Alright! You know what I’ve noticed?
I’ve noticed there is sort of an unawareness of how targeting keywords translates into traffic for one’s website.
You know, us SEOs, we always suggest having targeted keywords.
We always suggest tracking the keywords we’re targeting.
But how does this lead into traffic?
Let’s talk about this!
Let’s deep dive into this!
I’m going to break this down looking at keywords from Google’s point of view, a website’s point of view, and also, a searcher’s point of view.
And let’s use a singular keyword as an example.
Let’s use the keyword ‘online banking’.
A website about banking wants to improve the organic traffic they receive.
The site has not been optimised – i.e. an SEO person has not worked on the site – at all.
The site has been recommended to target several terms, including the term ‘online banking’.
Now, as an example only, let’s say this keyword has an average monthly search volume of 10K.
How does this banking website benefit by targeting this keyword ‘online banking’?
Okay. This is the set-up.
Let’s look at this keyword from a searcher’s point of view.
A searcher Googles ‘online banking’.
What they expect Google to provide is a list of websites that are about online banking.
They expect Google to show them the most relevant websites, and present them, based on what they think is the most appropriate for this search term.
Now, let’s jump to Google’s point of view on this keyword.
For Google to adequately serve the searcher, searching for ‘online banking’, they must interpret what the searcher wants when they search with this keyword.
Google has to make calculations, guided by data.
Calculations that consider what the searcher’s intent is when they search with this keyword.
For example, some questions that will be considered are:
- is the searcher seeking businesses that offer online banking as a service?
- Is the searcher seeking general information around online banking?
- Is the searcher seeking to know how safe it is to bank online?
There’ll be many, many more questions considered.
Why are such questions considered?
They’re considered because they influence the results that are shown to the searcher.
They also influence the content that websites have, and target.
Now, let’s jump to the website’s point of view on this keyword – ‘online banking’.
We’ve established the site is about banking.
As a banking site, seeking to acquire the person searching for ‘online banking’ makes sense.
It’s a match! This is an audience the site would want to attract as a potential customer.
It’s a damn good match!
The question then is, how would the site go about attracting this potential customer to the site, via a search engine – in this case, Google?
This folks, is what SEO is all about!
It’s figuring out what a site would need to do in order to attract searchers to it, via search engines!
You see, there are hundreds of factors that sites need to consider in order to rank well in the SERPs.
This site about banking would need to have certain elements in place, elements that are ranking factors.
Google will judge how this banking site fairs against the ranking factors as part of their process in presenting the site to the searcher searching with the keyword ‘online banking’.
One ranking factor is the literal inclusion of this keyword (‘online banking’) on the website.
And not just on the website, but on the page the website wants ranking for the keyword.
Tell me, why do you think this is a factor…?
Why do you think, a prerequisite for this banking website to be shown to the searcher when they search with the keyword, ‘online banking’, is to have (i.e. target) the term ‘online banking’ on the page they want to be shown to the searcher?
Let’s jump back to Google’s point of view.
Let’s say, instead of the banking website targeting the keyword ‘online banking’ on the page they want to rank for this keyword, they target ‘christmas cards’, instead.
Would Google show this site (this page) to the searcher who expects Google to show them the best, most appropriate sites about ‘online banking’?
They wouldn’t! Why? Because if they did, they wouldn’t be servicing the searcher adequately.
So you see, by this banking website targeting the term ‘online banking’, they show to Google what the site is about.
By targeting this keyword, the site stands a chance in Google ranking the site, and presenting it to the searcher when they search with the keyword.
By targeting this keyword, and ranking well for it, the site stands a chance in the searcher clicking on it when they see it on Google, thereby, visiting the website.
If the keyword, ‘online banking’ has an average monthly search volume of 10K, and the site is able to attain 30% of this search demand, that results in 3K visits a month.
This is from this keyword alone.
What if the site targeted and ranked well for 10 keywords, that all have the same monthly search demand?
What if this were 20 keywords? 50 keywords? 100 keywords?
Do you see the power of search…?
This is why SEOs make recommendations on keywords to target.
It’s a way of building a list. What list? The organic traffic list!
And to take it to an old school marketing saying, the money is in the list!
It becomes a question of how well can you convert the list.
Tell me, with this site about banking, targeting and ranking well for the keyword ‘online banking’, how difficult do you think it will be for the site to convert the traffic attained from this keyword?
Do you see the power of search?
