For more than a year now, I’ve been having this strange love-hate relationship with my job. (Yes, job. Thought it was something else, didn’t you?) Committed, but strange. It’s not actually with the work I have now or the company I work for, but the nature of my job. There are times that I love SEM and I can’t get enough of it; other times, I hate it and I don’t want to hear, speak, or even think a single thing about it! I can think of 3 things that usually causes my temporary strong feeling of dislike: 1) Pressure at work, 2) Information Overload, and 3) Weariness.
Right now I think I’m experiencing #3. I’m tired of thinking of other ways to make this particular website rank on the generic keywords selected by the client — which are really competitive ones by the way. Apparently, we have to try to do what the client wants us to do however absurd it is. Never mind that it’s a competitive keyword phrase, as long as we do it. So I did what I was told to do (since that’s what I’m supposed to do: follow orders. hehe!), but I made it clear from the start that they must not expect positive results. They can hope profusely though.
The customer is always right…. Until he is not.
While I am still in the middle of working on that task.. another request from a clueless client arrives:
…in searching specific keywords, i would like our site to come out with certain search words such as: angeles, manila, diving, golf, etc.
Keep in mind that our client is a hotel. And their owner or manager wishes to rank on those one-word keywords. Fun, huh?
I could’ve just shut up and did my job anyway even though I know for a fact that it’s not gonna work, but the new request is gonna put my ass on the line if I had just simply said yes. I won’t even attempt or imagine that I’ll do it, because I’m 100% positive that it’s just gonna be useless. (No good can come out of this, do you hear me!!) So, I politely, carefully, and calmly composed an e-mail..
We can try to target these keywords (angeles, manila, diving, golf) but 3 things come to mind as to why I believe this won’t be a good move:
1. Most of the keywords given by the hotel are one-word keywords. Considering our recent leap-of-faith optimization task alone, I think we can pretty much say now that targeting 2-word keywords is mind-boggingly difficult; let alone, targeting several 1-word keywords. Also, the hotel wants the website to rank on the keywords “diving” and “golf”. I see this as (almost) impossible because these are very generic keywords. We can create optimized copies and pages for them, build more links, but I believe the effort will just be in vain. This definitely requires more than just a leap of faith. hehe!
2. People searching for keywords such as diving, angeles, etc. may not necessarily be seeking hotel reservations. If it’s okay to say this, I’m almost sure that a person who entered “angeles”, “diving”, or “golf” in the search engine query is NOT looking for a hotel in *****. Because if he/she was looking for a hotel, then naturally, a more relevant keyword search would have been more useful. Also, the results for the keyword “golf” will not only generate a list of websites that are related to “golf courses”, but also “golf tournaments”, “golf stores”, “golf equipments”, “golf trivia”, “golf clubs”, “golf players”, and so on.
3. What can only happen from the hotel’s request is added traffic. But since our company recently set a target conversation ratio, attracting more visitors who are unlikely to book anyway will just add to the hotel’s bounce/exit rate. The impression bounce rates create might also contribute to the decrease of hotel name’s reputability; and making our goal of reaching a 2.5% conversion rate an even harder job.
Overall, we will not neglect the hotel’s request. The keywords are perfect to showcase the hotel’s vicinity and activities that can be done during one’s stay. In the long run, they might prove useful not for SEO purposes, but for the simple usability reason that they were itemized
(Note: E-mail edited for confidentiality’s sake)
In other words, “No, it’s not a good idea!” LOL. :P I have spoken my piece and I meant every word. Fortunately, our team leader is just the kindest! She said it’s fine and that she’ll just relay the message.
That’s just one slice of the pie to give you an idea of what I do. There are 7 other slices that cause me stress everyday. LOL. :D Nevertheless, even though this is mostly the case for me, I still do love SEM. I still believe I couldn’t have landed in a better, more promising line of work. It’s just that, sometimes I can also get sick and tired…
LOL. Anuba talagaaaah? :P
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Joni, chika lang to.. speaking of website rank and/or visibility, may bagong pamatay na hirit si oliver and ivan sa clients.
Oliver: ye know, it’s the search engine’s decision because they have formulas whether to put your site on the first page or not.
Ivan: actually, these pages are not for the people. they’re for the spiders!
hahaha. i’d say you better stick to what you know than listen to what these experts are saying. hehe. LOL
HUWAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHA!!!! PANALO!! LALO NA SI IVAN!! HAHAHAHAHA! ANO BAH, NATATAWA AKO DITO MAG-ISA, HAHAHAHA!! :biggrin:
ka-miss din ang dalawang mokong na yan..hehehe! haayness. :)
I can definitely feel your pain, and you aren’t alone in your feelings.
