One of the most common mistakes I see website owners and marketers make when launching their first SEO campaign is that they let search volume dictate which keywords they should target. I can completely understand the rationale behind their thinking–if more people are searching for keyword X that means more . . . → Read More: A High Search Volume Doesn’t Mean It’s the Right Keyword for You]]> by Nick Stamoulis

One of the most common mistakes I see website owners and marketers make when launching their first SEO campaign is that they let search volume dictate which keywords they should target. I can completely understand the rationale behind their thinking–if more people are searching for keyword X that means more visitors for my site which means more money for my company. Unfortunately SEO is not that cut and dry. The higher of a search volume a keyword has the more competition there is for it, which means it’s going to be much harder and take a lot longer to rank well in the search engines for. It’s also important to remember that just because a particular keyword has a high search volume that doesn’t mean it’s the right keyword for you.

For instance, “IT services” is a wildly popular keyword with over 45 million searches each month. However, “IT services” is also an incredibly broad keyword and might not be the most accurate keyword for your website. What kind of IT services does your business offer? Do you cater to small businesses or global enterprises? Do you offer IT consulting services or maybe you specialize in certain software platforms? Are you local service provider or do you have clients all over the country? More specific keywords like “managed IT services” (which still gets over 60k searches each month) might send less traffic to your site, but they will also drive a more targeted visitor. The more targeted the visitor the better chance you have of converting them.

Broad keywords with large search volumes are typically used at the beginning of someone’s buy cycle when they are just beginning to research their options. They want to cast as wide a net as possible and will subsequently narrow it down the more they learn. Someone who searches for “IT services” at the beginning of their buy cycle might end up looking for “small business IT service providers in New York” by the time they are ready to buy. While targeting “IT services” might drive more traffic to your site, you’re not driving the quality traffic you need to grow your online business.

Think about it like this–let’s say that after thorough keyword research you added 20 new long tail keywords to your website. Even if each of those keywords only drives 5 unique visitors to your site each month that’s 100 more highly-qualified visitors that have never heard of your brand or been to your website before. Those 100 visitors are much more likely to convert because they found your site through a very specific search phrase. On the flip side, a visitor that found your site through a broader keyword (even though they can still convert) might not be the kind of visitor you are looking for. For instance, an SEO client of mine had visitors finding their site by searching for “software.” While it’s great that they were getting any traffic from such a broad and competitive keyword, “software” could really mean just about anything. The majority of the visitors that came to their site from “software” weren’t good leads for their company and clogged up the sales funnel.

Many site owners think that keyword research is a one-and-done process, but that’s not the case! No one is required to get their keyword selection right the first time (it took me years to really hone in the right keywords for my site and my audience!) but you shouldn’t assume that the keyword with the highest search volume is automatically the best one for your site.

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There’s a fascinating story in the Atlantic of one historian’s ongoing social experiment intended to reveal the nature of “truth” on the web. He teaches a U.S. History course at George Mason University . . . → Read More: A Business’s Reputation Is More Vulnerable on the Social Web]]> A Business’s Reputation Is More Vulnerable on the Social Web was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

There’s a fascinating story in the Atlantic of one historian’s ongoing social experiment intended to reveal the nature of “truth” on the web. He teaches a U.S. History course at George Mason University called Lying About the Past. The curriculum has uncovered a fragile balance between truth and fiction within online communities as students craft a hoax to see how long it can pass as fact. Outside of academia, one prankster and entrepreneur duped Facebook into believing Abraham Lincoln patented a pre-cursor to social networking.

The lesson the Atlantic draws from the evidence is that the more trusting the community and the less centralized its communication, the more vulnerable it is to believing misinformation. Facebook is susceptible to propagating falsities with viral while Reddit collectively scrutinizes. It’s better to a safe skeptic than a sorry sucker.

What are people saying about your business online? Word of mouth has been amplified with social SERPs.

The findings are a cautionary tale for citizens of the web who avoid becoming victims. But the implications for businesses are equally pressing. A tarnished reputation can do serious damage to a business’s viability. If falsehoods or negative reviews of a business or people close to it crop up online, corrections or rebuttals can come too late to mitigate lasting damage. Active reputation management has always been a necessity of online business, but emerging search and social integrations magnify the issue.

Yesterday Bing launched its new socially enhanced search interface. Billed as another leap beyond blue links, the three column format dedicates the right-hand column to social activity in the searcher’s network. Reviews, both good and bad, become more visible when members of a searchers network have made comments about a business. Google has also made clear its intentions to continue to add social signals to rankings as well as SERP display, saying We think the web is better when it’s social.

Address your online vulnerabilities, be they from negative SEO sabotage or increasing prominence of social mentions. What’s being said about your business online? Isn’t it time to find out?