09/09/2026
What does a Buc-ee's fire pit have to do with a how-to crafting website?
Not a lot. But it sure did bring in a lot of traffic.
We know because it happened to us.
Years ago, a post casually mentioning a Buc-ee's fire pit on our sister site, Tried & True by Trista, took off in search. The traffic numbers looked great—but all those people searching for a beaver-themed fire pit weren't necessarily the audience we were trying to build with a how-to crafting site, and that leads to a higher bounce rate.
Scope creep is more common than you may think. We've seen clients go a little rogue with their content, too, chasing topics that brought in plenty of traffic but had very little to do with their businesses. We have examples. We're just polite enough not to name names.
It's a pretty good lesson in why more traffic isn't always better traffic.
For SEO, relevance matters. Staying focused on topics connected to your business helps search engines understand what your website is about and attracts more of the people you actually want finding you.
That doesn't mean every piece of content needs to sell something. But before you chase a high-volume keyword, it's worth asking: Does this topic belong on our website?
Our latest blog take a deeper dive into topical relevance, why it matters for SEO, and what can happen when your content starts wandering too far from home.
Before you chase the traffic, read this: https://bit.ly/4xqCWhm
