The Economy of Words

While you don’t need anyone to tell you we are in an economic recession, you may need a little help choosing the best ways for your business to respond to it.  As an e-commerce store owner, you have a vested interest in the needs, desires and economic condition of every current and potential customer.  You are in a unique position to speak to the needs of the public – and they are still searching for you!  It’s just going to take a little extra effort on your end to be sure you haven’t hidden too well.

Let’s assume you sell wedding favors.  After consulting the popular keyword research tool SEO Book, I find that the term “Cheap Wedding Favors” is the second most popular variation of the greater term “wedding favors” that people are searching for.  This keyword is a solid choice for several reasons – because it is searched often, because it addresses the average consumer’s need to save money, and because it contains the greater keyword, “wedding favors”.  By creating high-quality content for the keyword “cheap wedding favors” we could also potentially increase our rankings for “cheap wedding”, making this keyword selection quite the multi-tasker!

We would never recommend that Prada throw the word “affordable” or “cheap” in front of their descriptions – it not only won’t entice their target market, but it is a fairly irrefutable falsehood.  However, if your prices are average or below average for your industry, and you want to attract a larger potential consumer base, while addressing their advanced efforts at finding the best price, you might have some content tweaking ‘in store’ for you!

Are you afraid words like cheap, discount, and wholesale will make your products appear shoddy, or negatively influence the way consumers view your site?  If you are legitimately a luxury goods site, this may not be a route you want to take.  As I mentioned with Prada above, there are brands and businesses for whom “discount” just won’t work.  However, adding a well-targeted selection of these words, and implementing them properly, should not turn anyone away.

We don’t advocate shouting, “CHEAP, DISCOUNT, SAVE LOTSA MONEY, WOO-HOO!!!”, with caps and flashy graphics.  For the keyword mentioned above, “cheap wedding favors”, an optimal way to integrate it might read best like this: “We are proud to offer cheap wedding favors that don’t sacrifice quality in the name of saving cash.  Carefully selected cheap wedding favors can add the same amount of class and charm to your guest’s tables as their more expensive counterparts, while allowing you to spend more money on your honeymoon!”  Essentially, appeal not only to your customer’s need to save money, but also reassure them that your products are well-designed, and end on a positive note.

If you tweak a little here and there, and do so with well-written content, you also have the added benefit of a ‘fresher’ site.  And at the end of the recession, when we will hopefully all be breathing a lot easier, we will be looking to save money to put toward “Happy Stronger Economy” parties!

For more information on SEO recession strategies, visit http://searchengineland.com/7-recession-strategies-for-b2b-seo-15185.php