Any ideas for capturing keywords that your client rejects because they aren't politically correct?
-
Here's the scenario: you need to capture a search phrase that is very widely used in common search, but the term is considered antiquated, overly vernacular, insensitive or outright offensive within the client's industry.
In this case, searchers overwhelmingly look for "nursing homes," but the term has too many negative connotations to the client's customers, so they won't use it on-page.
Some obvious thoughts are to build IBLs or write an op-ed/blog series about why the term is offensive. Any other ideas?
-
I remember talking with an SEO copywriter who gave an example of a loan company that wasn't allowed to use "bad credit" as part of their advertising, yet it still drew a lot of keywords. The copywriter would write text like "Have other companies told you that you have bad credit?"
I also like the idea about writing articles. You could do something about the history of the term, or myths associated with that term. Another idea might be any quotes from patients or families that could include "I didn't want to go to a nursing home when I got old, I'm so glad my family found Blue Hair Acres for me instead."
Remember you can try to work your phrase in across two sentences. "So and so has a degree in nursing. Home-like care is a goal" (cheesy, but it shows what I'm talking about).
-
I love EGOL's idea of sharing the search volumes to the client.
Jeremy, I can appreciate the sensitive nature of the conversation. The question here, what is in the client's best interests?
I know a bit about nursing homes myself. There are issues of abuse, neglect and an incredible range with respect to the quality of care offered. If your client offers a great service, wouldn't it be in the best interest of both your client and the world to let as many people know about the service as possible?
You can discuss advertising in magazines, television, referrals, etc. but when it comes down to it our role is SEO. We focus on using white hat techniques to maximize the ability of our clients to compete in search results. There is not any reasonable way I can think of to rank for a term like "nursing home" without using the term.
I would try to educate the client on how search engines work with respect to relevancy. It is the client's choice but if the word is not used on the site, then the site wont be found by users searching for the term and the primary audience will be missed entirely.
-
Just my opinion... I have been to a lot of nursing homes.... I go there a two or three times every week to visit. From what I have seen I don't think that the public is extremely touchy about this term.
But, your client has a specific business image that they are trying to maintain... and it seems that this word is on their agenda.
I would show them search volumes and see what they say.
-
Keep in mind that we're not talking about someone wanting "evaporative air conditioner" instead of "swamp cooler" here.
Consider a word like "retarded," which has a national campaign pushing people to stop using it, and is even considered hate speech by some. Swap out the word with "mentally challenged," and GKT shows less than half the local search volume!
It's a tough sell to convince a client who runs a care facility for the intellectually disabled to say, "Our services for retarded kids are the best in the state."
EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not trying to be coarse or flippant with that example. That's a high-search term that some would find incredibly offensive.
Organizations that fight the use of certain words see it as more than just inelegant speech, they see real, tangible harm whenever the word is used. Reaction to that particular phrase is unique in that there are some who would vociferously argue against it, and other who would still see little to nothing wrong with it (as reflected in GKT).
-
It's all about educating the client.
The client may not like the term, but if that is what the rest of the world associates with the business your client offers, then you are stuck with it. If you wish to get creative I can think of a few options:
-
as you suggested, write articles on why the business model offered is not a "nursing home" but a "skilled nursing facility", "elder care group" or whatever name is preferred.
-
you could supplement your SEO with SEM by placing ads on "nursing home" which do not use that phrase.
-
you could use creative writing such as "...requires in home nursing...." and use image alt text, image names and other less visible means to get the correct associated for the term. This is certainly not the preferred approach but if you are dealing with a stubborn client your choices may be limited
-
you can walk away from the client. It's your role to offer appropriate SEO advice. If that advice is not followed, there is not much you can do. I would try to work with the client as much as possible, use some of the techniques listed above, etc. but in the end either the client's expectations need to change or no one will be happy with this arrangement.
-
-
I like your idea for an article about the term "nursing home". I'd write a couple of those articles and feature links to them on every page of the site.
If I was selling something and everybody everywhere was asking for it by an overwhelmingly popular name I think that I would adapt to it. Visitors to the site would know that they are in the right place. Using some fancyass name would have visitors wondering if you really offer the service that they need... or if they know you offer those services they might wonder if your prices are too high.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google doesn't show proper meta for my subpage, how to fix it?
We have a subdomain blog.companyname.com. I am working on its English version blog.companyname.com/en but for some reason Google shows meta description from blog.companyname.com in search results which is not in Englsih language. How do I force google to show blog.companyname.com/en 's own meta?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SofyaFr0 -
High Competitive Keyword
I am working on a keyword which has 72 difficulty score, I have tried getting quality links with high DA, also there is no any on page issue, landing page is loading very fast and fixed all site loading issues, the keyword is stuck on 3rd page of Google and shuffling between 20 to 30 but not ranking on 1st page, I need expert opinions on it.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | UmairGadit0 -
Sites still rank who don't seem like they should. Why?
So you've been MOZing and SEOing for years and we're all convinced of the 10x factor when it comes to content and ranking for certain search terms... right? So what do you do when some older sites that don't even produce content dominate the first page of a very important search term? They're home pages with very little content and have clearly all dabbled in pre Panda SEO. Surely people are still seeing this and wondering why?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wearehappymedia0 -
HTML5: Changing 'section' content to be 'main' for better SEO relevance?
We received an HTML5 recommendation that we should change onpage text copy contained in 'section" to be listed in 'main' instead, because this is supposedly better for SEO. We're questioning the need to ask developers spend time on this purely for a perceived SEO benefit. Sure, maybe content in 'footer' may be seen as less relevant, but calling out 'section' as having less relevance than 'main'? Yes, it's true that engines evaluate where onpage content is located, but this level of granular focus seems unnecessary. That being said, more than happy to be corrected if there is actually a benefit. On a side note, 'main' isn't supported by older versions of IE and could cause browser incompatibilities (http://caniuse.com/#feat=html5semantic). Would love to hear others' feedback about this - thanks! 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mirabile0 -
Bolding Keywords
A client has just switched from us to another provider and I have been checking up on the work done and the only change they have made is to bold lots of keywords on each page - I thought this was a practice that did not work - is there any evidence of this working or not working? Any articles/proof that we are not using out dated practices as we stopped doing this ages ago and yet the new provider is doing this. Who is right or wrong?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK0 -
Is it better to use geo-targeted keywords or add the locations as separate keywords?
For example... state keyword (nyc real estate) or keyword, state (nyc, real estate) = 2 keywords Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Cyclone0 -
Keyword Selection - Long Tail or not long tail keyword
Hi Friends, We have a keyword "plus size clothing" but we used this as "plus size clothing 2012" to Cover the both keywords "Plus size clothing" and "Plus size clothing 2012" My question is, are we still focusing on "plus size clothing" when use "plus size clothing 2012" instead of the main keyword.? What strategy do yo suggest that when to use long tail and when to not. (when I talk to use a long tail than it means use it prominently on the page as main keyword should be used.)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | alexgray0 -
Pro's & Con's of registering your customers?
I know that making a user register will drop the the conversion rate. However, there are a lot of sites that still stand by making users register before you can purchase. I was wondering if they know something that I don't that would outweigh the loss of those conversions. What exactly are the Pro's & Con's of making your customers register before being able to purchase an item?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HCGDiet0