I went to probably the newest Starbucks branch in the metro with Berch boy Glen yesterday. It’s the one on the ground floor of Lee Gardens along Shaw. I was showing off the Visibility, he was showing off his tablet PC (what good is that without net access? I still win biatch!). The discussion went to search and he was asking for tips on how to be found in Google for the keywords that are relevant to him, i.e. his trophy keywords.

i can’t seem to find myself in google! — maybe my brain is just dead and i can’t figure this thing out. or maybe.. well. i can’t figure it out, period! no excuses. hahah.. none of my blogs will show on google.. common google! acknowledge me!! i almost feel like i don’t exist.

At this stage in his fledgling SEO career, Glen’s really not concerned about traffic. He’s just wants the satisfaction of seeing his blog pop up for keywords like futkal which at 277 competing pages in Google, isn’t really a big trophy to show to Carla. Never mind that he could be going for a keyword like street soccer (now that’s a contest with at least 20,700,000 pages in Google).

Now is it possible to come up with a consensus on what the ultimate Philippine trophy keyword is? Is it Philippines with an estimated 184,000,000 pages in Google? Is it Filipina with 3,840,000 estimated pages?

The reason I ask is that I’ve come across quite a few posts announcing “I’m #1 for Philippines Blue Widget”. But does that keyword actually matter? The Globe Visibility post last October 21 is on the first page out of 6,460,000 pages in Google for the Globe Visibility keyword after 2 days. But that has brought me zero organic traffic.

Now take the PLDT myDSL keyword. I’m also on Google’s first page out of about a measly 56,500 pages. One look and you’d probably say that’s not such a big deal, but if you were to view my site’s statistics, you would see that it’s been this site’s second best keyword referrer. It’s even got a thriving comments section (now at 50 comments). People are actually searching for this keyword online and are ending up on that blog post. Can I say it’s a trophy keyword for me? Absolutely.

Here are some tips on what a nice trophy keyword should be:

• Mass Appeal - your trophy keyword needs to appeal to as many people as possible, preferably to the Internet unsavvy.
• Attainable - if you’re targetting “viagra” as a keyword, go have a wank instead. You’ll burn through your wallet and your dad’s wallet before you even see the light of the first page. Add a logical qualifer to form a new keyword, one that has real organic traffic potential.
• Keep it a secret - if it’s a a true trophy keyword, it should be converting for you: people are clicking ads, commenting, buying stuff, etc. If you share that information with others, you risk attracting more competition. More competition means less chance for you to convert. I had to learn that the hard way.

The next time you hear someone declaring to the whole world that he’s #1 for this or that keyword, ask yourself if that’s the trophy keyword you’d want for yourself. If it’s not, resist the temptation to blow his bubble.

So, do you mind sharing your trophy keyword? :)