Should you target (loosely) related keywords?
by Josiah Mackenzie on December 13, 2008
2 Comments
2 Comments
- Image via Wikipedia
As part of our search marketing work with Gradigio clients, we build a large list of keywords. Typically, these will fall into 1 of 3 categories:
- Broad, obvious ones (“San Francisco hotel”)
- Longer, more targeted phrases (“Best San Francisco boutique hotel”)
- Other, less related keywords (such as names of competing hotels or other travel-related terms)
Occasionally, a client will wonder why we’re targeting related terms.
“We don’t want to advertise for that term! That’s not how we would describe ourselves!”
So why do we do this? There are two reasons for using a broader phrase such as “San Francisco trip ideas” or the name of a competitor:
- If that’s what potential guests use to find hotels, then that’s the keyword you need to target. (This highlights the importance of using the right research and analysis tools.)
- Related terms will often be less competitive, driving more traffic to you for less resources
Remember who owns the search page. Focus your search marketing efforts on what trip planners already search for – not what you want them to search for.
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Article by Josiah Mackenzie // December 13, 2008
Josiah helps hospitality organizations use technology and the social web to provide better service and generate more profits.
+1 347 422 6784
I often try to reason with Hotel owners, trying to explain to them that the Hotel is not the primary reason they came to the city. Often Hotels beliefs and behavior represent their Hotel as the reason to visit a place when really not the primary reason.
More or less if they believed in helping client to find tour or even their competition, they would be rewarded by more clients.
Andy CEO of Free Encyclopedia of Travel Rooms
Very Nice.. And very true. The long keywords or the phrases are more useful to market the site online. Actually its not only in hotel industry, but i have seen this in mostly every industry. Shorter can bring traffic but can’t get good business traffic..