Peripheral keywords - worth developing?

[Ankheg]

I've searched the site for variations on this question, but come up with no real answer, so, here goes, my first question: :)

Let's say that one of my sites, er, sells widgets that I make. My target keywords are, maybe, "widgets", "custom widget", "titanium alloy widget", stuff like that. All I do is make and sell widgets. But on one page, where I describe the various widgets and their manufacturing techniques, I mention that , for protection, all widgets are packed in, I dunno, "..Uncle Bob's Graphite Gopher Grease, in our opinion the absolute best widget lubricant on the market." Obviously this differs from the actual keywords, yada yada, but...
Here's the thing. I get THREE TIMES the number of search engine hits on "widget lubricant" that I do on "custom widget", etc. I actually rank number thirteen in Google on the equivelant of "widget lubricant", based on that one mention on one page.
So, um. What to do?

1. Diversify and start offering widget lubricants?

2. Change the page and omit references to widget lubricant?

3. Try and drum up reciprocal links to manufacturers and sellers of widget lubes?

4. Something else entirely?

5. Nothing at all - any traffic is good traffic, no? :)

I'd appreciate any thoughts y'all have.

[WebGuerrilla]

I certainly wouldn't get rid of it. If someone is lokking for widget lubricants, then they obviously own some widgets. They may not be looking to buy new widgets right now, but you have now been able to expose your company to them.

I would try to expand your your lubricant content and I would also look for other broader topics that widget owners might be looking for.

[Conard]

Funny, I ran into the same type of a situation last year. Now I own the #1 spot for that search term and sell several cases of it each month to people that are now coming back to purchase my "real" product.

[toddb]

I had this happen and I split the word off to a differnt site. In my case it was not related to my main product but why ignore those surfers needs. ;)

[ken_b]

1. Diversify and start offering widget lubricants?

and/or

3. Try and drum up reciprocal links to manufacturers and sellers of widget lubes?

Along with a new page targeting and extolling the wonders of

"..Uncle Bob's Graphite Gopher Grease, in our opinion the absolute best widget lubricant on the market."

[Ankheg]

Thanks for the suggestions; I've already added a page about the equivelant of proper widget lubrication... that just sounds wrong. :)

On the very same page, which is far and away my most popular in several SE's, I make reference to a piece of software - let's call it WidgetAnalyser. I have a sentance to the effect "...in our opinion, for the price, there simply is no software better than WidgetAnalyser." Not the greatest, grammatically, but obviously lots of people disagree with the sentiment, though, because "better than widgetanalyser" is my #2 not-actually-what-I-was-trying-for keyword in SE's. Here I'm really stuck - presumable the people visiting my site don't like WidgetAnalyser, which I think is tops. No real way to feed that section of the market, is there? I mean, I already extoll WA's virtues... :)

[running scared]

If it is that good, list all the alternatives to widget analyser and review them, explaining the problems. May even be able to set up affiliate schemes with providers of the alternatives.

[thejenn]

I very much like the idea of building some affiliations with other companies that might be able to fill their need (if there isn't a way for you to do so.)

I've got a few clients that offer regional services (one state only) but that rank very well for the non-regional equivilants of their chosen phrases. So, they get a TON of traffic that can simply never convert to a sale for them. I've encouraged them to try to come up with some type of paid referral service with other companies out of state, but they aren't willing to go through the trouble. (Which is killing me as they are turning away 60% of their site hits!)

I'm a firm believer in finding a way to convert ANY traffic you get, even if you have to get creative.

[Ankheg]

Just a fun little update-

A while back I added a new page totally devoted to, ahem, widget lubricants. I've had no luck getting any sort of reciprocal links going from widget lube manufacturers, but don't really mind. Now that Google, ATW, and Inktomi (and probably others, but those are the big three for referrals) have spidered and indexed this page...

Wow. "widget lubricant" hits are up about 50% from what they were. Still not huge traffic, but bandwith is cheap, and every opportunity (as I see it) to get my company's name in front of people interested in these things is a good thing.

Still stuck for the "better than WidgetAnalyser" thing. I now rank better in Google and ATW for this than I did before... But, like above, any exposure is a good thing, yeah? :) Maybe I really will get around to adding a page comparing and contrasting the other software out there...

[Craig_F]

>> stuck for the "better than WidgetAnalyser" thing

If you are sure it is the best, I'd sign up for their affiliate program (if they have one), then build a page titled "What could be better than WidgetAnalyser?" 5 minutes work and your done.

[Ankheg]

That's just the thing. It's the best of the many I've tried, but it's a contentious issue, and I'm not completely eager to be a big, huge promoter of this piece of software, when with my luck the next new version will be buggy, contain spyware, and make the program 'software non grata' the whole web over, and then people are going to see my site and say "WidgetPlanet? Aren't they the absolute FOOLS who promoted WidgetAnalyser so heavily last year? What a bunch of <expletive deleted> morons..."

That's my fear, that I'm going to get stuck promoting something that turns into a lemon. I don't mind saying, on this one page on my site, that I use this software and think it's tops - I'm just not completely sure I want to hitch my flag to theirs, or whatever that nautical expression is. :)

[Brett_Tabke]

To make good spaghetti, you have to fling some noodles at the wall.

To make a good site generate referrals, you have to fling some content at the search engines.

--
Yours is a classic case Ankheg. Just keep reading those log files, generating content, and let the ravenous search engines tell you want they want fed.

[fathom]

a single keyword worth 1 million searches/click throughs/day is the same as 1 million search terms receiving 1 click through/day.

The latter however is easier to achieve - and moreso, since you will eventually climb within reach of the 1 miilion usage term.