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SEO AND KEYWORDS: NUMBERS ARE MISLEADING!
by: webslinger on
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2010 Time: 3:40 AM
Keywords, Key Phrases, Search Terms, Search Queries, call them what you will, but they are absolutely vital when it comes to having a successful online presence. If you are not appearing at the top of the search engines for those keywords your qualified customers are typing in, you most likely won’t make the sale!
A qualified customer, or lead, is someone who has typed in a keyword that is a 100% match to what service(s) or product(s) you are offering. When a qualified lead lands on your website the chances of making a sale are much, much higher. As an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Specialist of over 5 years, this is where many people and clients alike go wrong in their decision making.
Choosing the wrong keywords will leave you wondering why you aren’t seeing the same number of sales that the keyword tool(s) lead you to believe there would be. There are varying reasons that will explain this, even when choosing the right keywords can’t assure you there will be so many sales!
In the first instance, the data you get from any keyword tool, even Google’s, is not 100% accurate. In the case of Google, they never publish anything that makes it easier for SEO Consultants to assist their clients in achieving better rankings, if they do, they won’t show the whole picture so to speak.
As for other tools, their stats are based on databases that only represent a smaller percentage of online users. Yahoo and MSN receive about 25% of search activity performed online while Google get around 70%, the other 5% approx, is all other search engines collectively like Alexa for example.
Secondly, a certain percentage of those numbers are made up of you, and your competitors checking their rankings on a frequent basis. So, with this in mind, I will give you some examples for a real estate who only services a certain area. The numbers used have come from Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool .
Louise has been in business for just over a year and wants to attract more customers via her website. I have presented Louise a long list of keywords and immediately she gets really excited, she’s amazed at the numbers for the search term ‘Real Estate’.
Louise: “Wow, 2.7 million people a month search for ‘Real Estate’, I can’t imagine that many people visiting my website.”
SEO Consultant: “That is a lot Louise, but let me explain, that’s every keyword combined that has the words real and estate in them. It’s called a ‘broad search term’ and could be something like ‘Real Estate Agents Sydney’, you’re in Melbourne. There are also exact search terms shown in this list and as you can see, over 200,000 people a month in Australia actually type ‘Real Estate’ alone, but even so, how many of them are actually within your service area or looking for something you don’t offer?”
Louise: “Even so, I’d like to rank for that keyword and get as many as I can!”
SEO Consultant: “I can understand that, but if you target more specific search terms, you will most likely end up with more sales than chasing keywords with larger numbers. We can of course aim at those bigger terms, but the more competitive a search term is, the harder it is to obtain top rankings for various reasons.”
“The more competitive it is, the more people there are trying to rank for that exact keyword making it much more likely the top 10 – 30 websites listed are using SEO to better their rankings. We can of course target these top keywords as part of long term goals but in the short term, the most effective way to achieve fast results is to target less searched keywords (long tail keywords). This will ensure your website is able to turn more visitors in to paying customers.”
As an example, I worked for a company as their full time SEO Specialist, when I started they were getting around 9,000 visitors a month from approximately 1,500 keywords. After doing some SEO targeted at long tail keywords, they were getting more than 19,000 visitors a month from around 4,500 keywords.
Focusing on these long tail keywords meant two things;
1. Better rankings on many long tail keywords were achieved in a short time.
2. A dramatic increase in visitors was also achieved in a short amount of time.
As a result of this approach a dramatic increase in leads and sales was seen over the first 2 – 3 month period almost instantly turning a $20 million a year company in to a $40 million a year company.
Unfortunately a lot of people get bad information or don’t understand everything that is involved in running a successful SEO Campaign. It’s not just on and off page, its keyword selection, ensuring your website meets the needs of your potential customers and so on.
This is why I always recommend you at the very least get some reliable advice before you even purchase web hosting, a domain name or get your website developed. You can save a lot of money and lost sales buy getting it all done right well before your website is ready to go online!
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About the Author
Mark Asciak has been a SEO Specialist for over 5 years with a strong background in the Web and IT. He has worked as a freelancer, been self employed and contracted to large multi-national companies. Currently Mark is employed by Freedom SEO in Melbourne, Australia and owns his own Web Hosting Company.
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