I gave the keynote talk at the SMX Conference in Stockholm today (slides here), and what I had to say doesn’t jive with what many smart SEO people advise. Basically, I told people that all of the tricks and optimizations and clever tactics are a waste of time for the average marketer. Despite the millions of pixels that have been used to explain all of these clever techniques for worming your way to the top of the search rankings, I think that most search marketers would do better to steer clear of them, because they work for only a short period of time.

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One of the simplest ways of making your website stand out from the crowd is through unique content that appeals to searchers.

Generally, people are not looking for your products or services to purchase immediately; they are looking for information about them. They want to learn something new and this is where you can get the jump on your competitors.

SEM expert Stoney deGeyter says that key to unique content is thorough keyword research. He has outlined 4 things to look out for during your research:

• Easy to Rank Phrases

When looking for good traffic, you can always start with phrases that have little or no competition. Find queries that match what you provide that others have not yet optimized for. This gives you a chance to build up some rankings and traffic for good (yet lower traffic) phrases. You can immediately start siphoning off traffic from your competitors and start building a loyal audience that will keep coming back.

• Niche Areas

Look for an area within your industry that your competitors are not covering or not covering very well. Find obscure topics that people are interested in, but, after conducting a few searches of your own, show that the available content on the web isn’t sufficient. This creates an opportunity for you to fill in the gaps and create authoritative information of your own.

• Highly Targeted Phrases

These are long-tail phrases that are very targeted for your audience, addressing specific areas of interest. Highly targeted phrases are generally pretty easy to get ranked but they also bring in an audience that has a very specific need. Write information that targets these searchers by providing new information, a new spin, a new take on, or a new way of looking at things.

• Info Queries

They are typically the queries with a question that answers questions, such as “how to…” or “what is…”. These queries provide a great opportunity to provide content beyond simple text. “How to” videos, diagrams, flash animations, and podcasts are all great ways to provide this type of content in a way that people find valuable. Telling someone how to do something is great, but showing them how to do it is even better.

So, if your website is looking all to like your competitors, then its time for a change! I hope Stoney’s advice will help you achieve this.

Comments

You might have come across the recent launch of Google Instant last week – where the search results will come up as you type and which is being rolled out across the globe. Google Instant takes what you have typed already, predicts the most likely completion and streams results in real-time for those predictions – you can read more about it on the Google blog.

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How should a small business get started online? What is the best way to rank for searches in your local area? How could you be using Facebook to get more customers to your business?

My guest in this interview, Will Scott, answers these questions and shares some great tips as well. Will is President of SearchInfluence, a New Orleans based Internet Marketing Agency with over 20 people and tons of clients.

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Dear Service Professional,

As we (hopefully) move away from the Great Recession you may be seeing inquiries, albeit tentative. They’re interested in your landscaping/consulting/tutoring services, but they don’t want to spend that much so they ask you if you can scale back your proposal.

Don’t do it.

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