It doesn’t help matter when clients don’t understand how difficult optimizing for keywords..especially single ones can be.
I hope that you have a great day!
Regards,
Heather
once upon a time, naging seo specialist din ako…at masakit sa ulo, yoko na..magdedesign n lang ako, hehe!
HAHAHA DABEST SI IVAN HAHAHAH anubeee!!! :) buhay pa rin yang mga yan??!! :))
LOL. by the way, ang sipag mong mag blog ha. at ang sipag mag explain. haha. if that was me, i’ll reply a two-liner:
Sir, It’s simply not possible. Let me handle this my way, ok?
haha. wah. pagod nako. parang ang saya siguro kung magdedesign nalang din ako. grrr. if only i was more talented sa design pfft.
BREAAAAKK!! I NEED A BREAAAKK!! TARA JONI!!!
ako rin! masakit sa ulo seo hahahaha parang ang komplikado masyado :P
I want to learn SEO. (Geek. :P) I want to improve my designs too. :-B
Anyway, since I can’t relate to SEO talk and such…I’ll comment on the entire job weariness thing. I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL. I think mine is in a different level (as what you probably read in my Passions post). Like what I mentioned there, it’s not that I hate my job; I just don’t like it. And there lies a problem that should be fixed…because if I don’t like it, then why am I still here?
[I could go on and on and on and on about this, but I won't because i have to get back to work]
Haha, but then again, you love your job, but because we’re humans, we all get weary at times. :) The thing is, you still love it, and you’ll keep coming back to it (I sense a song here somewhere).
Break daw sabi ni Riz? Nagyayaya si Aileen (Google Philippines) sa Galera! =) March 3-4! :D 2K lang per head. :P It’s on her blog! Haha TARA! =)
in fairness naiintindihan ko na ang mga SEo talks ha. :yuck: grabe one word keywords. para na rin nyang sinabing nagsasayang sila ng pera. hahah.
waaah agree ako. bago pa lang ako nag SEO pero wahh kapagod talaga minsan. para syang drugs na you can’t get enough kahit na it’s bad for you. hahahaha.
eto lng sabihin mo sa client mo:
NEK-NEK nyong lahat!!! :cute:
[Comment ID #3882 Will Be Quoted Here]
Yeah, some clients are just so clueless! Thanks for dropping by. grin
[Comment ID #3890 Will Be Quoted Here]
Hahaha! Tama, magdesign na lang! Sa totoo lng, dream job ko rin webdesign eh… Sana someday pwede pa pag naisipan kong magshift ng career..wahahaha! feeling! :cute:
[Comment ID #3897 Will Be Quoted Here]
Wala lng, bored lng ako riz. haha! yeah, nakakamiss sila Ivan no? Kelan tayo date? kelangan na natin mag-unwind naman!! Sobra na to! :D
[Comment ID #3898 Will Be Quoted Here]
Korak! Oist, Mae, designer job samen, baka interested ka? :)
[Comment ID #3903 Will Be Quoted Here]
Oooh. Boracay?? 2K? Pwede na! hahaha! Pag sumama si riz, sasama ako! Game, game!! :) Para maiba naman.. Puro work nlng. :grr:
[Comment ID #3906 Will Be Quoted Here]
Camz, welcome to the twisted world of SEO! Masaya pa din kahit may ups and downs! hehehe. :upsidedown:
[Comment ID #3907 Will Be Quoted Here]
HAHAHA! PATOK! So, kelan mo ko ipa-pirate??? :dead:
[Comment ID #3915 Will Be Quoted Here]
Haha dear, hindi pa Boracay…too soon? Galera muna. Baby steps! :D Next time Boracay. ;)
GAAAME! RIZ SAMA KAAAAAAA. =) One weekend lang!
Wahahahaha! Onga no, GALERA pala nilagay mo. Syaks! Excited na sa ako, akala ko sa Boracay, hahahaha!
Take two:
Oooh. Galera?? 2K? Sakto lang. wa he he he! :P
Hindi naman siguro kailangan ng specialized skill para marealize na mahirap ioptimize ang single keyword. Minamaliit naman ata nila ang size ng www.
Sya nga pala, the 14th is nearing, I guess you could relieve those stress one of these days. Hihihihi.
[Comment ID #3914 Will Be Quoted Here]
okay na ko sa work ko eh… pwede ba part-time? hahaha :D
DARWIN: You’re right. Common sense na dapat nya yun. haha! Oooh. Lapit na Valentine’s! Pampatanggal ba ng stress yun? LOL. So who’s your date on the 14th? :heart: :)
MAE: Hahaha, di pwede part-time. :P O sige, pag nagsawa ka sa work mo ha, samen ka nlng. hehehe. :D