I just checked GA and 9,190 unique phrases brought visitors to this blog in the past 30 days with more than a few unusual queries.

- Too funny.

Damian

I’m sorry, but I have to strongly disagree with you Lee.

Are television commercials directly related to the show during which they appear? Do outdoor billboards have anything to with where they appear, or what you, as the observer, are currently doing? No…

“What’s short sighted you say? Well, getting a large number of conversions on irrelevant, but high demand keywords usually means a customer service nightmare when products are delivered and they’re not what the customer thought they’d be.”

I’m not sure what you’re point is here. Unless you’re being completely misleading with your offering, you shouldn’t have a problem.

Many commercials that I watch on TV are not relevant to the show I’m watching. Say, for example, I’m watching The Colbert Report and I see a commercial for Geico car insurance — If I happen to be in the need for car insurance, I may engage with the ad. If not, I’ll ignore it.

Likewise, if Geico setup an Adwords campaign and “Tonight Show” was one of their keywords – regardless of whether or not it’s what a user was searching for – if it fulfilled a purpose and the user is satisfied, then I don’t see the problem.

“The cost of returns and handling inbound queries/complaints makes such a shotgun effort nothing more than the kind of immature tactics that give the SEO industry a bad name.”

Two last points:

1. You’re assuming that bidding on unrelated keywords is a “shotgun” approach when it may, in reality be the result of many different tests. Just because “ABC” converts for “XYZ” doesn’t mean it’s a ‘shotgun’ approach.

2. Regarding your reference to SEO; I’ve been referring to SEM, or the paid side of search in this case. SEO is a different ballgame, obviously. I wouldn’t necessarily put much effort into a longer-term, organic seo campaign given the above examples.

We can continue the conversation at MIMA’s upcoming summit, assuming you’re going.

Derrick, your comment misses the point of Mike’s post, especially with the spaghetti against the wall observation. No legitmate or experienced company marketer would reasonably justify such an approach.

It’s short sighted to think a conversion is the end of the story, but then again, that’s all an affiliate marketer cares about.

Mike’s post is not about affiliate marketing. It’s about the marketing of products and services online by the companies that fulfill those orders.

What’s short sighted you say? Well, getting a large number of conversions on irrelevant, but high demand keywords usually means a customer service nightmare when products are delivered and they’re not what the customer thought they’d be.

The cost of returns and handling inbound queries/complaints makes such a shotgun effort nothing more than the kind of immature tactics that give the SEO industry a bad name.

Affiliate marketers can afford to be far more experimental and can “get away” with whatever it takes to get conversions because that’s all they’re accountable for. Corporate marketing and lead generation is another matter entirely.

2. I do agree with about 95% of the premise of your post… However one of the most successful marketing tactics (amongst mostly affiliate marketers) is obtaining traffic from unrelated keywords to an attempt to see what converts, and what doesn’t. If it converts – regardless or whether or not its directly related to the search term – then it is a successful campaign.