I'm #1 but I Don't Get Traffic
A Cre8asite Forums member was very happy with herself when she realized that she hit the #1 position for a search phrase that had over 70 million results. Who wouldn't be? That takes a lot of time and effort...
But then she analyzed her logs. She got no traffic. Zilch.
And why? When looking at the results on Google for the same phrase, the competition was Microsoft, government sites, and universities.
And then she looked further. Apparently, using a keyword research tool, she discovered that nobody searches for that term anyway!
What are the takeaways? If rankings are even on the radar for you, do the keyword research first.
Now that you're in the #1 spot, take advantage of it without compromising it. Optimize that page better for more targeted results. It can be a lot of fun and a challenge at the same time.
Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.
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Tamar Weinberg in Search Engine Optimization at January 11, 2008 10:17 AM
Comments (7)

Comments
Oh how true that is. Keyword research is important, very important. Finding what people are actually looking for is probably the most important factor.
I even sometimes will beg to differ that being #2 or #3 will drive more traffic than being #1.
A good catch though, so a suggestion to everyone, like Tamar says, choose your keywords carefully which you want to optimize for.
Posted by Jonathan Dingman at January 11, 2008 10:34