One of the biggest battles any new small website business faces is picking keywords that will help to ensure search engine success for the site. The internet is a proverbial “ocean” these days. Without help, you stand a better chance of getting hit by lightening than getting your website found.

One trick that can really help is finding a niche for your keywords. This is how I define niche keywords: they are a subset of a very popular, more generalized keyword phrase. For example, your favorite keyword might be “real estate investing.” Now log in to Google.com, and run a search for this keyword phrase. Good luck taking this one over in a day.

With time, you might be able to even take over these type of generalized keyword phrases, but it will take many days of consistent work. In addition, Google ads tend to dominate these type of searches. This makes fighting for the so-called “organic space” tough.

Niche keywords, though, can really make your website easy to find. A simple addition of something like “real estate investing Springfield Missouri” now makes the search look a whole lot different. My website can still key in on the REI component, while also capturing a section of the market in the area that I work. I have found a niche.

There is also a psychology to this type of niche marketing. There are lots of real estate investment “gurus” in the game. Yet, most people will want to do business, off the bat, with someone local. Niche keywords will give me a way to reach those people. In time, the website can take on a more natural evolution to the national or international level.

If you want to do this quickly, spend a million or so in ads. If that is out of your budget, give niche keywords for your chosen website business a try. It will bring you more search engine success.

Ray Province

Ray Province is a retired minister who currently works as an IT programmer in the healthcare industry. He is also the owner of Celtic Ozark Solutions, an IT company that specialized in website development, SEO, and social media marketing. You can reach him at celticozarksolutions@gmail.com , or @celticozarkian on Twitter.