Keyword Research Still Overlooked by Small Business Owners in Scotland

Lots of small business owners across Scotland are still not doing enough Keyword Research.

I have come across a huge amount of evidence from Edinburgh up through Fife and across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland of no keyword research being done. This is especially ubiquitous in the micro and small business communities where large swathe have not used a Keyword Research Tool. I find this absolutely astonishing.
The reason being when speaking with these micro small business owners, you ask what their biggest challenge is with their website, and they answer – I am not getting any traffic.

And when looking at the content on their pages sure enough, you find that the pages are not using any keywords that their audience is actually searching with and yet that small business could be offering the solution. The problem – keyword research, followed by no on-the-page optimisation to tune pages towards Searchers Intent.

I thought therefore that I would air here again a Video Blog by Rand Fishkin back in 2016 on the topic  titled;

A Step By Step Process for Discovering Keywords – Your Best Keywords

Selecting Keywords that Match Searchers Intent

Collecting Keyword Metrics and Sort Filter Prioritise them based on Goals

What you want to do is take all the keywords in each of the lists and get the metrics for them so you can prioritize them properly. Your list of keywords will have metrics for:

• Volume – how often each month are they searched for
• Keyword difficulty
• How hard will this keyword rank in the organic results
• Does the keyword have click-through rate opportunity

Rand’s video blog provides more in-depth steps to the above process before you reach your fourth step which is;

Determine Keyword Targeting for New Content Creation – Prioritise Your List

By the time you reach this final step you will understand this is a phenomenal way to go through keyword research and keyword targeting. This will help you get the content and the optimization priorities that you need, if you are going to have any degree of success from your SEO efforts.  You will have to choose the right data and the right tools, and use multiple sources. You will have to intelligently build the right kinds of keyword lists. Then, use that metrics data to prioritize your page content etc. The morale of the story is you cannot just throw content onto a page with just pure intuition. Spend the time doing some serious  keyword research and based on what you have read here and saw in Rand’s video blog, you can have phenomenal success.

Of course if you don’t have any time to do this on your own because you are busily doing what you set out to do as a business owner, then consider hiring a professional digital marketing practitioner who has access to all the tools required for this task. And then you could also get help in crafting some quality content if you suffer from writers block!!

Small Business Success Stories in Scotland from Web Design and Marketing Company ICTADVISOR

We are constantly on the lookout for small business success stories in Scotland. We want to inspire those who are considering looking at great business ideas. Are you preparing to promote your small business online? If you haven’t been on the ICTADVISOR website before or had us do any work for you, hello, and a warm welcome from me Brian Mathers.

My Website Design and Marketing Company is regularly involved in small business consulting at stages across the process of putting a website in place. If you are preparing to build your first website, redesign a website, require some website performance analysis, or simply want help with small business marketing support services, that is what we have done since 1997.

Good Business Ideas

ICTADVISOR has been part of many good business ideas. Working together with these small businesses helped them find greater business opportunities.  Even before we began building them a website which had to be fit for purpose, the exploratory phase was both exciting and important. More importantly the marketing support provided thereafter helped grow many of those business substantially over the years online.

20 Years on and ICTADVISOR are still delivering business services for small businesses. We love helping the micro and small business owners reach the key objective with our input and that is helping his or her business make money online.

Today, as someone who is also passionately involved in working in partnership with Business Gateway helping to deliver the Digital Boost 1-2-1 program where there are many small business success stories we contribute towards across Scotland. So, in this post we wanted to put the spotlight on a small business owner who has a company in Kirkcaldy Fife called Den Electrics. Why?

We don’t actually have any responsibility for this business online regarding the marketing or website design for Den Electrics. And this post is not to critique the website about whether it is mobile responsive or search engine friendly etc.

This post is commenting on the excellent service delivered by Den Electrics. But want to draw attention to something important inside this website – the content. Producing Engaging Content for website pages is what we talk about all the time. There is even a Business Gateway Workshop that we deliver on this very important topic.

Successful Small Business in Fife Producing Engaging Content

Den Electrics is in our opinion a trusted small business to us locally here in Fife. Why is the brand so memorable to us when we find ourselves with a broken down appliance?
Because, Den Electrics website menu headings and content tells us about;

• Who They Are
• What They Do
• Where Do they Work

Those three important menu links they have and the content within those pages on the website, clearly explain what is on offer and how the business will help you. The content is helping to lead you towards the decision of hiring the business.
There is no doubt, if this business owner at Den Electrics had more time, we bet, there could be an abundance of success stories that they have. Stories like how he fixed our washing machine. The story telling you about how the business has overcome issues and conducted problem solving in order to have happy customers. Those stories install confidence and that business owner becomes the GOTO guy you can trust and whose services you will use again, and so that leads to loyalty.

