Q: How would you make a plant grow up a wall? A: Train it from birth!

There are a variety of tools and techniques recommended for SEO keyword research, from the free to the expensive, from the well-known to those that are almost kept a secret. However, there's one source of keyword ideas which is often overlooked: the customers (and potential customers) served on a daily basis.

Let's get sidetracked for a moment: I've lost track of the number of people at agencies who have been asked the question "If you're so good at SEO, why don't you rank for 'SEO in Sydney'?" (Or wherever the agency is based.)

The answers vary, but one important thing is almost always the same: when you look at the off-line inquiries, people rarely phone up an SEO agency and say "Hello, I'd like you to perform some SEO for me, to cover a variety of tasks including keyphrase research, on site recommendations and link building" - the phone call is more likely to begin with "Hi there, er, I have a website where I sell my widgets, but I want to sell more, and I think I need to promote the site better online. Someone said there might be stuff you could do to help me?".

To mine this rich source of keywords, you want to teach your front-line staff to spot the 'keyphrases' that are embedded within the first three or four statements the enquirer makes, such as 'sell more online' or 'promote my website'.

Get your hands dirty...

Of course, you don't need to be a fashionable new industry like search marketing to make this work for you.

Let's say you work for an auto garage. One of the most popular services you offer is tire balancing - it noticeably helps improve a vehicle's driving experience, but it's not too expensive (though it has good margins). The page on your website is well targeted towards 'tire balancing' and ranks fairly well in your area, but doesn't receive many visits or have a great conversion rate.

You head down to the garage and ask the mechanic how many tire balancings he's done recently.

"We've had three in just this morning", replies the helpful greasemonkey.

"And they all came here because they know we do tire balancing?" you ask, naively.

"Aw, no - all three just said their steering wheel was vibrating when they were on the freeway, so it had to be the balance was off," he replies.

You've heard what you needed to, and without another word you race back to the office, and update the page. The new title reads "Steering wheel vibrating? We'll fix it in 1 hour with tire balancing" and the rest of the page is updated too. You not only start to receive more traffic, but it converts better as well.

Showing staff

whether they are receptionists, shop assistants, hard working mechanics or professionals - the value of spotting these keywords will help you gather a rich source of new targetable ideas, and it's one that your competitors won't be able to get to.

Outsource the difficult parts

As anyone knows, the more complex the task, the higher the hourly rate of service. So if you already use a web design company, there is no need to fire them simply for your SEO needs.

Normally, changes can be made to the webpages, and implemented by your corrent web designer for minimal cost. This will save you expensive SEO man-hours!