Often times fellow web developers or hobbyists will come up to me and mention their brand new website, how nice it looks, and how no one can seem to find it through organic searches via Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Without even browsing their web site to see whether or not it is optimized, I begin the conversation like so:

Me: What keywords are you targeting visitors with?
Client: [insert extremely vague keywords here]
Me: That may be the problem.

Why might this be the problem you ask? Vague keywords, even when they relate to your niche subject, can be extremely difficult to rank well with. If you’re using a new, unoptimized site, the deck is already stacked against you – using such vague keywords is a recipe for doom.

Here’s an example. Let’s say this client runs a website centered on Internet Business. The keywords he has decided to focus on using are “Internet” and “Business”. He includes these keywords in his meta tags, title tags, and content as often as possible. This is bad.

Why is this bad?

My research shows that the word “internet” was searched for 387,165 times last month on Yahoo. This is only Yahoo mind you; you don’t even want to know the results on Google. Likewise, the word “business” was sought after over 1,000,000 times on Yahoo, Google was nearly 8 times that amount!

When search volumes are this high there will be so much competition for these vague keywords that you will never (and I mean never) rank on the first page of search results.

What do I do?

Get creative. Use the Overture Keyword Selector Tool and start researching. Instead of listing “Internet” and “Business” – use “Internet Business”, “Internet Based Business”, and “Internet Home Business”. It’s important when first starting out that you chase after keywords that are obtainable, so you will rank within the first couple pages of search engine results and pull in more organic traffic.

Share This

Popularity: 6% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!