This just comes up so much and I thought I would use this post to reinforce it. Don’t waste time optimising your website for generic keywords or keywords that are not directly related to your product!

For example, if you run a bus company in South Australia there is absolutely no value in being in the top ten of Google for a term such as “Hostel Cairns”. A customer that types in this keyword is probably looking for a hostel in Cairns. Much more pertinent is to work out what your customers are typing into search engines to find the best way to transport themselves in your operating area and target these key phrases.

Unfortunately, this is just one example of the sort of poor keyword targeting I see everyday. As I discussed in our February article concentrate on optimising your site for only 5 to 8 keyword phrases; select these based on expected quantity of traffic they will generate; and track their performance - at the end of the day there should be just one axiom that drives your web strategy: “generate more sales!”.

In this regard a strategy that focuses on simply more traffic is a flawed marketing strategy - as I said to someone the other day, the Marketing Manager does get a promotion for achieving a number one Google rating, but they do lose their job if they fail to deliver any sales.

Tags: keywords, SEO

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 3:18 am and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.