How to Increase Traffic to your Blog: The Niche keyword
- Last week I wrote a blog post about how to do SEO, by yourself. I touched on the importance of keywords so as follow up, I wanted to dive deeper into the concept. We’ll start by addressing the word “keyword.”
It’s really the antithesis of SEO because it leads you to believe that we’re just talking about one word around which to base all of your content. In most cases, you’ll get nowhere with one word, there’s just too much competition. Today we’re throwing the tricks of the SEO trade out of the window and getting back to the basics to remind ourselves that, aside from stellar content, increasing traffic to your blog is all about the niche keyword.
The goal is to find the “word” (more typically a phrase) that is so niche to your site that very few people use it but just enough people search it, bringing them directly to your site.
If your company has a blog, you are in an excellent position to increase traffic to your blog via search because blogs provide a way for you to get to the top of search results for multiple keyword phrases. Here’s why: Search engines judge each of your blog posts as a new page. If every one of your pages used the same keyword phrase, you would be continuously competing against yourself and losing your niche. By choosing a new phrase each time, you have endless opportunities to get to the top of search results for a variety of niche phrases.
For example: Don’t Drink the Koolaid Blog is all about marketing. Our keyword phrases may include things like: “search engine marketing,” “public relations” and “San Diego advertising.” But those are so broad they wouldn’t get us very far. So, rather than focus our efforts on words that would cause us to compete with every marketing site in the world, we write posts about very specific things like eco-friendly marketing tips, how to use Google Analytics and social media for non-profits. After all, those terms like public relations are going to be included naturally, and naturally, Google will count them towards our SEO.
So next time you write a post, think to yourself, what would someone search that would lead to this post specifically? It may not be what everyone searches, but for those that do search it, they will be your perfect target demographic. That is the essence of the niche keyword phrase and this is what will increase the traffic to your blog.
Lizzie,
Great post. You’re 10000% correct–and this works.
For example, any time a SKLZ Team Member goes to a trade show we have a strict never-enforced rule that they post upon their return (we also try to get them to post a pre-event blog, that never happens amidst all the packing). The strategy being that we want anyone searching on the web for that specific trade show, now or in the future, to learn about SKLZ. Maybe they’ll visit our booth next year.
If you Google “nation’s best sports show” or “ABCA Show” you’ll see top ranking for the following links to our company blog:
http://practiceplaywin.com/sayz/2010-abca-show-lightning-bolt-pitching-machine-a-huge-hit
http://practiceplaywin.com/sayz/nations-best-sports-2009-fall-show
We have found that most Trade Shows are ownable niche keywords because by and large there is not an extensive online presence for sports-related trade shows, yet. Good luck trying to dominate the keyword “Blogworld”!
Thanks Scott! That’s a great strategy, and it sounds like you were smart enough to take the time to find your niche.
And HA! You’re right, that strategy won’t quite cut it in these parts!
Lizzie´s last blog ..How to Increase Traffic to your Blog: The Niche keyword
Your article makes a lot of great points, Lizzie. Especially with a good social media base to drive users to search, super specific keywords are a necessity!
I have been researching this for a very long time now and I have not been able to find such top quality information untill I came to your blog today.
Mark McCulloch
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