SEO Keywords Quick Tip| Broad vs Narrow Keyword Optimization

So you just signed on a new client and you really want to make a big splash in showing your worth. You have looked over your client’s web analytics and you see some keywords that are not being optimized for. The question is do you go for the broad keywords that will bring in much more traffic or hit the narrow keywords? Let’s talk about the pros and cons of each:

Broad Terms:

Pros:

• Can bring big time traffic to a site
• Can define your site with big branding

Cons:

• Much harder to get top spots
• Lots of competition
• Needs to make sense for the visitor
• Less “natural” feel from a search engine’s view
• Tends to less future proof for long term SEO
• Traffic can be less qualified
• Intense link building is a must

   

Narrow Terms:

Pros:

• Much easier to achieve top rankings
• Very qualified
• Link building is much less intense
• Less competition
• Look more “natural” from a search engine’s view
• More future proof for long term SEO

Cons:

• Less traffic
• More SEO effort needed to achieve same results as broad results

So which one do you think I like? Both actually and I will tell you why. I think you need to try and get good placement for broad terms like “golf” or “golf clubs” but place 70% on my time towards the narrow keyword phrases such as “taylor made golf irons”, or “titleist pro v1x golf balls” as more narrow terms get you results quicker and really have a much higher conversion rate. I have seen a lift in conversion rates of up to ten times as those of the broad keyword terms. Think about it for a second. If you were looking for a specific golf ball and did a search for “golf balls” there is a much higher chance that whatever the sites you search might not have the one your looking for but if you were to do a search for “bridgestone golf balls” the sites that show up will almost always have what your looking for.

I think if you look at your SEO strategy more to the narrow than the broad you might not find the need and pressure to do well with the broad terms and should they to achieve good organic rankings for your client’s site then you really will look like a superstar!