The Keyword Phrase Monopoly Game of Google

Picture a Monopoly board

Not one of the classics, but more like the special collector sets like The Simpsons or M&M Candy. Now, you could go around the board, picking up the cheaper properties, or maybe living off of railroads and utilities, and saving all of the money you earn. However, the other players in the game… they’re not doing that. They are investing their money in properties, and eventually buying hotels and houses to raise the rent. Soon, you won’t be able to compete.

Now, imagine that instead of cutely named themed property titles, all of those colored squares are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords. If you aren’t using them, you can’t compete. You can’t pass Go, collect $200, or, most importantly, collect big rent, until you learn to play the game. If you put your money into the right SEO, you are going to love when someone lands on it.

When you own that #1 spot on Google, you’ll be collecting that big rent. The only way you can get to the top is by putting money into the right kind of advertising, and in today’s internet world, the best way is to use SEO, or keyword phrases. 

The Right Investment:

Meet an old client of mine. His name is Manny Monopoly and he lives in Cleveland, Ohio. He runs a real estate website with a great WordPress theme, high definition photos and an easy-to-use layout. It’s engaging, colorful, and more than gets his point across. However, he’s not doing that great. His business is a little bit in the red. Mr. Monopoly didn’t have much time, so he pulled $5000 out of his rainy day fund and put up a great billboard on the side of the busiest highway in Cleveland. It was going to cost $5000 more every month, but he hoped he would see an upswing in his business to make it worth it.

After a month of this, he realized that his website was not doing much better. He was barely out of the red. So, he came to me. He told me all about his billboard, and how he was geting some more hits on his website, but nothing substantial enough to save his real estate business for much longer.

“I don’t know much about billboards,” I told him, “but I think I know how you could spend your money better. Instead of $5000 a month on one billboard, why not create optimized landing pages?”

“A landing page?” Mr. Monopoly said, confused. “I’ve already got webpages.”

“No, I know that. But an optimized landing page is like a billboard for the internet. I know a great copywriter, the best, and you can hire her for about $500 a page. Let’s say we create ten optimized landing pages, share them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, hey, even Tumblr. Now, we have billboards as professional as your website, and we have them for a one-time fee of $5000, and worldwide visibility” I said to Mr. Monopoly. He thought it over for a moment, his eyebrows knit together in the center of his forehead.

“But, how is that specific? I sell real estate in Cleveland. At least the $5000 a month I spend on the billboard actually reaches people that are from around here,” he said.

“I understand,” I said, and I truly did. Even though Mr. Monopoly has a great website, truth be told, he does not know a whole lot about the internet. But, hey. That’s why he called me. “See, each one of those 10 pages is 10 different keyword phrases that not only Google will index, but people everywhere will want to share those pages with their friends-“ he looked like he wanted to interrupt me here, but I knew exactly what he was going to say. “Every one of those shares is a new link to your page – a new billboard, for free. Your pages are such high quality that those links back will be of high quality and domain authority (DA). Eventually, your local rankings will get pushed up. You’ll become the ultimate authority in your Cleveland niche. Soon, you’ll have the #1 spot on Google. Cool, huh?” I said.

“So, that’s it? $5000 and I never have to pay that again?” Mr. Monopoly asked. He was beginning to understand.

“Yea, that’s the great thing about the internet. There’s hosting fees of course, but you already know about those, since you already own a website. There’s no high rent, no bills, no insurance. No one is going to compete for your space because on the internet, there is unlimited space. Instead of spending all your money on maintenance, you can put that into more adword phrase pages somewhere down the line.”

“So, more billboards, rather than spending tens of thousands of dollars in a year on one?” Mr. Monopoly asked.

“Now you’re getting it!” I said.