Search Engine Optimisation, in the wrong hands, can turn into fishing.

I had a conversation recently about generating a keyword rich page in a highly competitive space. Even if we didn’t get page one, or two, or three of Google, some people might find the site and then, perhaps, might decide to buy some products.

Really? Would they? Sounds like fishing to me. We’re dropping our bait into an incredibly busy river (there are LOTS of fishermen here!) hoping that a fish might not only see our bait, but also like it. Like it more than all the other bait they’ve seen already.

The first problem with this approach is that it is almost infinite. You could create ‘keyword rich’ (ooh, I hate that phrase) pages for all of your products and services, and their related phrases, and hope that some of them get noticed.

There’s no denying that this can and does work. It’s a tried and trusted formula for limited success. My main problem with it, however, is that it is not user centric. We are not asking the question, “what do our users expect to find when they search for that phrase”.

For example, if we were a tennis ball manufacturer we could create a page for the phrase “Wimbledon 2009″. Granted, some people searching that phrase might want to buy tennis balls – but the chances are they want information on the tournament. We could even include some wonderful keyword rich paragraphs about Wimbledon but, unless we’re Slazenger, it’s unlikely this text will be of value for the user.

Another example might be a car insurance provider optimising for ‘Toyota Prius’, because the person searching either  has a car or is about to buy one. Surely they’ll need car insurance at some point too? Maybe, but that’s not what they’re searching for!

I guess that doesn’t stop car insurers sponsoring motor shows, but isn’t a point of the online marketing that we can accurately target people and their interests?

There is also a (please don’t run away here) moral issue. Google is, in many ways, a victim of it’s own success. As SEOs try to keep up with the algorithm, and websites vie for a page one ranking, all kinds of SEO’d content is being created which can be of no use to users. What use is a visitor to you and your site? Vanity? Ego? Would you rather have 1000 visitors who don’t convert or 10 visitors who do?

How many results on page one of Google are directly targeting your search phrase, and how many have been SEO’d to appear there?

This, my friends, is fishing. If you have the time, go nuts. But there are far better things to do. Seriously. You need to get out more.

Throw away your rod, get up off the riverbank, and go hunting.

You know who your prey are – people who want to buy tennis balls. Optimise for phrases like ‘tennis balls’ and ‘buy tennis balls’ (or whatever your keyword research suggests). It’ll be much easier to get a good result on Google, and it’s likely you’ll enjoy much higher conversion rates.

So sling your shotgun over your arm and spend your SEO time more effectively. Don’t waste time competing with the BBC’s coverage of Wimbledon and settling for a page 3 or page 4 result. Go deep and long with your phrases and links, and (last pun coming up) your conversion rates will be an ACE.

That was shocking, I know.