The world of search engine optimization has been changing dramatically over the past few years, and you can find many of those changes in my SEO category of posts. However, there are still some fundamental truths that people often miss.
A big one is around keyword targeting. The goal is often to get “more traffic”, but a better approach is to get “good traffic”. The mistake I see is when companies work to rank well for informational terms that won’t lead to new customers — it brings traffic to the site, but sales don’t come with it.
For example, if you’re an HVAC company you might try to rank for the phrase “why don’t they still use freon in air conditioners?“. It’s a good question, and might get some good traffic, but who is asking it? It’s unlikely to be someone looking for help right away, and more likely just a general query. You’ll get traffic from it, but it won’t help your bottom line.
Correcting this mistake often leads to a weird result — you’ll get less traffic on your site, but more revenue. Getting better traffic to your site can lead to more sales, even if the overall volume of traffic is down a bit. Rand Fishkin recently shared a great “5-Minute Whiteboard” video that unpacked this further, and I encourage you to check it out.
Traffic from those informational keywords isn’t hurting you, but it’s giving you weird data and isn’t supporting your goals. Focus instead on terms that convert and you may seen the fun mix of traffic dipping and revenue rising, which is ultimately your main goal anyhow.
