If you’re new to SEO writing and hiring writers, there’s a big pitfall you should avoid when formulating your SEO strategy. Those with a good deal of experience with SEO know the value of strong SEO keywords and the danger of using the wrong ones. Those with experience will tell you to avoid keywords that are too general. It’s very tempting to use over-generalized keywords in hopes the extra search engine attention will draw traffic to your site, but what good is traffic that doesn’t convert? For example, is your website about weight loss techniques related to a specific type of technique or set of exercises? Use SEO keywords that target that specific technique and the types of results you want.

Avoid misleading keywords that contradict your site’s message. Do you want to draw non-converting traffic from users searching for weight loss techniques your site doesn’t offer? Or would you rather have high-converting traffic from people who are interested in products and services in your area of specialty? Target your audience specifically when creating guidelines for your SEO writers. Sometimes you do want to cast a wide net—if you’re selling widgets, you naturally want to attract a lot of widget buyers. But if your widgets only appeal to a specific segment of that buying market, target those buyers directly and don’t waste time with broader keywords that may draw a lot of non-converting traffic.

Joe Wallace is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch, a full service content marketing agency serving hundreds of clients and thousands of writers since 2000.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 3:00 pm and is filed under SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.