In the Google book I’m no longer selling, I describe a keyword focus technique I like to call the Bottom Up Theory. I’m playing with the idea of writing a short book about it and how it relates to Google.
I didn’t invent this theory, I just refined it and made it easy for busy small business professionals to understand, since most of the ones I know don’t have the time to go to search engine optimization school, or the money to pay someone else to do it yet.
I find that approaching keyword focus from this perspective can get you enough traffic and customers until such a time as you can afford to shell out $1500 – $3000 for the royal treatment by a search engine optimization expert – which I suggest you do if you have the cash.
I’ll summarize it here for you quickly.
There’s a difference in the surfer who searches for “used cars” and the one who searches for “blue Honda”. One of them is at the beginning of their buying decision, another one is towards the end. From study in niche marketing, many of us have learned to specialize and focus in a small area that will bring us enough traffic to sustain our businesses.
Yet, many of us still want to rank for the harder, general terms, instead of focusing on the more specific terms that bring less traffic, but are easier to get, and can bring us more conversions to sales, due to their targeted nature.
My theory, which has worked quite well for my sites, is that it’s better to rank for 200 terms that only get me 10 targeted visitors who are almost ready to buy, than it is to rank for one term that might get me 1000 visitors who are still thinking about it and will be harder to convert.
This is especially true when the likelihood that I can be ranked number one for these 200 low yield keywords is near 80%, and the possiblity that I can get even a first page ranking for a top term is closer to 10%.
In addition, ranking for the lower yield term may also increase the likelihood that in the long term, I could rank for that harder term that would bring a greater number of visitors. So in the long run, I could end up with 3000 visitors if I’m diligent in my pursuit of keywords.
In a recent post to the Search Engine Watch blog about
Searcher Habits, Gary Price quotes an Associate Press article.
It seems that surfters aren’t getting much more educated about how to surf – so ranking number one for a five word phrase will probably still get you only a trickle.
“The searches are taking less than five minutes and they’re only looking at the first page of results,” Spink said. “That’s why people are wanting to get their results on the first page” of search engine results.
Still, if you choose the less competitive first page results, they may pull you into the first page for that harder term. And this also supports the fact that if you sell blue Hondas, ranking for a general term like used cars won’t get you the conversions you need.
The secret is, you don’t need a LOT of traffic to do well in your business. You need the right traffic.
If 1% of 1000 untargeted visitors will convert, and 10% of 1000 targeted vistors will also convert, which do you think it’s better to have? If your product sells for $50, that’s the difference between making $500 and $5000.
An article at SearchGuild.com called Keywords – key for all doors has more information about how to choose the right keywords at your site for more research.
I’ll be back with another tip in a few minutes.
