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I am always learning about the moving beast that is SEO, and recently I came across a newish methodology that I thought I'd try out here in this article called SEO tier targeting. We are attempting to rank for the specific tier 1 keyword "Albury SEO", which has a volume of only 10 per month.
Let's first take a step back to look at how SEO services and SEO agencies may start out with a traditional SEO strategy.
The traditional SEO approach would be to rank your website on a search engine by picking keywords that they think you can rank for and also have good volume and have an easy enough keyword Difficulty.
As we know, there are hundreds of factors that Googe and other search engines consider when ranking your site this can add up to a Domain authority metric. I'll cover some of these factors below.
Our RWD website as an example | Some SEO metrics on this which affects my ability to rank for Albury SEO include:
About the keyword Albury SEO:
Yes, it's a bit of a sad analysis, but the site is only 12 months old and is regardless on its way to achieving its business goals through some other tactics.
The one thing that is most useful here in our list is that I can confirm I've got a successful rank for keywords that have a volume of 10 or fewer. It's pointless for me continuously targeting keywords with volumes of hundreds at least right now.
So how does search engine optimisation work with tier targeting if we know the data, then, can we be more purposeful in picking keywords we know we can rank for?
I intend on creating five articles between now and mid-December to see if we can move the needle and go from a DA of 7 to something else bigger, say 12 would be nice and in turn maybe even get into the tier 2 bracket for some of my local keywords.
Tier 2 will hopefully get some recognition by agencies that there's value to be had in getting backlinks from RWD and perhaps become members for that and a range of other reasons,
By no means should you forget about your overall goals to rank for the bigger volume keywords? This is where keyword clustering comes in handy where this article is of course, all about SEO for which I have some general targetted keywords of "SEO marketing strategy"(90) or "SEO digital marketing" (140). These are well above my pay grade or rank grade but one day just maybe I'll be in tier 4 or 5 and be able to rank for these.
Also don't forget it's also about being helpful with Google's search algorithm for its potential searches. I created an article hoping to get volume a few months back on this. Not a tier 5 site so tanked that attempt but not to say that it might be useful in the future..
Taking a step back, I did some training around what I should be targeting to get keywords that are low-hanging fruit essentially for my site's current ranking profile. Ok, so knowing that search engines use all sorts of metrics to figure out how to rank your site, I never really considered beyond domain authority how the actual average volume related to my own traffic.
Getting tier 1 and being able to target this area with confidence is the first step in knowing where your site profile sits and what to do next. It's a snowball approach by the time you get SEO tier 5 authority.
My overall site goal is to link a quality local digital agency with a customers looking for these services. Perhaps in the process, help other members to work together against dodgy options in cities or overseas that could waste regional business money and kill community growth.
Let's first understand what tiers there are and how they work.
According to SEO experts such SEO Journal there are 18 tiers as outlined below, affecting search engines ranking:
| Tier | Organic AVG Volume |
| 1 | 0-10 |
| 2 | Oct-20 |
| 3 | 20-50 |
| 4 | 50-100 |
| 5 | 100-200 |
| 6 | 200-500 |
| 7 | 500-1,000 |
| 8 | 1,000-1,500 |
| 9 | 1,500-2,000 |
| 10 | 2,000-3,000 |
| 11 | 3,000-4,000 |
| 12 | 4,000-5,000 |
| 13 | 5,000-7,500 |
| 14 | 7,500-10,000 |
| 15 | 10,000-12,500 |
| 16 | 12,500-15,000 |
| 17 | 15,000-25,000 |
| 18 | 25,000-50,000 |
From my avg a sad 0.75. Yep, I'm clearly in tier 1, therefore, with a bit. of keyword research we should be able to rank for Albury SEO top 10 without too much effort.
One other thing to consider before chasing it down just because it has low volume and fits the profile is keyword difficulty this keyword difficulty(KD) is only 20/100. I use a tool called RankTracker to get my KD.
We are set and good to go and so the next phase of getting ranked for this keyword is ensuring not only we hit relevant contextual related keywords but also tracking this keyword over the next two weeks.I've loaded this keyword to my RankTracker SEO app and also my Siteguru but you could simply use a spreadsheet and manually check over time.
But unfortunately, I have some competition for this keyword, and it's worthwhile having a look to see how they have approached the keyword difficult metric to achieve position 1-3.
