When choosing keywords to target, many SEOs stick with the well-known Google Keyword Tool. Designed for Adwords advertisers, the tool offers one metric that’s highly valuable for SEOs: the number of monthly searches that any term receives.
It’s valuable information, particularly for webmasters that want their websites to receive as much traffic as possible. But it’s become something of an all-important figure to SEOs – we often base all of our decisions around raw traffic data.
There’s more to SEO than just traffic, and there’s more to marketing than SEO. If you’re stuck in the trap of only targeting high-traffic keywords, consider a useful alternative form of optimization for your website. You could:
- Optimize your website’s landing page to generate more leads from the search engine visitors that you’re already receiving. After all, it’s easier to double the conversion rate of your page than to double the amount of traffic it receives.
- Target high-value search terms that are more likely to convert. We’ve talked about ‘buying keywords’ and ‘traffic keywords’ before. Often, it only takes a few targeted links to start ranking for valuable ‘buying keywords.’
- Look at location data for search. Some search terms receive far more traffic in high-value countries than in low-value countries, corrupting the true value of their search visitors. Try and target these terms for maximum search ROI.
- Focus on organic PR. Few marketers realize it, but SEO goes hand in hand with traditional public relations. If you’re struggling to get good results, try looking for traditional PR opportunities that can lead to high-value links.
Remember, there’s more to SEO than just high-traffic keywords. By looking at the factors that go beyond sheer traffic numbers, you can build a website that always generates leads, regardless of how much search engine traffic it’s receiving.