It appears that luxury watch manufacturers are now taking advantage of SEO techniques to target the affluent! Shock, horror, I hear you say!
Well, it is about time. Historically, and that seems a strange phrase to use in terms of the internet, these manufacturers have relied heavily on organic traffic and brand reputation and have been somewhat invisible in search results.
Business intelligence Company L2 have released a report indicating that luxury brands have realised that they are wasting their time and resources focusing on the general retail/etail public and, instead, are using brand-oriented keywords to identify with their target market.
With over 60% of web traffic for watch sites coming via search engines, it is clear that generic or unbranded SEO terms are not going to hit the spot for the luxury watch makers. So, they are prepared to forfeit their visibility on certain keywords and leave these to the mass-market players.
This has to be seen as a win-win situation for all concerned. The luxury watch manufacturers do not want or need to be attracting customers who are looking at the lower end of the market. Similarly, it is a little unfair on the consumer who is searching for a £100 watch, for example, to be shown an item that would cost 100 times that much and, thus, out of his price range.
And this is a lesson for all internet marketers – focus on your target market. You may not get as many hits, but those hits you do get will be of a much higher quality.