Current positions (without linking to any of these):
I have no affiliation with any of these marketing businesses.
Maybe not what you expected above if you were to simply use the DA as a guide for ranking.
Let's look closer:
Source: keywords everywhere
Having an on-page difficulty of 75/100 is great but what would be better is 100/100 for this keyword. Our top rank doesn't even have exact match but has probably gone after something else related such as "SEO agency in Albury Wodonga" an interesting tactic if it was purposeful but probably more accidental because this keyword has zero volume. Similar to what we're doing here it's building a profile for tier 1 SEO while not really expecting too many people to find it the keywords establish some authority to start building towards tier 2 and 3 and own the Albury SEO rankings.
Rank no. 2 is an exact match 100/100 for all things Albury SEO. Everything from title, URL, meta description all includes Albury SEO in the wording. Their DA is even higher than that of the no. 1 ranking site. I feel like we're missing something here that gives us the answer on why they rank lower. I think maybe it's to do with the overall keyword density of Albury in general across the site ranking no.1 being much higher.
Source: keywords everywhere
Last month I did an analysis on Albury, which was really interesting, using the keyword "Albury website design". I've done the same thing for all 40 regional locations.
M!nk They have diverse SEO keyword profiles targeted at Albury SEO, swapping between this and Albury SEO and Albury SEO. They structure their page very similarly to how I would expect from a StoryBrand or lead page perspective. It's all good in love and war.
Source: keywords everywhere
Again not what you expect just from the numbers.
For our website Regional Web Developer, in case you missed it, we used a hyper-location page focus for SEO strategy to bring in customers organically with the goal of giving them great choices in their local areas for freelancers and agencies . This page also includes a list of digital services but no mention of SEO until today.
What I've done in the past to rank. I've chosen keywords with low enough keyword difficulty, high enough volume and put these on my location pages in titles and in headings primarily. I thought would rank while building up a stable list of white-label backlinks. Like a scatter gun hoping to hit something on Google that would give me a ranking and relying on my authority mainly from backlinks. Didn't work.
It's important to measure your SEO outcomes, I don't necessarily have goals at this point other than ranking these 40+ location keyword combinations into the top 10 positions. I know what the potential volume is for each of these could bring in via search engine organic traffic. I could, however, utilise some SEO services from a specialised SEO agency that could employ all sorts of SEO services to gain momentum quickly but that could also be volatile seeing fluctuations next month requiring an ongoing spend. No thankyou!
As of today, the 20th of November 2022 I have only been successful in ranking top 10 for a handful of locations. Some keywords Google identifies me for have a high volume but low click-through rate, including the keyword "population". Of course completely useless to me at this point.
I have, however learnt a valuable lesson today, and that is my attempt to rank RWD for Albury SEO may also completely fail given my business profile is in Wagga. I may see my ranking come in at position 4. 🙁
On the 20th of December, mark it in your diaries we're going to check our rankings and see if we've been successful in ranking using the tiered approach. I intend to use exact match to keep up with those already targeting this keyword and to score at least a 50/100. Let's see how we go.
Clearly, "Albury Wodonga" is a keyword location that I have targeted here in this article, but it's not actually the primary keyword I'm going after today is "Albury SEO". While the generic "Albury Wodonga" has a huge volume of search traffic, I'm hanging my head and saying I'm a "tier 1" site and require search engine optimisation (SEO) in this space first in order to move the needle and first prove that I can get into the top 3 for Albury SEO first. I've seen above how keywords like Albury population result in zero click-through and zero sales.
I'm not an SEO agency per-sa but I do want those agencies in Albury Wodonga to join RWD and deliver quality SEO services to local businesses in this area.
Albury SEO competition is usually a tier 2 ranking for most keywords. Digital marketing in this area is competitive, with pay-per-click being used by the evil Sydney-based and India-based SEO agencies to get leads. It can cost up to $30 for a single lead which may not qualify and is super expensive for the regional agency without the budget to waste.
At the very least, I hope that some city-based agencies be pushed down the list for this keyword.
Not knowing where a site is at with its ranking doesn't give us a baseline to measure against. If we know where we are and where competitor sites rank we can figure out the key differences before putting to work some Albury SEO tactics.
SEO is an expert area and while an agency might say they are "full stack" in regional Australian towns like Albury this is often not the case. Ask for examples of their work and make sure they have a clear plan that is in plain english.
