Targeting Roles, Not Widgets

Managing Directors, Not Blue Furry Widgets

[dmorison]

Most SEO talk is about optimising for attracting visitors looking for your specific widget related product/service.

Has anybody here tried to create web content that attracts a particular role within an organisation; regardless of widget oriented keywords?

The dilemma i'm in is that i'm offering an online service that would be of interest to any small business. Sure, I can and do target the specific keywords (primarily through AdWords) but there's a massive potential market that I do not know how to reach through web based advertising, as everything is keyword / subject driven.

I accept that role based advertising via AdWords is not an option, since relevancy to a users' query has to prevail.

So how do you go about role based advertising on the web - and in particular directors of small businesses?

(sorry if this is against TOC's, I know specific keyword discussion is)

[netcommr]

doesn't every role have a word attached to it which can be searched for?

manager is to supervisor as car is to auto

or am I missing the question?

[dmorison]

Sorry - to put it another way, a Managing Director doesn't fire up Google and type in "Managing Director".

[aspdaddy]

dmorrison,

This has come up a lot working b2b sites, e.g how would a financial controller search for this service..

What have you tried so far?, I will happily post what I have done, but wouldnt mind getting some ideas off you... :)

[jimbeetle]

Yeah, probably won't find a search like "managing director looking for a red widget solution."

Kind of similar to one of my clients needs. The pages are targeted for normal keyword searches and gets SE traffic mostly from individuals or small team leaders searching for the service.

Then I found a few specialized directories in which to list the site; traffic from them is mostly from the department or group head types concerned with overseeing the function within the organization.

There's quite a few of these directories around, some free, some with a small fee. Might be worth a look if it applies.

Jim

[DaveN]

put yourself in the mind set of a managing director, we all want to save money and avoid tax, so what are you selling and how would the MD search for it. Same thing applies to any marketplace whether it be mobile phones to the teenage market on tax avoidance to the MD market you have to put yourself in there shoes.

DaveN