If you have contacted enough companies, you should have a great list put together. Do not throw away that list of contacts (it will come in handy later). You now have a list of common problems and common reasons a person may want to use the companies you’ve contacted. This is great information now for finding keywords. You just need to enter broad ideas into a tool like Google AdWords Keyword Tool, and you will start finding treasures among the usual big competition keywords. For example, let’s say one of the most common jobs a crane hire company is called out for, is moving portable cabins, on building sites (according to a friend of mine who is a site manager, it’s quite accurate too). The search term “moving portable buildings” only gets around 30 – 50 searches per month, but here’s the great thing. The keyword “crane hire”, and related terms, pay out a LOT in AdSense, and the competition for keywords like “moving portable buildings” is nowhere near as fierce. You will find it very easy to rank for this keyword.
Here’s another great part. If you can get a page one ranking for such an easy search term (because you are being VERY specific remember), you can then send the companies an email (they will remember you from your earlier questions), and you can tell them that you have a website ranking page one for the search term that they get the most queries about!
You could charge them a very small amount to advertise on the website, with a small banner, and they would be very happy. Naturally, the people who are visiting the website are all going to be looking for a reputable crane hire company, and your client will be happy that they got such good value, and very SPECIFIC advertising! Yes, there may only be 30 – 50 visits based on that exact search phrase, but all those people are looking for your client, who is a national crane hire company.