Does your site appear in SERPs for irrelevant keywords?
You may just be attracting the wrong traffic to your blog based on the keywords in your subject titles.
If your blog is ranking for irrelevant keywords, visitors clicking through expecting to find something specific will be disappointed when the post doesn’t reveal just what they were looking for.
Yesterday, I was looking through my Google Analtics when I noticed one of my top keywords was the keyword phrase “Sweet Vagina.”
When I typed “Sweet Vagina” into Google there I was within the first page of the search- six down the page for the phrase.
In fact the phrase brought 65 visits to my blog in the past month. I’m guessing that I disappointed those 65 uses when they learned the post was about vagina lollipops. Considering my bounce rate was pretty high, I knew they visited the page and left.
(What’s a bounce rate you ask? A bounce occurs when the visitor leaves a page on your blog without visiting any other page.)
Visitors landing on the post didn’t want to read about vagina lollipops. By using what I thought was a catchy title, I attracted the “wrong” traffic.
Google picked the words “Sweet” combined with the word “Vagina” in my title tag and decided to rank me well for the keyword phrase “Sweet Vagina.”
Are you attracting the wrong traffic to your blog based on your subject titles?
If you’re ranking for irrelevant keywords, you may want to considering reviewing your posts and removing any unnecessary keywords from your subject title.
Also keep these things in mind:
Try to use keywords relevant to your post.
Keywords that are mentioned at the beginning of the post are given more weight.
The same goes for keywords that are repeated several times throughout the body of the post.
Edit the post slug so that it contains the most important keywords.
Don’t target too many keywords. I made that mistake and it resulted in my ranking for an irrelevant keyword phrase.
Keyword optimization is a lot of work and when it comes to keyword ranking and position you don’t want to be making mistakes that could lose you return visitors.
Are you using the right keywords in your blog subject titles?
If you’re unsure what keywords to use, try WordTracker free Keyword tool.
Rose DesRochersRose wears many hats. She's a wife, mother, respite worker, proud shih-tzu owner, blogger, published poet, freelance writer, as well as the owner and administrator of Today's Writing Community and Blogger Talk Blog Community. Feel free to contact her with any questions you may have.Rose DesRochers has 1216 post(s) at Rose DesRochers – World Outside My Window
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13 responses so far ↓
Wrote: Jan 4, 2010 at 12:01 am
Actually I rank well for other keyword phrases too. Relevant ones! lol
And it had nothing to do with the PR update considering Pagerank is not used by Google to determine your rankings for keywords. Why do I feel like I’m constantly repeating myself here?
Wrote: Jan 4, 2010 at 12:42 am
Sometimes you can’t prevent things like that. After a while you may drop down again reducing the bounce traffic. Funny keyword phrase by the way.
Gordie´s last blog ..Interview With Captain Australia.
Rose DesRochers Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 1:18 am
I changed the title, so once Google updates that post I should no longer be ranking. lol
Wrote: Jan 4, 2010 at 1:27 am
That’s hilarious! I go through phases where I’ll put more effort into choosing keywords and appropriate titles. Lately, I’ve relaxed that rule. When I first started blogging I’d try to be real creative with my headlines until I finally realized it’s not the best way to do things.
Davina´s last blog ..Mother Nature Waits for Nobody
Rose DesRochers Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
It certainly isn’t. Trial and learn!
Wrote: Jan 4, 2010 at 2:43 pm
As long as you keep visiting my blog, that’ll be the right kind of traffic for me.
Good article. I’ve learned about that Keyword tool, thanks
Jannie Funster´s last blog ..Before. Later. And Now.
Rose DesRochers Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Of course! On my way there tonight!
Wrote: Jan 4, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Hi Rose
No comment on the first bit of your post… you’ll get me banned.
Agree totally with what you say about keywords and the position of those keywords.
Title tags, H1 tags, meta tags and towards the beginning of the post.
I usually write my posts without thinking too much about keywords and then add a few on my readthrough.
If I find that the post is not ranked for those keywords, I have my wife read the post and add a few… in a natural way.
Like most things in life, the secret of keywords is “all things in moderation.”
Keith Davis´s last blog ..Ooh la la…
Rose DesRochers Reply:
January 4th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
I only ban trolls, and harassers. If it were really offensive I would likely choose not to publish it and warn the offending party.
Wrote: Jan 5, 2010 at 3:57 pm
“Keywords that are mentioned at the beginning of the post are given more weight.” – Using this method I saved so much time in keyword optimization , I’m ashamed to say it took so long before I noticed this ,I had to redo a lot of posts.
Rose DesRochers Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
I’m still rewriting posts. lol
Wrote: Jan 12, 2010 at 7:01 am
Actually, it wasn’t bounce rate that I was wondering about. Vagina lollipops???? Excuse me, but I must leave this comment now, to search your website for the answer to the question that did pop into my mind, which was, “WTF???”
Ray
Ray´s last blog ..The World’s First …wait for it…Sex Robot
Rose DesRochers Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Ray.. lol.. I see you found the answer.