A few weeks back Glen asked me to comment on keyword victories. Its taken a little longer than I planned but here goes.
First I want to say that since the example he pointed out was related to a Squidoo lens so I’m going to assume that the person is trying to earn money for a charity or themselves.
My first thought about the example was how the in the world the search term the person was trying to target would ever draw any substantial traffic to satisfy their desire to earn income. Then I thought back to my first days in search engine marketing.
You see, back when the wife and I started our adventure to make additional income online we were trying to target the e-commerce websites design market. I remember how ecstatic I was when our terms showed up on the first page. I was on top of the world… until I realized I had done it all wrong. I tried to re-invent the wheel. Our traffic was pathetic. We tried to brand our business with unique phrases that no one searched for instead of using the keywords people were actually using to find their e-commerce solutions.
It is very true that you can teach the machine anything. Take this post for example. Currently there are no results for the title of this post on Google and chances are high that I can teach the machine about this post and hit the number one spot in very short order.
The results for my effort will not fall on many eyes.
No eyes = No traffic = No revenue.
If you really want your effort to pay off then focus on what people want, not what you think they want. The idea to rank for the keywords that actually bring you revenue. Non-converting traffic is a waste and a huge distraction.
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14 Comments
Wow. Google indexes a lot faster than it used to, doesn’t it?
And why is this reply box underneath the sidebar wher I can’t read what I’m typing? (Firefox 3, OSX)
Not sure what the go is with the reply box being under the sidebar. I’m using Firefox 3.0.7.
But anyway… Greg had this post in draft, and asked me to proof it. However it was well written and no smelling pistakes so I think he just asked me to make me feel like a real editor
So I published it, and sent him an email to say “done it!” or words to that effect.
An hour later he emails me back, Google has found it and indexed it. So we get to celebrate our very own useless keyword victory!
And coming in at number 3 for useless keywords.
Wow, the much sought after double indent listing for celebrating useless victories
Still no traffic
Still no traffic?
I clicked on the result link at least once!
Wow! We’ve also picked up a number 1 spot for a Google search for Actor Kutcher followed by one million twits
It will be interesting to see if Google ‘continues’ to fast-track index the many thousands of Squidoo Lenses for KWs especially the Longtail keywords that seem to attract very targeted niche market buyers…
Wow, I can’t believe that I ranked number one on Google for the search term “Wow, I can’t believe that I ranked number one on Google for the search term “Wow, I can’t believe that I ranked number one on Google”!”!
My post about this post indexed in 4 minutes by Google, now third for”Celebrating Useless Keyword Victories” LOLOL
I now just about completely own the first page for Celebrating Useless Keyword Victories.
Fun
See it is true. You can teach the “machine” anything
@jeffryv,
I’m right there with you. Google seems to only expedite useless keywords. Targeted keywords take much more time
Actually jeffryv’s useless keyword victory is a great example of how you can own page one on Google for a certain phrase.
Using anchor text and different indexed web properties you can teach the machine anything in short order and dominate the serp’s.
This was proven a few years ago with “The Coolest Guy On The Planet” experiment – I venture to say that Brad and Russell gained a lot clients and money during this useless keyword experiment:-)
Take this useless keyword example and apply it to low volume-long tails like say, adult brobee hoodie. You’ll get the same effect, page one domination.
Noone targets 20 searchers or less a month but those twenty searchers are highly targeted searches and most likely buyers. If 10 of the twenty take action I’m a happy camper.
It’s not about the volume so much as about targeted ‘buying’ traffic.
@Greg,
Great point! I actually posted a blog on my real estate site about different home financing options and how to obtain them. The blog was intended for informational purposes only.
A few days after posting the article, I started getting phone calls about a certain home loan program. I’m not a loan officer, but that article was able to convert one of the phone calls into a client.
So, yes, if you think something is useless, think twice!