"This is a really important keyword to rank for"

The following conversation contains scenes of SEO nudity, and may not be suitable for the easily offended, the SEO ignorant, or most CEOs. Reader discretion may be advised.

The names and personal details have been changed to protect the clueless.

MeansWell: “Okay, but this one, this one here, this is a really important keyword for us.”

Me: “Great, let me look into that.”

MeansWell: “Okay… but what’s to look into? It’s an important keyword. In fact it’s our most important keyword. We have to be in first place.”

Me: “That’s fine, but I’d like to research how many people may be searching for it, and also get a feel for who’s ranking above your company and why.”

MeansWell: “I can see who’s ranking above our company. I don’t care why, I just want them to be below us.”

Me: “What you see in your browser isn’t necessarily what most people will see when searching for this keyword. For a start you’re…”

MeansWell: “I don’t care about that. I care that whenever I search for this keyword I see Wikipedia in first place – they’re not selling this product, we are. And underneath Wikipedia I see [name of company who’ve been online and selling the product for 15 years]. I need to be on top of them.”

Me: “Let me look into it and get back to you with some solid numbers. I suspect there are…”

MeansWell: “Dave, you’re not hearing me. This is a really important keyword to rank for. We get this and we’re happy. Before Google took the keywords away [his words not mine] this was our main keyword. This one generated the traffic. This has to be our keyword.”

I can’t tell you how many variations of this conversation I’ve had over the last ten years or so.

I can, however, give you some sharp, pointy spears to throw at people next time you’re exposed to these arguments – even if they come from yourself.

Ranking position is subjective – what you see in your browser will depend on your geographical location, whether or not you’re logged in and your search history. Use a more reliable service such as Google Search Console or Moz. Bonus tips: (a) never forget what the word average means and (b) short-term fluctuations are common and to be expected.

Keywords that generate traffic are only half the story – there are also other keywords that you should be getting traffic for but you’re not. These of course will not show up as clicks. Bonus tip: impressions in your Google Search Console account may be enlightening.

What’s above you matters – if you’re consistently ranking in 2nd place for the name of a product you sell, and the number 1 spot is taken by Wikipedia, that’s okay. They don’t sell the product – you do. Bonus tip: setting a goal to out-rank your competition for specific keywords may be realistic. If the competition is Wikipedia this may be like trying to throw pebbles at the moon.

BIG TIP: Targeting the wrong keywords is one of the most common SEO mistake that I see. It’s impossible to guess the terms that people may use to try and find what you sell, and even a little surface scraping should produce some eye-opening facts. Data always wins over intuition and the obvious.

Todays SEO post was bought to you by years of frustration.