I think it's obvious SEO is a shady area for people to engage with the online business. There are too many people out there practising "SEO" who move the dial a little bit initially, but from there nothing blaming Google as the corporate scapegoat for not listening to their improvements. Engage with an SEO professional locally you can trust and see their work.
Take the first step in making your life easier, getting the backup you need and being part of a national team. Join now, our plans start from as little as $29 per month.
What usually starts out as a side hustle and a passion for doing what we love before too long the passion becomes the enemy. It eats away any spare time, family relationships and turns the creative into a slave of another type. Trading one type of slavery working for someone else to working for the client.
I've seen many creatives in regional Australia start and finish after only a few years finding it too hard chasing work and stacking clients' work into their work queues. Exceptional designers, but what eventuates is they overcommit and burn out leaving a bad reputation for themselves and their business. Instead of working on those 100 projects maybe knocking back a few and concentrating on the golden customers should be a better choice.
My take on this is that the only way to balance your time and work is to focus on the "ideal client" and charge more. If you don't have the ideal customer yet then you're going to need to target them with your own local-based marketing. The key here is your unique point of difference is your personal presence and while you still going to need to win them over with your steller portfolio the quality that you can offer them in a face-to-face relationship is far preferred than one over email or over the phone. Think big and try and try again for those customers who are worth the risk.
Bes of all winning over a regional client could mean winning them away from a Sydney web design agency. Have confidence, you're a shoe-in, locals love to locals. Sack your low paying clients that make your life and take 90% of your time for 10% of your income. You can see these clients coming a mile away and if they don't value your time and are prepared to pay you for it they're better off on fivr or freelancer. And then theirs those customers who use you as a pixel pusher and not a professional that understands all aspects of your profession.
If you're going to offer a wide range of services then you need to be able to outsource these to other reliable regional locals or a network of regional professionals that help you to service your ideal client. That's where RWD fits in, offering services you don't specialise in or services that take you more time than you can charge your customer for. A good example of this is web development or social media work two things that have elements of design involved which means their hours and income are still here for you.
Think of yourself more as a builder of a house who gets all specialists trades together to do a great and they manage the project overall, they may even have a separate project manager. You "the builder" still have involvement and income from everything, either through your own % markup to the client or using your skills where you can specialise and bring value to the process.
You could also be in a small team and your finding overwhelmed by work because your processes and workflows have bottlenecks. Your team have strengths in certain areas but you're still trying to do too much in areas that are not your speciality. A small team still can't offer all the services your customers require. RWD are for you to help you offer more services so you can help.
As a professional, I also believe self-reflection is also important and if you promise a customer you're going to deliver and miss deadlines then this is an obvious indication you have taken on too much. Your choice should be to either fess up and tell the client you can't get it done or tell them you can get someone else to help and still make sure it gets done right. Your integrity should be as important as the money you get paid.
The industry is very focused on leaving a full-time job and being an entrepreneur and starting a business that can scale. Getting others to work for you the same as you may have been working a regular JOB in the past is a recipe for disaster and doesn't work the way you might recruit someone to work in a factory or a school. Just because you have the extra resources doesn't mean you are twice as productive. You might get lucky and get someone in a situation that needs a regular paycheck and this will work only for a while but the time and effort you put into someone like this will inevitably want a bigger slice of the pie.
As a designer, you don't own any physical assets that restrict your employees or other start-ups from entering the market at a low cost. This barrier to entry is so low which is exactly why you will not be able to maintain employees long term.
If you're looking for a web design company or agency for your business, you have many decisions to make. You can't just search for web design in your local area and expect to get a quality professional who knows what they're doing. Your competition wouldn't leave this critical decision to chance using Google to find the best web design company or freelancer in your area for your online presence, and neither should you.
So what does a website design company provide that you find a must for your business besides just pretty pictures and text? A website design company should offer a professional approach to your strategy, analyse your competition, and look at your goals and objectives and how these can be achieved through the proper use of content.
Still, that's great. I know I need a professional and everyone tells me I'm the best, but how can I honestly tell who the best website design company is?
It's like anything in life. It comes down to their proven experience in the field and the outcomes they have produced. It's not just about making a pretty website that has won awards for its cutting edge look, feels, and layout. Seek to ask questions from your website design company that proves that they have achieved more than just a website. Most will give you a portfolio of the best work and say, look how great we are? What were the goals these customers started with, and how did their website tool achieve these in detail? What were the outcomes? How were they measurable? Nine times out of ten, the website design company won't answer the questions and give you an excuse about privacy. Remember, they were keen to use these five minutes ago for their portfolio. Proven experience outcomes are the most important when choosing an agency or freelancer.
