Popular Keywords vs. Less Popular Ones

[americana]

Hi everyone. I have a dilema (yet another one) - I'm trying to decide whether or not to use highly searched keywords (phone recorder) as opposed to words that are searched less frequently (telephone recorder) on our homepage. I don't know if it's being too optimistics to think that we can eventually rank in the top 10 for very highly searched words... any thoughts? My initial thought is to have it changed to phone recorder and go for it, but I'm torn on this one and need some ideas.

[fathom]

Hi everyone. I have a dilema (yet another one) - I'm trying to decide whether or not to use highly searched keywords (phone recorder) as opposed to words that are searched less frequently (telephone recorder) on our homepage. I don't know if it's being too optimistics to think that we can eventually rank in the top 10 for very highly searched words... any thoughts? My initial thought is to have it changed to phone recorder and go for it, but I'm torn on this one and need some ideas.

I would suggest going for "phone" which if you actually do rank on this then "telephone" would become easier as well.

Note: attempt to develop links to your website with "phone" in it - (I'm assuming the recorder part is included).

[americana]

Thanks, Fathom. That's what I was thinking too.

[Jeremy21b]

A major part of my search engine strategy is to monitor results and adapt as necessary. I would go for your more competitve term 'phone recorder' and just see if you can rank well for that term. If you just cannot crack the top 10 for that search term, settle for the next best term for now. Perhaps you could optimize it for phone recorder, but also optimize for 'telephone' but not as heavily. You could end up with a decent ranking for telephone recorder to get traffic in the meantime. Don't forget about optimizing subpages, as any less competitve terms could just be targeted with a subpage instead of the homepage.

[Dave Hawley]

You should be targetting all keywords/phrases the apply. not on one page, but set a page for each. Do make each page unique and focused on the keyword/phrase.

Your homepage should be one of your pages that brings in the least *direct traffic from SE*.

[Mel]

You should be targetting all keywords/phrases the apply. not on one page, but set a page for each. Do make each page unique and focused on the keyword/phrase.

Your homepage should be one of your pages that brings in the least *direct traffic from SE*.

IMO the home page can and should be used to bring traffic from search engines, as it is usually the most linked to page on the site (both internally and externally)and thus potentially the most powerful.

My advice is to use all the tools available to you including your home page.

[Dave Hawley]

My advice is to use all the tools available to you including your home page.

No argument there. But that's not the same as what I suggested.

A Homepage is like the cover on a book. No real content just an intro and taste of what the site is about. If you rely on your homepage for most traffic, one day it will likey drop in position (lot's a reasons why) and you are then up &*^% creek without a paddle.

It is VERY GOOD practice (and insurance) to aim for 1000 per day visits from 100 pages over 1000 visits from one page!

[Mel]

Using your home page effectively does not mean you have to ignore the rest of the pages in your site, just that its one of the best pages you hav, so why waste it?

[Dave Hawley]

Mel, you are trolling again. I never said, or even hinted, that one should "waste" their homepage.

[Mel]

No Dave you didn't but I did!

A Homepage is like the cover on a book. No real content just an intro and taste of what the site is about

IMO a home page without good solid optimized content is wasted. YMMV