The Kindle Phenomenon: When Keywords Should Not Be Used

Writing by Brick Marketing Staff on Friday, 28 of December , 2007 at 12:14 pm

I just received an e-mail with the subject line: “Kindle A New Flame With A Bigger Penis.” All jokes, aside, I’m pretty sure what the intended keyword was in that limp effort to attract my click. If you guessed “penis” then you’ve got the wrong thing on your mind. And if you said “flame” then shame on you (I hate to snuff out your fire, but …).

No, I’m reasonably sure that the primary keyword in that subject line is “kindle.” It could just have well been a blog post title, but it wasn’t.

I think “kindle” was the keyword for two reasons: First, its placement right at the beginning of the subject line makes it the most prominent word in the line. Secondly, the Kindle from Amazon is a very hot item right now. It’s just been released within the last six weeks and all the hype in e-books is all about the Kindle. I’m guessing that it was a very popular Christmas gift this year.

Spammers know that using keywords is important. They do their research. But they haven’t done quite enough research to figure out that trying to trick people into clicking your links by using irrelevant keywords isn’t going to get you any more business. Just because “kindle” is a popular keyword today doesn’t mean you can attract buyers for your widget by using the word in your titles as a double entendre. People are smarter than that.

Evidence shows that straightforward titles are better for getting people to read. As soon as they find out that your “kindle” isn’t the kind of kindle they had in mind, they’re off to set other bonfires. So, yes, put keywords in your blog post titles and use them in your blog posts, but don’t be tricky about it. And if it seems like I’ve broken my own rule in this post, just remember one thing: Just like some fires are meant never to be kindled, some rules are sometimes meant to be broken.

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