Does Your Search Marketing Target the Right Keywords?

I used to work for one of the nation’s leading online advertising agencies. When I first started working there, the company was just another among a slew of startups who were far from being considered a leader. We had the opportunity to change that when a very well known and large Web-based company came calling. We’ll just call them “The Really Big Company.”

Our executive team scheduled a meeting of all managers to let us know that we would be presenting an overview of our services to The Really Big Company, which included how each of our departments fit into the big picture. Keep in mind that we were one of many ad agencies this company was considering partnering with. Our executive team wanted us on our absolute best behavior and stressed that we needed to only expose our “best side” to The Really Big Company.

I’d like to say things went smoothly, but there was one incident that has gained some level of infamy among those that were there to experience it. Our Director of Search Marketing was going through his presentation when an executive from The Really Big Company abruptly interrupted and asked about a particular keyword phrase that they were targeting in their search engine marketing.

Our VP looked him straight in the eye and answered, “Well, I don’t think you even deserve to rank for that phrase.”

An awkward silence fell over the room. Everyone from The Really Big Company seemed stunned at the audacity this young man had to tell such a large and successful corporation which keywords they did and didn’t deserve to rank for. Our executive team was ready to kiss the partnership goodbye.

Well, long story short, a few days later we got the news that we had beat out all the other ad agencies and landed a partnership deal with The Really Big Company. This story is basically a long way for me to say that you should be asking yourself the same question: “Do I deserve to rank for ?”

What Makes You Deserving?

The vast majority of search engine searches are attempts to obtain information. While the phrase “MP3 player” may be a high-traffic term that will get you a lot of traffic, you’ll never rank for it unless you provide important, relevant, and useful information about MP3 players.

Something else to consider is conversion rates. First, what do you consider a conversion? For example, if sell MP3 players and you’re trying to get visitors to your website to make a purchase, then “MP3 players” might actually be a bad target keyword even if you sell MP3 players. That particular term, for example, is used mostly by people who are searching for information about MP3 players, not by people interested in buying them!

Retail stores looking to make a sale will experience a higher conversion rate on long-tail keywords (i.e., phrases that are three or more words long), such as an item’s product number or phrases that describe a specific model. Long-tail keywords are also easier to rank for because they bring less traffic. But if you are able to rank for several dozen or even a hundred long-tail keyword phrases, then the combined traffic you receive will be well worth it.

Remember, millions of visitors to your site are no good to you if they aren’t making you money. While you can always update your website to make it more deserving of high-traffic keywords, the main idea behind your search marketing efforts should be more than to simply increase traffic. It should be to increase traffic that converts to qualified leads and sales.

Make sure you have the audacity to ask yourself if you deserve to rank for the keywords you’re targeting.