Search engine optimization is constantly tangled with misconceptions, which is often why providing SEO services often includes a bit of education about SEO, search engines, and usability. Among the most common misconceptions is that SEO is about acquiring the highest volume of traffic to one’s website as possible for popular keywords. To the surprise of many, SEO is a bit more complex.
Instead, SEO is about identifying objectives for a website, understanding its potential audience, and helping those specific searchers find your website. This does not mean a good SEO strategy is about getting your website ranking for popular keywords. Rather, a good SEO strategy is about getting your website to rank for the right keywords.
For instance, there would be no value for a car dealer to rank for the national keyword ‘car dealer.’ As no car buyer in New York would buy a car from a dealer in California, there would be no point for a Tustin Toyota dealer to rank nationally. While this may be an extreme example, the point is that SEO is about identifying the most effective keywords, and developing pages around those keywords. Looking at Orlando Chevrolet dealers, it would not be advantageous to go after Cleremont, FL as a keyword just because the dealer is located on the cusp of Orlando, since many car buyers in such a dense metro will be using ‘Orlando’ to search for a car. It’s important to use the nearest metro area in many instances to ensure you have enough traffic, while also gaining the ‘right’ traffic. Like wise, Honda Washington DC is a great keyword to attract car buyers from Fredericksburg, Woodbridge, and other suburbs of DC. Aside from keywords, SEO also involves making websites easily crawlable by the search engines and of course requires an understanding about how search engines index pages.
If you’re interested in getting far more traffic to your website, that’s not to say you’re not without options. However, SEO may not be the best option. Paid search advertising, display advertising, and even social media, could potentially be the answer you’re looking for. However, organic SEO should be able to attract the right visitors to your website for the right keywords, rather than just any visitor from any keyword. Ultimately what we’re talking about here is leads, and the more qualified traffic you can deliver, the more leads your website will generate.
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Keywords provide the foundation for SEO Tactics. Learn more right here.
