Online marketers 'should use general and specific keywords'

Online marketers should use general and specific keywords to boost traffic, according to an expert. Yahoo's Search Marketing blog has explained how "scope" applies to advertising in this medium – explaining that if narrow keywords are left out this risks "turning off" those who have searched with a specific purpose in mind. However, if more broad terms are omitted then people who are browsing may not convert into sales. "The solution? Have a healthy number of both broad and narrow keywords in your account, to make your ads appeal to whichever kind of consumer happens to be searching for them," listings editor at the firm Colin Kingston writes. He uses the analogy of a child being handed a shopping list by their mother as example of how this works – if a parent wrote "teabags", this was fine if the shop only sold one brand of this, but confused them if there was a range. Overall, people may want to use more narrow keywords as opposed to broad ones, as they have "there are so many more possibilities" with these, Mr Kingston concluded. Earlier this month, the organisation advised against duplicating keywords in multiple advertising campaigns.