Translate Topics Into Keyphrases that Attract At Least Moderate Search Activity
To create multiple entrances to your website, each page of your site should be optimized for a different keyphrase. But avoid the temptation to optimize for a keyphrase that attracts either too few or too many internet searches.
For instance, suppose you invested a full day to carefully craft the world's greatest webpage on literacy rates among Norwegian Americans in Illinois. Further suppose that you were rewarded for your effort by achieving the top position at Google for the search term "Norwegian American Literacy Rates." From an advocacy perspective, what would you have accomplished? Not much. Because virtually no one uses Google to search for information on "Norwegian American Literacy Rates."
Similarly, don't bother optimizing a webpage for a highly popular keyphrase, such as "mortgage rates," unless you have a considerable budget to support your search engine optimization with advertising and link building. Very popular keyphrases usually attract intense competition from internet professionals with a strong commercial interest. They're tough to beat.
The sweet-spot is the middle-ground. If you're relatively new to search engine optimization, I recommend targeting keyphrases that attract between 10,000 and 100,000 internet searches per month.
Keep in mind, just because 10,000 people seek information about a search term, that doesn't mean you'll get that many click-thrus. In fact, you'll be fortunate if 5% of the people who see your listing in Google's search results actually click-thru to your website. Then, once at your website, you'll be doing very well if 10% of those visitors follow-through on your call-to-action.
Here's the optimistic math:
10,000 searchers x 5% click-thrus x 10% conversions = 50 actions
Your click-thru and conversion rates will vary from this example. With 10,000 searches per month, maybe your top spot at search engines will drive just 25 actions per month. So, a keyphrase that attracts only 700 searches won't have much impact. The point is that search engine optimization is not worth your effort for keyphrases that attract relatively few searches.
At the other extreme, you're unlikely to rank on the first page of search results at Google for any keyphrase that attracts more than 100,000 searches per month. For instance, even if your website is listed as the 145th search result at Google for a very popular search term, very few people will ever see, let alone click-thru to, your listing.
To determine search activity, use Yahoo's Keyword Selector Tool (http://inventory.overture.com). That tool reports how many web users searched at Yahoo for any given keyphrase during a recent month.
Since Yahoo accounts for approximately 25% of the search engine traffic, multiply their search results by 4 to get a good estimate of total US search activity for a given keyphrase.
