ideas for SEO with poor keywords

[cimmeron]

What do you tell a client who wants advice on how to optimize their site with keywords that have very few searches? The product is sales training tools and they came up with a huge list of possible search words, but most of them are either barely searched, or kinda searched but highly competative. So, in theory, they could rank well pretty easily on the barely searched terms, but there won't be any tangible results, such as sales of this product they're trying to market.

so -


what do you tell them? Because what's going to happen is that even if they rank well on these easy terms, it's unlikely it's going to convert at a level where they'll be happy. The competative terms are going to be extremely hard to show any progress on...oh, and this is a brand new domain. Am I being overly pessimistic here?

[veridicus]

Well they're not going to change the product they sell, so their search terms can't change much. They should easily get first-page results on the rarely searched terms. I think you should just lay it on the line like that and explain the situation. They have to choose what to do from there.

As a software developer I get requests all the time for things that take a lot of work but little payoff. And they think everything is easy to do. So we just explain it as easily as we can and let them decide. If they walk away frustrated it's their problem because they want the impossible.

[cimmeron]

true - and I feel like I do lay it on the line, but it's like they don't listen. Only later do they come back and complain. I guess it's like that with everything, though. Thanks for your post!

[krakrazor]

Tell them to just start using a thesaruros and find new words.

[searchbliss]

Tell them exactly what you posted here, then help them find better keywords to target, like "sales training" and "sales jobs". You did mention they sell "sales training tools" right? Well then people get "sales training" and then can find "sales jobs".

Overture keyword searches last month:
sales training: 31628
sales jobs: 13139

[petertdavis]

Are you sure the keywords won't convert well? Sometimes its the most obscure keywords that are the most productive. There's less competition, for sure, and people drilling down to obscure keywords in their search are probably more likely to be motivated buyers. How much each sale is worth to them is just as relevant as how many people search on the keyword, and the conversion rate. One sale a month that brings in $10,000 in revenue would be a welcome addition to most small businesses, for example.

[Sharpseo]

If the searches are really low, it might be a waste of time to focus on those KWs. Like Peter said, though - sometimes highly focused, but low traffic terms can provide a great ROI.

It's hard to say without seeing the data, of course. But, a good SEO campaign should cause an increase in traffic from all kinds of phrases and kws, including intentional targets and lots of others.

[zivkovicp]

I think it's always worth optimizing for any keywords you can EASILY get top page rankings for. The reason being that even one extra sale will often justify the *tiny* little bit of effort it took to rank.

Once you've taken care of the easy stuff, go after the big terms. Did you also explain to them that they can have *instant* traffic via PPC ads? This is also a good option.

A lot of people like the idea of spending cash on instant PPC traffic while they wait for the organic traffic. Also the extra traffic will give you an opportunity to optimize the SALES COPY! A lot of traffic is useless if it can't convert.

So to recap:
- optimize for the easy stuff
- start optimizing for the tough stuff
- PPC
- Convertion testing/optimising
- Enjoy the free traffic!

Pete.

[EricBlackwell]

Here's a way that I talk with clients about Search Engine Marketing. Traffic x Conversion Rate =Revenue-Cost = Return. Build them a pro forma and explain why search engine marketing will be great for them or not.
Additionally, I agree with the above posts that say that kw that have limited traffic are often the BEST in terms of ROI. Free traffic is GOOD.

Regards

Eric