allow Google to see the main purpose of your pages and where they need to be served up in the search engines.

Peripheral Phrases

Peripheral phrases are lower-traffic keywords and phrases where you have far more chance of ranking in more populated industries. Often, in saturated markets like the legal industry, competing for the most prominent words can lead to nothing. Alternatively, focusing on a niche and specific phrases could get you far more valuable users coming to your site. In the legal sphere, this could be as general as ‘tax attorney in Canada’ or as specific as ‘what documents a lawyer needs from you.’ These phrases are usually based on direct, high-traffic search phrases that you could capture.

High Traffic / Low Traffic

When you analyze your position in the market, you can see which terms are most relatable to your services, and you can also see which phrases generate the most traffic. When you plan out your strategy well, you will be able to hone in on a variety of these options to balance out high and low-traffic words in the ranks you can realistically achieve.

When you try to go after general terms like ‘lawyer’ for your SEO ranks, it can be done with the right budget, but can often present more competition. Longer periods of time and effort may be required to get there in some cases. If you are in an industry and area with low competition, you will have a much stronger case to push that main keyword for your business. Planning out your strategy with experts allows you to target the best options available and have the most impact on your business.