Leading Las Vegas - how keyword insight drives a serial entrepreneur by Neil Davidson, 4 April 2007

Keyword research insight is now being used by many entrepreneurs. Clarke Walton, the owner of several Internet-based businesses in Las Vegas, is one of these trailblazers, using it to help him in different ways every day.

• Researching consumer behavior, particularly for new website ideas.
• Deciding on the best business ideas and how much resource should be allocated to them.
• Choosing business and domain names.
• As a brainstorming tool.

The potential of keyword research data as a business research tool became obvious to Clarke when he was first introduced to it as an executive at a search engine marketing firm. Everyone can benefit from using it this way, as he explains.

‘I went from SEO expert to running website startups and then to starting my own law firm. I've used Wordtracker to help in my decision-making all along the way. It’s a great SEO tool, but it’s much more than that, because it tells you what your customers are thinking, and what they want from you.’

Keyword research helps Clarke manage finite business resources

Clarke now uses keyword research data to help him allocate resources within the law firm he started, the Walton Law Firm – www.waltonweblaw.com. Clarke attributes much of its success to the diligent use of keyword data.

"I work out the niches in my business, the areas that potential clients are asking questions about, but that no one is answering. It was the foundation for the services I offered my clients, as well as the content on my website. With this approach, I've seen my traffic rise by over 300% over the last year, along with a phenomenal rise in revenue."

As well as helping Clarke spot potential revenue streams for his law firm, he’s also used keyword data to help him with his other startups.

"I had three ideas for new legal services that I could offer online, and I was trying to select the one with the greatest potential. I used keyword data to gauge the potential success of each business. One was based around copyright registration, another DMCA complaints, and the last was an idea for a trademark registration service. Keyword research helped me decide on the trademark registration business.

The new trademark business needed a name, so I turned to Wordtracker for help. I looked at terms like: ‘trademark registration’, ‘register trademark’ and ‘file trademark.’ Based on my Wordtracker research, the most popular search was for the keyword ‘trademark registration’, and so I decided to name the business www.myTrademarkRegistration.com."

No more gambling, thanks to Wordtracker

Back in 2002, before founding his law practice, Clarke developed his own websites, including allvegaspoker.com; a Las Vegas poker room information site for those planning a visit.

"At that time, I was using keyword research data to help me with all the usual web stuff, but I also started to use it to try and really understand my consumers. For example, I wanted to know which Vegas poker rooms they wanted me to review, not just which ones had the biggest names. I looked at which poker rooms people were searching for, and I discovered that many people wanted to know about the smaller poker rooms, such as Excalibur, which I visited and wrote about. It’s an approach I still use today for the website."

Clarke then broadened how he used Wordtracker even further, beyond SEO and content decisions. Brainstorming for new business ideas is a good example.

"Brainstorming still needs to be focused. You have to decide what areas of your business you’re going to give that time to. I invest time looking at keyword data beforehand and go into a session clear about what the consumer wants us to be thinking about, where we need new ideas. In business there’s always some guesswork, but keyword insights help a lot. It sends you down the right track."

Keyword research is doing the business for Clarke Walton

Clarke’s established businesses are doing well and he has more ideas in the pipeline. But in one way his career has gone full circle, as he explains.

"My law firm’s clients are all website owners. They often choose to work with me because of my internet marketing experience. I get asked as many internet marketing questions as legal questions. I'm always happy to give them good advice, but one of the things I tell them is to make sure that they use keyword insights for their business, and not just as an SEO tool."

Video interview with Clark Walton, Walton Web Law

Clark Walton, Walton Web Law