So, it is worthwhile us highlighting small business success stories? Of course its is. 

Small Business Success Stories in Fife – Den Electrics

Telling the story of how this business delivers customer service might inspire those of you who have your own small business, or thinking about starting one.

You could fall into one of the following categories;

• Your already a small business trying to grow your brand online
• Are you someone with a home based business idea getting ready to plan to be online
• It might be you are setting out to deliver good business ideas towards filling a niche

So, with the help of this story, let us tell you about our experience with services delivered by Den Electrics in Fife that impressed us.

In our opinion when searching online for someone to repair our washing machine that Den Electrics was a successful small business owner who cares, who is passionate, and who delivers customer service. His content and later our experience shown through when he came out to visit us.

Den Electrics is the type of customer we like supporting. Here is someone that has been in business for a number of years and we have used them on more than one occasion over the last 5 years. The reason being, this business (in our opinion) went above and beyond every time they provided help. Isn’t that what you want from a small business owner?
And if you are a small business setting out to market yourself online wouldn’t you be focused on delivering great customer service?

What Makes a Small Business like Den Electrics Successful?

So, the scenario. The washing machine door would not open after a wash cycle.

Den Electrics arrived and the engineer successfully got the door open. It was found on closer inspection that the door handle on the inside had broken. There was a need for a new door handle. However, he needed to order a new part. But Den Electrics went a step further and lived up to what we truly look for in a Small Business – Help. Because this engineer did not leave us without a non functional washing machine until his business could source a new part. NO SIR. He improvised, so that the washing machine remained functional.
It is amazing what some electrical block connector and a small piece of fence wire can do in order to keep your washing machine door functional. So, we were able to continue keeping our clothes clean until the proper replacement part arrived.

All of the problem surrounding the washing machine was dealt with within 7 days by Den Electrics. The engineer arrived promptly. He assessed the problem. He went away, leaving us that same day still with a functional washing machine, having applied a temporary fix. The engineer returned 6 days later having sourced a replacement part and the washing machine is back to normal. TADA – This is why we like working with small businesses who have become clients of ours in both Scotland and England.

Because, we, like Den Electrics, like to work with great small businesses that help other small businesses who go out their way to assist customers.

Companies that Help Small Businesses

It makes it all worthwhile when ICTADVISOR become part of the successful small businesses out there that we  get the opportunity to work with.
We believe in being as passionate about being part of your great business idea when getting the opportunity to support your online marketing journey.

Small business success stories like this one about the washing machine engineer reminds me here at ICTADVISOR why, we are a company, that wants to help small businesses.  We begin with trying to find you short term solution. We might find you are short of the following;

• Time
• Resource
• Knowledge
• Budget

The aim from day one is to help keep the business moving towards increasing their online footprint by helping to address these issues. You need a website because you want your small business to be found. But you might be the only person in this business, and so most of your time is taken up doing what you set out to do – deliver goods or services. So, having a resource to manage the website might not be high on the agenda. On the other hand you might have some time to attend to the marketing support your website needs, but lack website marketing knowledge. And for many small businesses starting out or within their first 2-3 years of business, budget is tight. How do you therefore build and market a website on a very tight budget?

Business Opportunities to Make Money Online – How To Start?

Yet, there you are, sitting with small business opportunities we see business owners come forward with everyday. You know you can make money online but you need to get your marketing message out there. When engaging with our small business consulting services the first thing we do is is help you build an affordable website. Next, we put in place a LOCAL SEO Marketing Strategy. Then, as the business brand becomes better known and your reputation spreads you move to the next level. This is like being in motor racing!!

You might have to start by competing in formula 3 racing. This begins by getting your small business known locally online. The focus might be to get better known in your local region. Next you tackle being the GOTO company in Scotland.  A lot will depend on how much effort you put in during year 1 and 2 to increase your visibility and footprint online.

• You will need to work hard to better relationships with the likes of Google.
• You have to work your way up from formula 3 to compete at formula 1. 
• It takes time to grow nationwide or even have your brand on an international stage.

Watch out for more small business success stories on the ICTADVISOR website.

Because everyone has a story to tell and our aim is to have a Digital Excellence Scotland that is filled with successful small businesses.