Those who understand ranking on search engines, know that it’s important to get on the 1st or 2nd page of search engine results for a search term that they want to target, whether they spend money on PPC, or attempt to rank organically. What some do not understand is that attempting to rank for vague terms may do more harm than good.
Some distributors spend all of their time trying to rank for these supposed “high search terms” (ie: “promotional products”) without thinking about ROI. What good are these supposed “high search terms” when they create worthless traffic, and make your phone ring off the hook with worthless calls? In reality, they are not “high search terms” – but “highly wasteful” terms. According to google, you will get 75-94 clicks a day if you are going for a term like “promotional products”, and have real deep pockets (Up to $580 / day)
Look at the important data here …75-94 clicks per DAY.. and key phrase “promotional products”. Why would anyone spend time and money ($4-$6 per click) dumping 94 people who searched for “promotional products” onto their site? I hope the page they land on promises them the world, or you just spent $5+ to get them there, only to watch them leave 3 seconds later to find what they were really looking for on your competitors site.
Real buyers aren’t using terms like “promotional products”! Google alone processes something like 300 million online searches per day. Obviously “promotional products” is not a big focus . Not because our industry sucks, but because that is NOT how real people search!
I’ve done a lot of research on our own sites, and have learned a lot about people and how they search. Lets take “stadium cups” for example. In the spring we spend a good bit promoting them. We’ve found that people are not out there looking for “stadium cups” because they don’t use these kind of terms!!! Potential customers are looking for things like “school mascot cup”, ”family reunion cup”, “company picnic cup with logo”. That’s right… these are real people, using real search terms, and we have to remember that!
So to my competition, who are too smart to read my stupid blog, please keep paying for those vague search terms. Your budget will just dry up that much faster, allowing me to land the real business.
We might be marketing online, but that does not remove the human element. Not sure about you, but if I get sick I am searching online for the symptoms, not the diagnosis. If knew the diagnosis, I would not be searching. Your customers are no different. They are the patient out there looking for terms related to their symptom, and you are supposed to the doctor providing the diagnosis. (See! Online marketing isn’t much different, is it? ;) ) Understand the problem, and provide a solution.
We’ll talk more about ranking for search terms in a later post. I hope this post did something for someone, and I look forward to your thoughts and opinions.
Absolutely right on, Chris … only those with deep pockets are going for the broad search terms in this industry and I question even their ROI. Some distributors are having more success using regional ads with broad search terms, but I think we underestimate how people still purchase promotional products. Understanding what the triggers are that cause a client to purchase from a specific distributor is also a part of the diagnostic process. This is a great subject to explore … looking forward to the next post.
Thanks for following and for the recent shout out! I am keeping an eye on your stuff too.
I was just thinking of how to attract new customers so this was very timely and on target.
Thanks!
Very interesting. I would have thought “promotional products” to be the best search term. Reckon your never to old to learn.
Can’t wait to see what you have to say…I like that you don’t walk on eggshells!
Wow, common sense again, don’t stop, a new lesson must be learned everyday for continued success..
I actually use a group of friends who are not familar with our industry to get terms that the average person would use to find items and build from there. To do this, I take an item put it on the table and simply ask them to write down all terms that come to mind that they would use to search. I don’t tell them what the item is, as that would influence their search words.
Good thoughts there Chris. I enjoy reading your stuff. I’d like to hear your thoughts on the technique I use here…when people click on “Improve traffic at tradeshows” they’ll be taken to my website. Does this kind of thing help with search engines? I am not an expert but when I look at how people actually implement keywords on their website – I see a lot of different techniques like this at work.
Cheers!
-Raj
Thank you so much for this! It makes total sense, and I can see where I can make some helpful changes!
I agree with Chris on about 98% of what he wrote. The only thing I disagree with is that Vague words ARE still important. While Chris is right in saying Google has about 300 million searches per day, and “promotional products” is a practically non-visible percent of those searches in the big picture. It IS a very large percentage when it comes to people looking for our products. However, playing it smart the importance of these vague words only imply to ORGANIC results. If you’re using these vague terms in pay per click campaigns you’d be better not using PPC at all, as you’re just throwing money away.
Ryan…. i’ve ranked highly for some pretty decent broad terms and I just don’t think it is worth it. The calls coming in from that are not really the calls I am looking for. Just my opinion though. Thanks for your comments!
You are right on Chris.
simple , common sense thinking is the way to market on the net.
If you work from the customer back, it makes a huge difference in choices we make. I want to recommend Jack Trout’s latest book
” In search of the Obvious” short, simple and at times embarrassing
in the ” what was I thinking ? ” vein.
question…the ads on your site. Do you personally endorse them , or is it just a business deal? just curious
web site is not up yet
Chris… thanks for sharing it with…….
Keywords shall be the key to the DOORSSS and that would work if the KEY is the right one…….
JAMES
Another excellent post Chris. I definitely agree with everything you said, although that’s not coming from a very knowledgeable source in this area! :)
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