An SEO Tactic That Deserves More Attention

By Dino Adamou

While Google and other search engines have tweaked and optimized their search algorithms a dozen times or so this year, one truth still remains: keywords are king. If you are not properly choosing the keywords your site is going to target, then you are condemning your site to the back pages of Google where only the most determined (or bored) searchers are likely to see it. Keyword selection is not as simple as slapping “laptop” all over your home page, but it isn’t rocket science either.

Think like a Buyer

Most likely, you are looking to catch buyers with your keyword selection. This is why you avoid generic terms like “iPod”. You don’t necessarily want everyone interested in iPods coming to your site because 90% of them probably already have one and are not in the market for a new one.

To catch buyers, use phrases that people might search on when they want to buy an iPod. For instance “iPod discounts”, “iPod coupon codes”, “iPod reviews”, “comparison of iPod models”, etc. This will get people who have their wallets in hand coming to your site and people looking for tips on how to use the iPod they already own going somewhere else.

Use Exact Match to Verify Keyword Selection

The Google keyword tool is a great tool, but it’s not perfect, especially for people unfamiliar with SEO strategies. While “bowling balls” when searched under Broad Match has 301,000 searches, the same phrase searched under exact match only has 40,500. Ideally, you want your keywords to have a high number of both Broad and Exact searches, but the latter is more important. If “fuzzy widgets” has 3,000,000 broad searches but only 300 exact searches, then “fuzzy widgets” is a poor keyword to target.

Track How Visitors are coming to Your Site

How visitors found their way to your site is important, particularly in regard to the search phrases they used to get there. If you analyze your logs and find that people are occasionally coming to your site via some long tail keyword phrase that you didn’t think of, then maybe it’s time to expound upon that phrase and add some additional content around it.

Keyword review is also important for the keywords that you already have in place. If you are sure that one of your keywords is a good one but it is not getting much action, then you know that you need to ramp up the content you have around that keyword. Don’t forget the popular keywords either. If people are landing on your site all day and night because of “iPod coupon codes” then toss up a couple of more pages around that keyword and catch a few more of them.

Don’t start a fight with a Bigger Dog

If you have a small budget, don’t try to outrank an industry giant for a popular keyword. To keep beating a dead horse, at this stage in the game ranking anywhere near the top of the SERPs for a phrase like “iPod” or “iPad” is pretty much a losing battle. Choose a set of more specific, buyer friendly keywords and target the heck out of them.

Have you had any success in outranking a big dog? Do you have a secret keyword strategy we haven’t covered? Tell us about it!