At Great Leap Studios, we often research keywords for our clients, and we tend to know how to find and develop content plans based on those keywords. In general, we’ve been very successful – most of the content we write works exactly as planned, and the keywords we target tend to be profitable.
But every once in a while we can learn something from our customers as well. Recently I was asked to write SEO optimized content for a recruitment company. My research found that terms like City Recruitment and Recruitment in City were fairly valuable. They were competitive, but the keywords were solid for searches.
Recruitment as a Keyword
Then the client told me that they don’t receive many searches for the term “recruitment,” nor did they think it was a good idea to target that keyword. They said that many of the searches they received related to “recruitment” were from job seekers, not employers, even when the term was an employer term like “recruitment help” or “recruitment company in City.”
They said that in their experience, the best term to use was something more casual, like “looking for staff in City.” It was something I hadn’t considered for that industry because it’s too casual. It doesn’t really have the features of a keyword that I normally look for. But after doing more research myself, it seemed like they may be right.
Low Searches, Low Competition
In terms of overall search volume, “looking for staff” is incredibly low. Maybe a few hundred searches a month, possibly less. “Looking for staff in New York” is so low it doesn’t even show up in the Google keyword tool, compared to “New York recruitment” which receives hundreds.
But at the same time, it makes a lot of sense for conversions. Companies that need help are going to be frustrated and search for an easy answer to their question. If you can show up for this search, you’re going to vastly improve your chances of attracting new clients. In addition, the searches are less competitive and more specific – few companies target this keyword, but it applies only to employers, so it’s far more targeted.
Early Results Positive
So I wrote up 5 test pages for their website only about a week ago. At last check, all 5 were within the first 4 pages of Google, with 3 on the first page, and one of those pages within the first 5 results. For early returns, that’s pretty outstanding. Although we’re still waiting for numbers, it’s a great sign that there are still keywords out there that can be valuable, less competitive, and provide immediate results.
It also shows that just because something receives more search volume doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best keyword to target. This wasn’t even my choice in keywords, and yet in retrospect it was a great idea that is already showing success.
