What Keywords Should I Use In A PPC or SEO Campaign?

If you could rank for just ONE keyword / phrase, what would it be?  Sure "Lawyer" would get you a lot of luke-wark traffic, but very little of that would convert.  That could easily be kids typing in "what is a lawyer" or folks wondering "who played the attorney on CSI: Miami last week?"  Many of them simply would never convert.  If 1000 people hit your website form after searching "lawyer", probably fewer than 1% would ever fill out that form or pick up the phone and call you.  Still, that could be 10 inquisitive phone calls, though few of them would likely convert into actual clients, because they're tepid.  Luke warm leads suck.

What about something more specific, like "divorce lawyer" or "bankruptcy attorney"?  Those are more niched down than the plain "lawyer", and would be "warmer" because they're more targeted.  People who search for a bankruptcy attorney are probably going through bankruptcy.  People who want a divorce lawyer are probably facing a divorce.

But do you think you could go even more targeted to get to the "buyer intent" keywords? The ones that can convert 20 - 50% of the people who hit your site?

What about "Best divorce attorney in Dallas" or "#1 affordable bankruptcy lawyer near Plano" or even "Affordable law firm for child custody".  Those are buyer keywords.  So is "free case evaluation", because the ONLY people who are likely to type that in are people who want a free case evaluation, because they believe they have a case!  They are further down the sales funnel, and now they're looking not just for a niche specific attorney, but they are comparing attorneys at this point - who is the best, who is the most affordable."

You may feel more prestigious ranking for a "top level" keyword like Lawyer, and there certainly ARE bragging rights that could go along with that, because the competition will be much harder (mostly because people don't ever drill down when they think about the keywords they ought to be searching for.)  But which one would bring you more clients?  Almost certainly the more drilled down terms.  They may only get 30 to 40 hits per month, but they may convert at 30 to 40 percent.  Those are the terms you want to be found for - buyer terms!