Everyone has a guilty pleasure.
80s rock ballads.
trashy romcoms.
eating cereal for dinner.
Whatever it is, we’ve all got it and there’s no denying it.
But this is an SEO blog so here’s my SEO-related guilty pleasure.
Tracking ALL the keywords.
Let me explain more.
I’m naturally curious (which is why I succeed in Search).
I wanna know about all the keywords that a site ranks (and does not rank) for.
And since keywords are the backbone of any search marketing strategy (don’t @ me), I take things to a whole new level.
I once tracked over 5000 keywords for Property Finder. And just in the UAE.
Is that overkill? Yes.
Does it defy industry best practice? Yes.
Will I ever stop? I don’t know, will you stop listening to 80s rock ballads whilst eating cereal for dinner?
Probably not.
This isn’t just because I’m next level curious.
It’s because I like having answers at the ready.
I need to know all the answers of all the things.
Again, this comes back to being curious.
I like to know things.
I’ve got a long list of obscure facts for days and will both bore and intrigue you at the same time with my knowledge bank of trivia.
And I will also be able to give you keyword rankings, no matter how long tail or obscure that keyword is.
I’ve been in enough client meetings to know how valuable this is.
Clients will be quick to point out that you don’t have data on such and such keywords but will ignore all the other work you’ve done.
And since all it takes is for one experience to shape our existence (that’s life, I don’t make the rules), I’ve always tracked far more keywords than one should realistically do so. I just gotta know where things rank!
So while you’re out there showing just the top 10 movers and shakers in the SERPs, I’m out here digging deep into a list that’s longer than the Great Wall and figuring out ways to use it to my advantage (ie. next level content development).
I’ve surprised myself at how much this guilty pleasure of mine has helped me deliver SEO results successfully. And maybe you should track a few more keywords than you already do. Think of it as an opportunity to augment your work and deliver something extra for your client (or your own site).
At least, this is how I view it. Maybe it’s a justification or maybe it’s some well-intentioned advice.
Take it however you like.
Judge me all you want though, I don’t care.
It’s what I’ve done for a long time and will continue to do for an even longer time.
This is how I run my SEO campaigns and there’s nothing that’ll stop me.
Thanks for reading. You can go back to watching She’s All That.
