So, I do alot of SEO for travel related clients having cut my teeth with argusrentals.com a few years back and getting them to position 2 for the term “car hire” thats my claim to fame, although I was contacted on MSN messanger by the guy that’s currently at argus asking “what do you think would happen if I changed the title tag?” I wouldn’t want to name him so we’ll call him Mike. Well!, I said, change nothing and nothing will change. “nah!” said Mike, He wants to target long tail terms with the homepage and risk losing there position for the term “car hire”, they changed it, and down they went, it was changed back and up they came. Ta Da!

 Anyway, this post really has nothing to do with that, I’m just getting claim to fame out the way.

A few large clients that we have the pleasure to work for have been asking us to optimise there sites for the term “leisure breaks”. So, after a very simple bit of research ( aksing people I know what they typed into to google the last time they booked a holiday) and using Aaron Wall’s SEO Book keyword research tools I quickly discovered that the volume for “leisure breaks” was quite low, about 1,500 search a month, even if I was to get first place and the meta description was great I would be lucky to get 20% click through rate. This would only be worth 300 visitors a month max. not that great. Armed with this info I jump on a plane and head of to the “Leisure Breaks” meeting with the client.

When this hot information hits the desk of the client a screwed up face turns and says “Our customers are searching for Leisure Breaks”, eh! no there not, but hey you pay me, so yes they do, and good day to you kind sir.

After several weeks of relentless SEO for the term “leisure breaks” we break into the first page of google.co.uk and gradually climb up to the rankings. Postion 2!, great, job done. We wait a month to see the traffic and sales fly in, we’re still waiting.

After a month of being in Position 2 for the term “leisure breaks” the new visitor count for that term doesn’t read well, 60 visitors. Oh no! Back to the drawing board. But the clients happy he’s second on google for a term that HE thinks people are using.  So in a blazing “Blue Peter” moment we spin on our heels and point the client in the correct direction. Weekend Breaks, Weekend Breaks, Weekend Breaks, that’s where the pot of gold lies. Another visit to SEO Book and we’re looking at returing half a million searches and with the same amount of SEO required it proves why clients hire professionals because, we know best.

Had the client listened to us early on in the process not only would there site be highly ranking for a value term but they wouldn;t have the big bill to change there website around from Leisure Breaks to Weekend Breaks.