SEOnotes

SEO is not a grand grand field. It involves careful study, and an honest gauge of what is achievable and what is not. So before you aim at that generic, lucrative keyword, take a step back and find out if it’s really lucrative.

The key? Know which court you’re supposed to play at. Are you ready for the big players’ court? Sometimes it’s wiser to bring your game in that little (yet thriving) court if you really want your website to sell. Go for the conquerable niche rather than aiming for that big big playing field, where you are but a small participant.

Take this scenario:

I want to rank for the keyphrase: web design specialist. Overture returns with results of about 401 searches last January 2007, and now with 65,600,000 competitors in Google’s SERPs.

But if I focus on my primary target market say, web specialist Philippines – I’d get an estimated 108 searches (Overture, Jan 2007), but with fewer and more forgiving number of competitors in the SERPs of about 1,270,000 (Google).

Keyphrase                               Search Volume        Competition

web design specialist                 401                           65,600,000

web specialist Philippines           104                           1,270,000

If you wish to go further, check out the Page Rank (PR) of the top 10 websites appearing as you search for your main keyword. That’ll say if your key phrase is worth the fight.

The key is to find your niche. In this particular case, the Philippine web industry is the focus. Next step is to study the market online, know who’s competing, and with what keywords, then strategize.

It’ll save you a considerable amount of time, effort, and frustration.

Sometimes it’s more worthwhile to make it big in the small court.