There is one big SEO mistake that many people make without even knowing it. They start out by targeting very general, highly competitive keywords. This happens because they don't know a lot of the finer details of search engine optimization and those highly competitive keywords are directly related to their business or the niche they want to target for a new online business.
This sounds like a good strategy for SEO and long term business success, but for most it is met with less than pleasing results or outright failure. Why? They are trying to compete in an intense area of the market that they are simply unprepared to compete in. It's like a beginning gymnast learning a cartwheel on a floor mat then trying to compete on the balance beam at the Olympics. They have no chance of beating those acclaimed gymnasts that know a lot more tricks than the cartwheel.
It makes more sense for that beginning gymnast to compete against other beginners who are also just mastering a simple cartwheel. They can hold their hopes high to one day compete in the Olympics, but they will have to work hard to get there.
The SEO Back Door
Consider the strategy of tackling those ultra competitive words the front door of SEO. You pick the most often searched keywords and jump in with the big SEO cats trying to dominate. This doesn't work if you are still that struggling gymnast learning the basics.
So, it is better to take the back door to SEO. This means you start with less competitive keywords that are still highly relevant to your business or the online business you want to develop. These similar but less competitive keywords will typically be longer keyword phrases that include the shorter, more competitive keyword terms. These longer keywords will also be more specific while the highly competitive phrases are more general.
For example, a very competitive keyword that most beginners cannot dominate easily would be "weight loss." There are millions of searches for this term every month and there is intense competition to dominate it. So, an easier keyword to master might be a longer term that includes "weight loss," such as "postnatal weight loss."
Instead of targeting anyone in the world trying to lose weight, this longer term is targeting new mothers who want to lose the baby weight. This is still a rather competitive term, so it could be broken down to be even more narrowly focused.
These longer keywords will have substantially fewer monthly searches than the shorter, generalized terms, but they should still get enough searches to be fruitful.
Working Your Way to the Front Door
Over time, dominating those longer, more specific keywords will make it much easier to gain some ground on the more intensely competitive keywords. Mastering "postnatal weight loss" makes it easier to get rank higher with "weight loss." This is a very basic example, but it can apply to many other keywords that can be contained into longer, sharper focused keywords.
If you are that beginning gymnast just mastering the cartwheel, you can have greater long term success if you slip in the back door of SEO. Gain some ground with those less competitive keywords then you will have an easier time battling it out for the more desirable keywords.
