How to quote/rank for strange keywords

[Tucky]

So I have a client who I have taken on their site from a previous developer (long story) and they want me to quote for some seo. They have sent me the following keywords which they think are appropriate for their business:
West Africa Consultancy
International Consultancy
Gambia Consultancy
Business and Trading West Africa
Education Africa
Law West Africa

Basically they are a group of advisors and consultancy experts who specialise in helping businesses to establish contact with West African companies and Governments and in particular Gambia. They also provide training for organisations and government departments in West Africa/Gambia.

I did some keyword research and basically there are bugger all searches done for these or any similar words as far as I can tell. So do we have to go real long tail or are the terms just too wide to even try ranking for on a small budget?

 

[CCarter]

#1. you are doing shit backwards if you are asking the client for "keywords". How would they know what works? Aren't you the expert that does the initial research on what to target based on their desired clientele?

You need to understand what type of customers and clients they are going after, then make the connections on what those customers will be searching for to get to consultants like your customers.

#2. You can write guides on "How to do business in West Africa" and target them for businesses in XYZ country or ABC industry looking to do business in West Africa. That seems like the general idea of where they are heading.

Basically you need to ask your clients what are the types of clients they want. Shippers, importers, exporters, farmers, guac bowl merchants? Then when you know which clients are most profitable for them you, for example guacamole bowl merchants might be the most profitable client they can get as consultants, now you need to figure out where guacamole producers are and create content that they are willing to read about the growing demand of guacamole in that region and now you can target by verticals.

You might be getting hung up on the specifics of their industry. Think of it as if they are attorney - what type of clients do they prefer? Where are those clients? How can you reach those clients? What are they interest in hearing? Are there trade organizations you can subscribe to understand the pain points of their clients' industry. Now you got a ton of resources available to you where you can figure out "what keywords" to go after.

SEO is about making sure the right customer ends up on your client's website from search engines. You'll need to do proper market research for your potential clients to understand how to get them more customers and figure out what content you can create to get them the organic search engine traffic by targeting those customers efficiently. You might discover you've stumbled upon the lucrative "International Trade Consultants" industry.