A few months back I wrote a blog about aligning independent recruiting with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (referred to as “the keyword that shall not be named” moving forward). Boy, was that a mistake! Not that the content wasn’t good or the topic wasn’t interesting, but it generated so much traffic to NPA’s blog that was completely irrelevant because of the use of “the keyword that shall not be named.”
Below are the reasons the use of “the keyword that shall not be named” turned out to be a disaster.
- It drove the wrong traffic – the people who searched for “the keyword that shall not be named” and found my blog post were not actually looking for it. For the most part, they were probably looking for a definition or the history of “the keyword that shall not be named”
- It was unintended – “the keyword that shall not be named” was not used intentionally to increase traffic, but by using such a well known topic, it literally became the focus keyword. It probably didn’t help that I used “the keyword that shall not be named” in the title of the blog post.” I definitely wouldn’t suggest doing that.
- It skewed our website analytics – everything from page views, to bounce rates, to duration on our website, to engagement was out of whack due to the high volume of bad traffic caused by this particular blog. Eventually we decided to remove the post from our website and it took several months for us to recover and receive accurate analytics.
- The topic was too broad – “the keyword that shall not be named” is taught in grade school and high school and for the most part is a topic searched upon far more broadly than the content we write about to attract independent recruiters. By including “the keyword that shall not be named” in a blog post, I would venture to guess that the majority of the traffic I generated was from students doing research or looking for more information on “the keyword that shall not be named” and not on “independent recruiters” which was the keyword I used for the blog post.
If I had to do it all over again, I might consider writing on the same topic but I would definitely not include “the keyword that shall not be named” in the title of the blog and also do a little keyword testing to see if “the keyword that shall not be named” was overshadowing the intended keyword of “independent recruiters.” Keyword Best Practices: Part II of the Seven Habits of Highly Successful Search Engine Marketing might help to point you in the right direction as you navigate the keyword seas.
Share this post with your fellow independent recruiting colleagues and keep them from making the same mistake I did!