Why Most Businesses Get the Wrong Results From a Digital Marketing Service

Most companies hire a digital marketing service and hand over the same brief: rank for the broadest, highest-volume term in the industry. A software company chases “business software,” a clinic chases “healthcare provider,” a retailer chases “online store,” and all three end up competing against national brands and marketplaces with more domain authority than a smaller company will ever match on that term alone. Webugol has published category-specific breakdowns of this exact problem for clients working in tightly regulated or highly specific niches — one example covers best CBD keywords for a similar brand’s SEO strategy — and the underlying pattern holds well beyond that one industry.

The volume on a broad term always looks appealing in a keyword tool. The actual traffic and sales rarely follow, because a broad term rarely reflects what a specific buyer is trying to decide in the moment they type the search.

Why Broad Keywords Rarely Convert

A search for a generic category term could come from an early researcher, a first-time visitor, a competitor checking pricing, or a buyer three clicks from a purchase. That mixed intent shows up whether the business sells software, medical care, or retail goods. Ranking for the broad term still brings traffic that bounces immediately — and it’s one of the first things a competent digital marketing service should flag before a client spends a budget chasing that term.

The key to doing SEO keyword research is to understand that there is no such thing as high volume and high value. Frequently, a term that gets a fraction of the search volume will convert at a much higher rate, due to its singular intent behind it as compared to a broad term, which is stuffed with generic information about the subject and big brand listings. A business that’s just getting into search marketing reads that difference as proof that there’s a significant opportunity to pursue the more popular search term, and a tool informs them of thousands of monthly searches for a basic head-term and only a couple hundred for something as specific as “invoicing software for freelance contractors”—with no indication of how much of that high volume is already being dominated by pages smaller than them.

Where Buyer Intent Actually Shows Up in a Search Query

Often, the words people use around a core term provide more information than the core term itself. A person coming in to research “best project management software for small teams” has already concluded that the category is of interest and is now narrowing down her options. If anyone’s searching for “same-day dry cleaning delivery,” they know exactly what they’re looking for and are looking for a service, not just any good service.

These long-tail keywords are filled with buyer intent that can’t be conveyed through broad terms. If a business is creating content for these longer, more specific phrases, it’s addressing the exact question that a near-ready buyer is asking. This is where a good digital marketing service gets its budget – not by being at the top of the list, but by getting it on the list that an in-house team would never have considered.

Long-Tail Phrases Outperform Broad Head Terms

This is reflected in ranking difficulty. A head term is built on years of national brand content and review aggregators that will not easily be outranked by a reasonably sized business over a reasonable period of time. A 3 or 4 word description of a specific product, service or use case is faring a lot less competition and often gets more conversions after a visitor arrives on your page.

The sweet spot of keywords is those that focus on some particular feature, some service tier, or some use case that is both searchable enough to be relevant, and specific enough that it will rank in a reasonable amount of time. A good digital marketing service will focus on this middle tier of the keywords list, rather than simply the largest keyword. It will be the difference between seeing fast movement that can be seen in the website and spending a year chasing a keyword that the client’s website will never get to the top of the pack for.

Local Search Changes Which Keywords Matter

If you have a physical business, like a clinic, retail store, or restaurant, then a local seo strategy is the game-changer. Search terms such as “dentist near me” or “dentist same day” may have a higher purchase intent than common national keywords, as the individual searching is likely to be ready to purchase and pay for the treatment within the day.

A keyword list for a business with a physical storefront will almost always require this layer of keywords. If the page is optimized for keywords only relevant to the country, it will miss keywords that drive same-week customers. It’s something that a generalist agency typically forgets and one of the advantages of location-based businesses with a digital marketing service that recognizes local intent as a separate entity.

Regulated Categories Add a Filter Most Lists Skip

A few categories don’t include any restrictions in the average keyword list. In these tightly regulated categories—such as financial products, medical claims—where the typical advertising channels available are restricted, the need for organic search is even greater than it would be for an unregulated business, and the riskiness of selecting keywords and writing content is even higher.

In a regulated category, there is a second variable to consider beyond volume and intent – can this page be content without making a claim that the business can substantiate? If you don’t have to cross all the way up to a compliance line to answer that keyword, you shouldn’t target that keyword. This screening of the keyword list, before you write a single page, can save you much more time than when you discover the problem after the web page is published.

Building a Content Strategy Around Search Intent

This approach to layered keyword research typically results in a content marketing strategy structured around the buyer’s journey and not just a list of keywords. Early-stage content is fairly general so it doesn’t overclaim. Consideration-stage content looks at specific options and use cases. Content that is created in the decision stage is frequently around the most specific long-tail and local search terms, the detail a buyer needs to make a confident choice of provider.

That’s more important than any single keyword because each piece of content has a specific job to do, rather than each page bidding for each keyword. It’s also the area that a digital marketing service ought to be doing before the very first article being written.

What Changes Once You Have the Right List

It’s probably a combination of lower overall traffic and higher conversion rates on the traffic they do get once a business has used a few broad head terms and replaced them with a list of well-researched keywords that are better suited to conversion. This type of exchange is usually a worthwhile one, as the fewer “near buyers,” the more valuable the trade.

A digital marketing service that does this right is doing more than simply selecting the hottest keywords and dubbing it a campaign. It’s tracking where the buyer is going, considering the local intent, and checking for compliance risk — content that ranks vs. content that sells.