The SEO Don’ts: Don’t Pick General Keywords

In my previous post, we talked about not stuffing keywords. While keywords should not be packed into a website like sardines in a can, there is still a good place for them. After all, keywords are the number one way that the search engines know what products, services and information your websites are relevant to. The important thing to remember, though, is to choose the keywords carefully. Do some research and be realistic about the phrases you are relevant to and have a chance at ranking for. In other words, don’t pick general keywords-it is probably the worst attempt at SEO out there.

Let’s say, for instance, that you’ve got a site that’s all about babies. You sell baby bottles, diapers, clothes, toys and furniture. You sell baby headbands, medicine, blankets and photo albums. Basically, it’s all-things-baby. What you would not want to do is to pick a random keyword that millions upon millions of other sites are incorporating in their SEO strategy, such as ‘baby’. There are several reasons for this. Just because you have an online store that sells baby supplies like baby headbands based out of Oklahoma, which does not mean that someone in Oklahoma will find you by typing in the search term, ‘baby’.

Also, it’s not very specific. The fact of the matter is that when people shop online, they’re looking for specific items. So the keywords and keyword phrases should be specific. They should also be local, when applicable. If I’m looking for a baby crib, I’m going to type in baby crib and then the name of the city I live in. That’s why your keyword selection should be similar. Exactly what baby items on your blog do you want to sell the most of? What areas or demographics are you targeting? By deciding all of these factors as you pick your keywords for SEO, you’ll have much better success with your online marketing campaigns.

In SEO, specific is better-always better. This means that in SEO, general is bad-always bad. Pick the items you most want to rank for. These items should be your biggest sellers or the items with the highest search volume. Focus your SEO strategies and keyword phrases on those. By staying away from general keywords, you’ll undoubtedly have better marketing results.