Ranking For 287 Keywords Is Not A Measure Of Success

RANKING FOR 287 KEYWORDS IS NOT A MEASURE OF SUCCESS

Zoe Piper 17th July 2008

Jargon:

The other day I read about a website that ranked for over 300 keywords. This is the sort of statement we hear a lot when people are trying to pin down their success – ranking for one keyword is good, so ranking for 300 must be brilliant.

To be honest this depends entirely on the keywords. If we look at referring keywords for 9xb.com, we rank for almost 600 – my particular favourites being “themed orient express charity ball” and “myths about canoes”. I hope this illustrates my point – you can rank for as many keywords as you like, but they’re not worth anything unless they match your services.

Sometimes clients ask us to optimise their site for a huge list of keywords, even if the site is 10 pages in total. This list is full of strange combinations from a keyword tool and while someone somewhere may search for them, they’re not money terms. By this I mean the common or garden keywords that everyone associates with a product and that will bring in sales. There is literally no point optimising your site for combination phrases if those phrases won’t bring you customers.

The exception to this is of course the long-tail. Product names are fantastic keywords as searchers are already qualified. They know what they want and if you can offer the best price/fastest delivery you've got yourself a customer. Ranking for 300 keywords in this instance can turn your online business from good into great.

Today's Moral

Big numbers are impressive but it's the information behind them that counts. When it comes to keywords think money terms and think products – don't assume a massive list means that business is booming.

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