5/4/2010
5 Popular Ways to Mishandle SEO
There are probably 500 ways to get tripped up on an SEO project. Here are five that we see on a regular basis.
1. Focusing on traffic and rankings rather than conversions. Traffic and rankings are important, but one should always remember they are means to an end, not an end in themselves. Companies should balance their spend between SEO services and conversion optimization services. What is the right balance? Naturally it varies from case to case, but think of it as you would your sales organization. How much time and effort should your sales people spend cold calling versus closing? You certainly wouldn’t want them spending all their time cold calling.
2. Selecting keyword phrases that are too popular. It’s never a good idea to let ego get in the way of decision making. It would be great to be on the first page of Google for the most popular search phrase in your industry – but is it realistic? For a mid-sized player in a large and competitive field, getting to the first, second, or even third page of Google may not be cost feasible. But the good news is, who cares? The company in question can have zero clickthroughs on a 200,000 searches-per-month phrase they can’t compete on, or 50 clickthroughs on a 30,000 searches-per-month phrase they can win on. You can do the math.
3. Selecting keyword phrases that don’t fit the content of the target page. I think this happens when people get in that mode of thinking SEO rather than conversions. Consider these phrases -
