Avoiding the SEO “Hunch”
August 5, 2007 – 10:20 amI am always amazed that some website owners spend hours, weeks and months trying to optimize a website for phrases nobody is searching. I see it a lot in all kinds of industries (including real estate). But here’s a prime example from a non-real estate company.
Example of an SEO Hunch:
I know a company here in the Austin area where I live that sells graphic design services. Their tag line and other marketing materials make frequent use of the word “Awesome.” So they optimized their website for such search phrases as “awesome design services Austin.”
One day, they became excited when their website began to appear on Page 1 of MSN / Live Search for “awesome design services Austin” … until I pointed out a harsh reality. Hey, somebody had to do it!
As you might imagine, nobody is seeking “awesome design services Austin” through any of the major search engines. It’s entirely too vague and uses an adjective (”awesome”) that few people would type into a search engine. Awesome design services might describe anything flower arrangement to interior design to flower arrangement. Not to mention the fact that you never build a website around a single key phrase.
In other words, this company based their search engine optimization strategy on one phrase — and a useless phrase at that — based on nothing more than ego and guesswork.
There is no excuse for guessing at your key search phrases. There are a number of services you can use to research what key phrases people are searching. WordTracker (www.wordtracker.com) is one of the most popular. KeywordDiscovery.com is also a useful tool.
A Happy SEO Ending
Long story short, I educated the graphic design company how to identify relevant *local* search phrases and build a website around them the proper way. Now their website comes up for search phrases people are actually using, and they enjoy web-based leads as a result.
P.S. Here’s an amusing blog post about using worthless search phrases — in this case purple polka dot widgets.
