Keyword Strategy

[smulto]

I am working with a company that has had a few "SEO Experts" work on it's site over the last year.  The strategy these "experts" used to generate keywords is to optimize on many general keywords and, when mixed all together, make the keywords they are optimizing against.

For example, they did photo printing.  They would optimize for the keywords:

photo

prints

printing

print

photographs

photography

4x6

cheap

....

Maybe I am missing something, but I have never seen  a keyword list managed this way...  is this "normal"?  Is this something "new" I am missing?  Any advice or strategy tips on this one?

Thanks in advance!

[smulto]

Ya, this is what I figured.  Was just confused when I saw it and wanted to make sure I was on top of it.    Thanks for your help!

[AlanMosley]

No not photo it’s too generic, What did they use in the title, one would assume that they did not just have a title photo?
I may go for "photo printing" and then look for supporting terms.
To use Rand’s example, to have a keyword Stones, you create ambiguity, it could be the rolling stones or a geology site. Adding rock don’t help as that could be either, but adding Mick Jagger, the 60’s and concert helps search engines nail down the subject, as well as help with the long tail, I may type “Jagger concert 1965”

[smulto]

So one of the keywords they are focusing on is photo.  You would optimize for "photo" on the page and then add other keywords such as "print" "prints" "cheap" to get the longer tail keywords?

If so, that is fine iif you have done the keyword research around the long tail keywords.  But you are OPTIMIZING for those long tail keywords, right?  Not just the blend of a few of them...

From what I heard them tell me, they are optimizing for photo, prints, print, cheap, printing, photography, etc. and then blending them when it makes sense.  That to them is a long tail keyword.

Personally, I think you figure out the long tail keywords, optimize for that by page.  Maybe there are combo's on a page, but generally you are optimizing for the keyword combinations, not just a random keyword within the combo.

[AlanMosley]

Well they are not on their own; if they are in context they will have long tails. High ranking keywords make up about 10% of traffic and long tails make up about 70%. 20% of queries are completely new to Google according to Matt Cutts, so making sure you have the keywords in context helps you get these unknown long tails.

I usually go for one high traffic keyword term, and then make sure i includes supporting terms in context to help with long tails

[smulto]

They used them in context... but it is so general I can't see how they can rank competitively on the terms.

[smulto]

Oh, thanks for that.  I think they already had that problem a few months ago... but I didn't even think about that happening again.  I'll dig deeper there.  Thanks!

[smulto]

Thanks Ryan!  I agree - it takes tons of time.  I was wondering if this person got lazy or if this was a real strategy...     Looks like a combo of them both.   These keywords are way too general and there is no way you can get any real movement here without tons more work.

[EGOL]

It's pretty easy to find websites that have the marks of an SEO expert all over them 

One of the dangers of working on these sites is the off-page expertise that might be smacked down on your watch.

Good luck!

[smulto]

So, I agree with you here... 100%.  I have just never seen a strategy like this and I was floored...  I don't get it.   Did some more research last night and they are not ranked for general keywords (way too competitive).

The theory was that the blend of these keywords makes the long tail keyword.. I get it - but just seems like an ineffective strategy... and I think I  can now prove it.  

[RyanKent]

I agree with Rasmus and will add a few thoughts. Keyword research is a time intensive and extremely important aspect of SEO. I spend a large amount of time performing keyword and competitive research. Some considerations:

• What type of site is involved? More specifically, what actions do you desire from users? Is the focus to sell a product or service? Generate leads? Generate ad revenue? The keywords you focus will vary based on the desired user action. "Buy photo" or "develop photo" show a clear user intent, whereas "photo" will be much more competitive, and the traffic will not be as qualified.

• What is the competition for the keyword? My goal is to earn the #1 ranking. If that is not possible, then I will look at the #2 or 3 spot. It is important to measure the strength of the competing web pages. If the top 3 pages for a given keyword are from Kodak, Fuji and Wikipedia and those pages are good quality and optimized for the specific keyword you want, then it is most likely best to find a variant of the keyword.

There is ultimately math involved where you measure the traffic generated for a given keyword and determine your expected position in SERPs, then estimate how much traffic your site will earn. Keep in mind the slightest change such as adding an "s" to make a keyword plural can affect traffic.

[rasmusbang]

The strategy really depends on the product i would say. Going toe to toe with the world on the keyword "print" really calls for a superb website if you want to rank at the top.

I must admit I am not the biggest fan of the concept of trying to rank high on an overly generalized set of keywords. In my opinion it is just too difficult. At least on keywords like print, photography and cheap.

Without having looked at your site (could you post a URL) I would say a good strategy is to:

1. Identify the sites keywords on which you would like to be found
2. Use these keywords in Google Webmaster Tools and Google Adwords to see what people are Googlin' for
3. Use the information to pick out the most important keywords for your site. Here you should be aware of the competition. "print" and "cheap" is probably very tough. A more specific keyword like combining "print" with localized information (city, products and so on) could be the better approach.
4. Use the info and selected keywords to optimize the site...

It is my experience that more specific keywords have a better click rate than overly generalized keywords in the SERPs. If I were you I would look at your key pages from the above described perspective and make a new strategy - if the one the "experts" have made is not working, that is.

Hope this can help you. If not - or I am too vague - please repost and I will try to explain it better.

Regards,

Rasmus

[AlanMosley]

What do you mean? did they just list them on the page or did they use them in context, it is valid to optimize for related words as long as they are placed naturaly.