Are You Targeting The Wrong Keywords?

by Kalena Jordan, 3/26/2007

A colleague 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 jeopardising 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?

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