I want to be found on … error!

By Henk-Jan • februari 19th, 2008

When you are constructing a website or an ecommerce site you want that visitors could find your site by a number of keywords.

For example: You have an ecommerce site for laptops. You hope new visitors will find your site when they search for “laptops”.

I am sure, this sounds quite rational.

Although, a big mistake is being made here!! There is a big difference between “wants to be found” and “being found”. Marketing is all about customer desires, not only for promotion but also for keywords.

Let me explain with an example;

Imagine, you saved a few hundred dollars or euros and you want to buy a new laptop. You turn on your old computer and wait for the internet browser. You start the internet and in the upper right, there is your search engine. Which words would you fill in; laptops? Probably not, it’s more likely to fill in something like “laptop buying online” or “cheap computers online” etc.

Does it still sound rational?

It will take a short inquiry to find out what keywords your customers are using. They will search for “computer laptop”, “best laptop”, “cheap laptop” or something like that. Those keywords are the ones how customers will find your site. In the first instance these were not the keywords you were hoping for.

Summary

First you have to make a thorough inquiry to find out your best keywords before you start optimizing your website. There are several tools on the internet to make such an inquiry.

You can also use the free keyword-suggestion tool. Remember, think like a customer, and use his keywords.

There is also another advantage. More often it is much easier to score with your new keywords than for example the keyword “laptop”. So it is a real WINWIN situation.

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