In 1960, a landmark paper called “Marketing Myopia” was published in the Harvard Business Review. It challenged the way businesses look at themselves and raised the question, “What business are we really in?” For example, should a railroad company focus exclusively on railroad production or is transportation the bigger opportunity? Should an oil company be focused exclusively on oil, or is energy the more appropriate focus? Put another way, is the company focusing on what it is (product focus) or the solutions it provides (customer focus)? In the SEO industry, we come across many clients that engage in what I like to call keyword myopia — when a company focuses on what they offer instead of what the consumer is searching for.
Take, for example, the Wachovia Vehicle Loan webpage. From an internal perspective, this webpage probably makes perfect sense to Wachovia. They offer loans for any type of vehicle: cars, boats, motorcycles, etc. Therefore, they think the webpage should focus on “vehicle loans” because it encompasses loans for many types of transportation. This is clearly communicated to both search engines and customers with prominent placement of “vehicle loans” language throughout the webpage.
But are “vehicle loans” what consumers are searching for? A Google Trends analysis illustrates that this isn’t necessarily the case.
It’s a safe bet that most people are not going to leave a car dealership thinking, “Wow, that vehicle I test-drove today was great! I better start searching for a vehicle loan.” Instead, they’re probably searching for their needs using their own language: “auto loan,” “car loan,” “boat loan,” and so on.
So where does Wachovia rank for auto loan, car loan, boat loan and motorcycle loan searches? Wachovia is not in the top 100 search results of any major search engine for these terms. Clearly, they are missing an opportunity for search engine traffic by focusing on what they offer instead of what their prospective customer is searching for.
In sum, keep keyword myopia at bay by focusing on the bigger picture –by optimizing your website with the consumer in mind, you create a broader opportunity to capture your target audience.
Some of these big companies do not understand much about internet marketing yet. That is why bank.com was not purchase by a bank and travel.com was not first purchased by a hotel.
I think that is due to the simple fact that Wachovia’s branches typically are in nicer upscaled neighborhood and they would rather do business with people who can use big words like “vehicle”.
I also think Wachovia is more focused on the customer experience and the layout of the site than marketing.
Being ranked Number One in the industry for customer service for several years in a row says quite a bit about the company.
Rose,
As a former Wachovia customer I can attest to their customer service. All of my interactions with their employees were positive.
I, however, do not view customer service and marketing as being mutually exclusive. The changes I’d like to see made have more to do with language usage on the webpage than design or layout.
Additionally, despite Wachovia branch locations and whether or not the prospective customer is searching on “vehicle loan” vs. “car loan” I have to believe that Wachovia’s ultimate goal is to close as many vehicle loans as possible. They are clearly not capitalizing on the exposure they could have. It’s simply a missed opportunity.
Thanks for your comment.
Dr. Naveel
They are certainly missing a big part of the search traffic by sticking with vehicle loans. Keyword research is a very important part of search marketing.
Some of these big companies do not understand much about internet marketing yet. That is why bank.com was not purchase by a bank and travel.com was not first purchased by a hotel.