This client is in the software and training space and before we started, was entirely unranked on a particular short-tail keyword around the software that they supply training for.
Overview
This result was made easier by the fact that the site was busy to start with; that helps with all SEO results - sometimes SEO acts like a self-fulfilling prophecy - the site is busy, so it ranks well, so it gets busier, so it ranks better and so on. The problem was that the pages hadn't been optimised correctly and the backlinks that had been built over time, whilst positive, weren't focused on the right keywords.
It also didn't help that the site had been custom-built by internal developers, so there was no easy-to-use CMS that would allow us to fix things quickly, but fortunately, we had the assistance of an internal resource who could make changes on request.
The SEO steps
There were a number of steps we took here to get this result, but I've listed the three most simple ones below.
Fix the URLS
On initial inspection, the URLs looked something like this: "keywordkeywordkeyword". Google can't distinguish between words if there is no space in between them so we had to reconstruct them like this: "keyword-keyword-keyword." It sounds a minor fix but it can make all the difference.
Check the headers
The page needed a proper header structure. Assuming the page title is an H1, we made sure the rest of the page followed the H2, H3, H4 structure all the way down. We also tried to include the keyword within one of those headers.
Keyword in the content
It's also important that Google sees the keyword in the content itself a certain amount of times. Sometimes that's not easy and the last thing you want to do is 'keyword stuff' but where best you can, make sure it's
The result
The result you can see from the graph above is obvious. From nowhere on a keyword with around 60 searches per month, to second, guaranteed the client new traffic to their website.