Cheap/ Discount/ Value/ Sale Keywords

[Digirank]

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience in targeting cheap/discount/value etc keywords in an SEO campaign?

I'm interested to find out:

• How Google perceives these keywords, as the search results are only very slightly different if you search with or without a 'cheap' keyword.

• Whether Google differentiates between 'cheap synonyms ie 'cheap' and 'affordable'. There are far higher searches for 'cheap' but affordable is much more user- and conversion-friendly.

Thanks,

Karen

[GPainter]

Hi Karen,

I wonder if you're over thinking this a bit. Lets look at what Google's job is, its to bring the best result back for a users inquiry. Now there are some exceptions to that (like adult content and some pay day loans) but for the most part that rule is true.

Now the question isn't what Google thinks its what the user thinks is there a difference in the user typing 'cheap product' compared to 'product' ? There is going to be difference between the two searches because the user wants to see different results for each one. You can always test this out by going to Google and trying different searches you can then double up your theory by going to ad-words and looking into search volume between the two.

I hope that helps a bit.

[Digirank]

Hey Chris,

Thanks very much. I think you're right that I am over-thinking it (as any SEO would when trying to figure Google out!). One thing that stands out for me is that when I do a search (for example for 'cheap console tables', very few of the results on page 1 mention 'cheap' or 'discounted' in their title tags, or their pages. Yet it does seem to know which sites stock cheaper console tables (ebay, gumtree, asda etc). Do you think this could be just down to the use of the word 'cheap' across the rest of the site?

Karen

[GPainter]

Hi Karen,

As you mentioned its hard to work Google out so you have to sometime use your best guess.  Logically I would agree a mix of anchor text, and keywords could hep that page. The other way you could look at it was the keyword volume for each term and then target those terms presumably better than the likes you asda etc.

IT also comes back a little to what Google interprets the terms for, I would recommend looking into the search volume between the two.

Good luck!