SEO Marketing: The Importance of No-Miss Matchups

Consider the following scenario: Your brand sells baseball gear, which is superbly displayed and marketed on a dazzling website. Interested parties search for this very term – ‘baseball gear’, after which they’re promptly whisked to a random page on your website. Low and behold, the page is devoted to a baseball camp you just happen to be promoting.   

So far, so good, right? The common denominator word ‘baseball’ got them to your website. Now the arrivals simply poke around until they find the right page. Don’t count on it.

Due to a misalignment between search term and destination, the searchers were misdelivered. The arrival page simply doesn’t suit their purpose. They’re in the wrong place.

Does this sort of misalignment happen? Far too frequently. And it has its costs. Because in most cases, users won’t expend time and energy hunting for the desired page. Instead, they’ll flee, wandering elsewhere to locate their quarry. And even though you, worthy brand, have what they seek, they’ll never know. It’s the golden rule of contemporary marketing in the age of smart devices: Without instant results, brands risk instant abandonment. ‘Maybe’ just won’t cut it in a time-crunched world.  

To minimize the abandonment risk, marketers have developed an antidote. It’s known as ‘intent matching’. The goal of intent matching is to create a precise connection between the sought-after term and the first-stop destination. Basically, give the people what they want – right away.

While marketers have many ways to enhance precision matchups, one of the most effective is landing page creation. This means, you’re popping out a landing page for every distinct term on your search list.  Baseball gear doesn’t go to your home page – it goes to a subject-specific landing page. The term baseball camp goes to a similarly specific destination. No blends, no hybrids, no mix-ups. A page for every term.

Bear in mind, Google has developed sophisticated processes for identifying precise matchups. In fact, intent matching is one of the engine’s premier page-ranking criteria. If weak matchups are detected, you can expect a crunching detraction of points – and by implication, a drop in visitors. So, match wisely, as the great marketing guru once said.

If you have any questions or comments about intent matching, or about any other brand-related topic, feel free to send them our way.