Debunking a myth...
A common request from clients looking to improve their exposure in search engines goes something like this:
"
I want to be at the top of Google using the two or three most popular keywords strings related to my business. That's all I need, that's all people will use to find me!!"
Unfortunately the reality of a two or three keyword campaign is that it always fails... Miserably!
The notion of two or three keyword being 'all people use' is born out of misleading keyword popularity software and or data. When popular keyword strings are analyzed certain keywords always return more hits than others and become 'hot' keywords. This process is cumulative meaning that up to 90% of these 'hot' keywords are actually embedded in longer strings... Not stand alone!
For example you are running a 'dog shampoo salon' and your input for keyword popularity is 'dog grooming'. Most keyword popularity data will return something like this:
| dog grooming |
115 |
| dog grooming supplies |
25 |
| dog grooming clippers |
20 |
| dog grooming schools |
20 |
| dog grooming table |
15 |
| dog grooming school |
10 |
| dog grooming tables |
5 |
| dog grooming tools |
5 |
'dog grooming' returns a total of 115 hits. However, that count is generated from the total number of strings embedded with 'dog grooming' not just 'dog grooming' alone. The fact is 'dog grooming' alone doesn't produce more than 10% of those hits.
The above example reflects a typical scenario and the need for full SEO implementation not just a couple keywords. A proper market reach must contain hundreds of variation on the root theme to be successful.
Proof of concept:
Here is a 'live' example using the April 2010 log statistics of Alleycode HTML editor (
www.alleycode.com). Alleycode is an award winning HTML editor downloaded 17,000 times per month. 92% of traffic comes from major search engines. The logical keywords for an HTML editor are: '
HTML editor',
'free HTML editor'.
Both of these 'hot' keywords return Alleycode on Google's first page yet they produce less than 18% of overall keyword searches. The balance is made up of
1657 key phrases which translates into 70% of search engines traffic.
See: Alleycode's April statistics
If unsure about these figures check your own log stats, you will find similar spread in searched terms.
Our SEO programs are designed to produce hundreds of variations on related product/service keywords allowing for maximum audience reach.