Are you targeting the wrong keywords?
By
Kalena
Jordan
Someone asked me recently to name the most critical element of
any search engine optimization campaign. I didn’t hesitate
to respond “keyword selection”.
Like it or not, the keywords and phrases you select to describe
your site within your META tags and body text can make or break
your listings in the search engines. It’s a sad fact that
most companies are targeting the wrong keywords and losing traffic
as a result.
Even sites that have excellent rankings will not benefit if those
rankings are for unsuitable keywords. Let me give you an example:
A few months ago, we had an Australian client who wanted us to
implement an optimization campaign to improve their search engine
rankings, but without jeopardizing existing rankings they had
achieved for two particular search phrases: “Internet solutions
Australia” and “online banking solutions”.
Can you guess what products and services this company sells? The
search phrases don’t really give much away do they? In fact,
this company is a distributor of web site design software that
is specifically tailored for banks. Now ask yourself this: if
you were a bank looking for this company’s products, would
you have typed in either of the phrases above to find their site?
I doubt it. You would type in something more logical like “web
site design software” or “web sites for banks”
right?
This company was clearly targeting the wrong keywords and phrases.
Their top ten rankings for these phrases were irrelevant, because
nobody was searching for these phrases in relation to the products
this company was offering. The phrases they had chosen are what
I call “jargonised”, that is, they are filled with industry
jargon and buzz words.
Take “Internet solutions” as an example. Such jargon
has found its way into our language with the onset of the digital
age and is bandied around boardrooms and marketing departments
everywhere. However the definition of this phrase is very broad
and could be used to describe anything from a dial-up connection
to a web site itself. It’s not a logical choice for searchers
and is therefore useless as a key phrase to target.
To prove my point, I researched the client’s chosen phrases
using Wordtracker keyword software and then did comparison research
using the more logical phrases above. The results were crystal
clear: the logical, simplified phrases were many times more popular
than the “jargonised” ones. Once I demonstrated this
to the client, they were more than happy for us to conduct more
thorough keyword research and start their search engine optimization
campaign with a clean slate.
When selecting the keywords and phrases for your site, remember
to select search terms that describe your products and services
in the most logical, simple and specific way. By doing so you’ll
not only increase the search engine traffic to your site, but
you’ll ensure your visitors are highly qualified to buy your
products and services when they arrive.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article by Kalena Jordan, CEO of Web Rank. Kalena was one of the
first search engine optimization experts in Australasia and is
well known and respected in her field. For more of her articles
on search engine ranking and online marketing, please visit
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------