Win with Less Popular Keywords
More Competitive Keywords Are Lucrative but Harder to Conquer
May 24, 2009
Less competitive keywords might look like a poor relative in comparison to more competitive keywords but when a web master has in mind how many other web masters are optimizing for the more competitive keywords, optimizing for less competitive keywords becomes a very realistic choice.
Why Do Less Popular Keywords Matter?
When a SEO expert uses keyword search and keyword suggestion tools, her or she is usually attracted by the big fish – i.e. the most popular keywords in a given niche – i.e. keywords with millions of searches a month. It might look it is more feasible to optimize for more competitive keywords because the money is there, but this is not exactly so.
In most cases less popular keywords still have a significant search volume. A less competitive keyword is not a keyword with no competition, it is simply a keyword, where the competition is not as fierce as with more competitive keywords. In some cases even keywords with less than 1,000 global searches a month deserve attention. This is valid especially for terminology from different areas, where simply there is no impressive search volume because the audience is very limited.
One of the obvious reasons why it is easier win with less competitive keywords is that there is much less competition. This means that with much less effort and money, it is possible to get top rankings with search engines. What is more, it is not enough only to top search results but to retain the position there. Long-term top positions for more competitive keywords are expensive and in many cases the cost of keeping them could be prohibitive.
Less Competitive Keywords Bring Traffic
Optimizing for less competitive keywords is cheaper and easier but the downside is that even top positions with search engines bring much less traffic than more popular keywords. In a sense, it is like the dilemma: “What is better: to be young and rich or old and poor?” However, unlike the dilemma, it is not a win-win versus loss-loss situation because less popular keywords still do drive traffic. And this traffic could be quite impressive!
When visitors are driven to a site because they have come as a result of clicking a link optimized for a minor keyword, they still count as visitors. If the content on the site is interesting, these visitors will browse many other pages, which also means more traffic for the site. The key is to retain visitors once they have come to the site.
Another important issue to consider is how to choose less competitive keywords to optimize for. If the less competitive keywords are well chosen, the benefits could be quite tangible.
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