What else would you consider important when choosing a website design company or freelancer? You should consider their locality and if they are local to you. You want to have a long term relationship with this person or company. You want them to be on board with your mission and be as enthusiastic about it as you are. It's not too much to expect that you should be able to source someone from your local community. Believe web design companies from the city, and you'll think nobody is qualified to deliver what they offer but them. Consider if you did choose a local, how much easier would it be to trust them with your online business? What if that local web design company was part of a more extensive network. A network of professionals where a specialist approach was still harnessed. The best designers and developers available throughout regional Australia could be used. You wouldn't have to worry about one web design company or freelancer going awol. You could actually get the job done to the high standard you dreamt of when you first started.
Individuals who do not have any web design skills should not tackle web design projects. Instead, they should focus on the core of their businesses. If a professional web designer is hired, the website will be designed professionally.
Business owners are trying to figure out how to save money by doing their own website on a DIY builder like Wix or SquareSpace. This wastes the business money and time, probably multiples of time you would pay a qualified web designer is wasted on trying to figure out how to do an amateur job.
These seem pretty simple and possibly not worth the hassle. However, this is one of the most important benefits of choosing a local web design company. The opportunity to build relationships with your community is priceless.
Web developers work with many different companies. Companies can and will feed off your own products and services. Community is about supporting your neighbour with your time, money and love.
Web designers, freelancers and agencies are great at referring business between clients. Because RWD is a network of regionally based professionals, your local is as big as Australia without the big city business taking a slice of your cash. We will always try to use someone local to your company for all of the required project specialities.
You can be sure that you will have a higher level of support than a large agency or business from the city or overseas. Locals that know you by name and care about you and your business. Choosing a specialist is still essential, but filling the gap you need to get the outcome your after can be achieved through a network such as RWD while maintaining an excellent local support arrangement.
Something can also be said for local knowledge and what a local part of the RWD network has to contribute to the local market.
Locals know more about the local audience and culture to be able to apply proper styling, wording, and design that captures the attention of the right audience.
What might appeal to an audience in the city won't always appeal to a country audience.
Well of course, that's far more likely than if you got someone from the internet from India or from the cities, isn't it?
With more accessible communication comes the advantages of not having language barriers or, worse still, your message is misinterpreted or misrepresented on your website. For example, "I thought you sold funnels, not sold funerals".
Additionally, in a life shaped by written words and the importance of accurate communication, many have experienced spelling or grammar mistakes if you asked them to send some content via email.
Similar situations happen when Communicating with Google through websites. Imagine yourself being able to communicate very simply and easily without needing to correct everybody else, then failing it because your friend, who I will call Matthew, commits so thoroughly that he forgets about his fix for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
So we've talked about going local, what a web design company should provide, how to choose one and why RWD could be for you if your a business or even if you are a freelancer looking for a web design company to work with.
Now let's get started with the best way to get a website if you're still sitting on the fence about whether or not you should go with a professional or build it yourself.
The benefit of a website design company is that you have a full-service Australian based business to go back to if you have problems. However, 9/10 people find they have questions or other things they need help with after a website project is complete, so an established company definitely has its advantages.
Compare this to a freelancer or even a small team in regional Australia that is stand-alone website designers and developers. This is when RWD can again help provide that specialist approach, stability and continuity you need. Best of all, we're not sending the money or work to India or the city, but you're employing local county or regional Australian professionals.
If you're wondering about the website process and the best way to get this here, you should look at our "how it works" page for business. It breaks down our best practice approach to digital marketing with our members, who also agree this is the best option for customers.
Ok, so again another why and how? What is the point of using a website design company, and how will one transform my business.
We go back to selecting a good website design company and what one should be doing in the process and providing examples of work that have delivered outcomes for the business.
If all these things are done correctly, your business can be transformed into the company at the other end of your goals and provide you tangible outcomes. A website isn't just a website. It's a money-making tool, and the sooner it's recognised as what it is, the sooner you can harness the opportunities that this provides.
We're all about supporting local regional communities. We'll do our best to find someone who has what you need who is local and who can help with your project.