Most people type things just as they would say them and with some creative thinking you can use this to your advantage in order to get around the rising cost of keywords. Things like misspellings, offensive language and colloquial language in particular are often being overlooked.

“While some obvious search words will remain expensive, the art of search engine advertising lies in finding those alternative words that are just as effective but cost a lot less”

Steven Power, CEO of ReachLocal

For example instead of searching for “cosmetic surgery” the user may instead search for the term “boob job” or “face lift” or instead of “waxing” they may search for the term “brazilian”. Now compared to the term “cosmetic surgery”, “boob job” is much cheaper keyword. It is especially important to consider colloquialism or slang when targeting specific countries as not only can you find cheaper keywords but also gain more traffic. For example in Australia the word “thongs” means something very different to what it means in a country like America. The American equviliant to the word “thongs” is “flip flops”. Another word not used in America but widely used in England is “ballocks” which is said when someone is annoyed or in disbelief.

Recent figures show that search engine advertising will grow by 31.6 per cent each year from 2007 to 2011 and with this growth smaller business will continue to be priced out of the market unless they branch out and start thinking outside of the generic, high priced keywords.

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