Is there enough national traffic to go after for this niche

[BobGW]

Hello,

For bobweikel.com

my niche is hypnosis and weight loss.

Most of the traffic is for local terms.

Would you consider it useful to go after national traffic in an effort to gain phone clients (long distance) or do you think too many of the terms are going to be served up locally.

The local traffic in my area for hypnosis, weight loss, and hypnosis & weight loss are real slow.

Looking for strategies (including content strategies) to bring in national clients.

Thanks.

[SamuelScott]

Bob, here's what I would do if I owned your website. Note: I have not done any keyword research and am speaking only in theory.

1. Optimize the site in general for local SEO for your city or area (address in schema code, Google+ page and local, and so on).

2. Since keywords pertaining specifically to weight loss and hypnosis always include local search data, I would use the following strategy for broad/national terms in the general industry.

Create a site hierarchy with content  for all the grouped keyword themes (one themed page might cover five specific keywords): one targeting terms around weight loss tips, another for weight loss programs, and so on. I'm sure there are many possibilities. Create the best, authoritative content on these general topics on the Internet. I know it's easier said than done, but that's what you have to do. See what pages currently rank highly for those broad terms, and try to do one better with your content.

3. Conversion strategy. Of course, people searching for these terms aren't looking specifically for weight-loss hypnosis therapy -- but they are interested in weight loss in general! Alongside your great content, include calls to action to get people to contact you, submit a form, or something similar. Here's a basic example. Say that you have a page about diet pills. People come to the page after looking for diet pills. BUT your page will include a call to action such as: "Diet pills not working? Contact us to see how hypnosis can help shed the pounds!" Or something like that.

4. Social media. If you want to rank highly, you'll need a Google+ strategy. Websites that people have +1ed (or that their friends have +1ed) often show up higher in (personalized) search results. Become active on Google+ -- I would specifically recommend that you create a weight-loss Google+ community and advertise it on your site so that people join. The bigger you are on Google+ specifically, the better for organic search. Build your brand there.

5. Content. PR. Social media. I have a talk at SMX West on what I call the PR-based SEO strategy. Feel free to see an overview here on Moz. The nutshell: Do something newsworthy pertaining to weight loss. Create shareworthy content based on what you've done. PR your action and the content in the traditional media and social media. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Build a brand, get links, and grow your followings, traffic, and customers. Again, it's hard -- especially in this competitive field -- but it's the only way.

I know I'm talking in general terms and only in theory, but I hope this makes sense and is helpful. Feel free to reply if you have any questions! Good luck!

[BobGW]

Thanks Samuel!

"Do something newsworthy pertaining to weight loss. Create shareworthy content based on what you've done. PR your action and the content in the traditional media and social media."

I can't think of anything newsworthy pertaining to weight loss. Could you give some examples just to help spark an idea in me.

Also, what do you mean by traditional media, specifically?

[JaneCopland]

Hi Bob,

I definitely don't think there's any harm in going after more generic searches, as some potential customers will certainly be looking for information before contacting a practitioner. If you offer remote services and attract this traffic, you can likely attract these people with good conversion rate optimisation. Have you checked the volume for generic searches that do not specify a location? Are they large enough to focus on or do people generally add a location name when searching?

[BobGW]

Jane,

Do you know of any good tools for checking volumes for generic searches besides the Adwords tool? My instincts tell me that there are prospective people searching for hypnosis information, but I'd like to do the research.

Thanks!

[JaneCopland]

Hi Bob,

There are a few others, the main one being Wordtracker (which comes with very good reviews). Wordtracker has a good reputation, but it's worth noting that some smaller tools do not have access to a large dataset to pull their numbers from, so you're not necessarily getting a true picture. Although Google's numbers are almost certainly a bit wonky (deliberately), at least you are getting them from the source and can have confidence in comparing volume. By that, I mean that if the tool says 10,000 people per month in the US search for [hypnosis] and 2,000 search for [hynotherapy] (these are totally made up numbers), then you can be somewhat confident that [hynotherapy] is 1/5th as popular as [hypnosis], even though you can't rely on the 10,000 / 2,000 figures.

Cheers,

Jane