Mar
19
As we approach the beginning of the Major League Baseball season I thought it was appropriate to drag out at least one baseball analogy to mark the occasion: Are you a singles hitter, or do you go for the home run?
What I’m referring to is, how do you decide which keyword phrases to target when writing your posts? Do you go after the lesser searched phrases that will send a smaller stream of traffic to your site, or do you go after the keyword phrases that will send thousands of visitors daily. On the one hand, going after less popular phrases will make it easier to rank higher on Google, but your return will be much smaller. Your #1 ranking may only result in new 30 to 40 visitors a day. On the other hand, the most searched keywords can direct thousands of new visitors to the #1 ranked site. However, there is more than likely over 1 million sites competing for that top spot. It’s not easy to reach, and it’s even harder to hold.
Is one strategy better than the other? That really depends on your abilities and the resources (both time and money) you have to devote toward achieving your goal.
Sticking to the baseball analogy, not every player is a home run threat. We all know about the Hank Aaron’s and Barry Bonds’ of the league (steroid argument aside, the guy could crush the ball), but we don’t pay much attention to the players that day in and day out hit for average and consistently scored runs. And the players without the ability to hit home runs at will usually got out when they went to the plate looking for the homer. For the average player the long ball came as a result of taking a good swing at a pitch that they could handle.
For many successful bloggers, that is how they go about blogging. Day in and day out they post solid content that is either aimed at a lesser searched keyword phrase, or that answers specific questions for their readers. They don’t necessarily worry about how Google will look at them on the major search phrases. They go to the plate to hit for average.
Along the way, something the write may make solid contact, they get noticed, and the ball goes over the fence for a score. Even though their strategy wasn’t to try to take on the big hitters, they manage to rank high and see a huge influx in traffic, even if just for a little while.
What that means for you is, start off smaller. Learn to hit the ball well before you start swinging for the fences. Learn how to get your site ranked well on the lesser searched keywords, then start moving up into the more competitive terms. As you become more skilled at marketing your blog, you can take on more and more competitive terms. As your skill and your content grow, Google will start to notice. For now, don’t worry about the long ball; hit for average and continue to score runs.
Popularity: 10% [?]
I hate when I swing for the fences and I wind up fouling one off.
I almost hate to admit this, but I’m less concerned about keyword density and selection in my blog posts than I am in other sorts of Internet writing. The fact of the matter is that I get maybe 25% of my traffic from search engines, and it’s much less sticky than other forms of traffic.
I’m better off getting 5 new subscribers after posting a great article than I am getting 50 one-time Googlers (or Stumblers, for that matter.)
Just my $.02.
Bob, absolutely agree with You.
But why not changing some words in Your article to synonymous good less-searched-keywords from time to time?
50 one-time Googlers can become into 4-6 subscribers.
Search engines are probably the best way to send a lot of traffic to your site, but it certainly isn’t the only way to build readership. It is just another tool in the kit.
What I like about focusing on niche keywords is that the traffic you do get is more targeted.
The more people I can bring in from a variety of sources, the faster my overall readership will grow.
The bottom line is still about making sure you have something to keep them coming back, regardless of how they got there.