Single Keyword Obsession Bad for SEO

Companies trying to boost the Google rankings of their websites have been warned that focusing on one or two highly competitive keywords is a poor optimisation strategy and can lead to a loss in profitability.

Good search engine optimisation (SEO) lies in ranking well for a variety of terms, and often ranking for a generic term is less useful than ranking for a less competitive but more detailed key phrase. For example, “cheap car insurance” is a hugely competitive keyword for the insurance industry, but obsessing about ranking on the first page of Google for cheap car insurance is unlikely to be ultimately rewarding.

As online users become more internet savvy in their approach to search engines, relatively few will type “cheap car insurance” into Google. Users know that such a search is unlikely to reward them with the information they want, so will instead refine their search to something more specific, say “cheap car insurance durban”.

These long tail keywords tend to be less competitive, but are also the more successful keywords that bring traffic to a website and converts better. “Often when you look at the big picture all the long tail keyword traffic you helped drive to the site will collectively drive much more traffic to the site and convert better than the competitive broad term that became an obsession.