I happen to have a site where it offers a broad selection of products, thats covered by one single term. That single term is what I've been concentrating on for ranking.

However, does anyone here have better luck at conversions with more specific terms....

Example: Lets say I have a computer parts site, with video cards, sound cards, mother boards, etc.
As of right now, I would be targeting the term Computer Parts.
From a conversions point of view, would I be better off targeting ATI Video Cards?

In my case, I won't be able to make centralized pages with just ATI products, as this product line in question can get pretty vague... lots of variations of the product, and can be used in multiple related areas. (wish I could come up with a better example)

Suggestions?

i'd say aim for the tighter search terms like 'ATI Video Card' or the most popular and profitable products while building the strategy long term for 'computer parts'

a wide search term like 'computer parts' is most likely someone early in the buying process, they've not yet narrowed down their search to a specific vendor or product type and if you can get the traffic you get a chance to guide them early in their buying decision.

the more narrow, or long tail, searches are to target those who are ready to buy. people who target their search by vendor / model are deeper into the buying process and nearer to completing the checkout.

going for the long tail gets you buyers rather than info seekers and lets  the 'computer parts' seo build from link love and satisfied customers over time.

You can use computer parts, but I'd also be more specific. mobtex explained a very good reason for this.

if you have a product range then you should be targeting the exact make/model/model number of each product as well as a short description of the product (5 words - long tail of search)

each product you sell should have it's own page with heavy (but not spammy) on page SEO: - well constructed title tags, h1 img alt tags, etc. Linked to internally from a category page.

this is where good database design come sin handy - get two routes (link paths) to each product page; one through parts/type, one through manufacturer.

online stores need to think heavily about some design aspects as well -

number of url parameters and parameter names. Google may be getting better at following xxxx_id=yyyy, but the others aren't doing so well - cloak dynamic urls if you can

a light template - if the code/content in your template is more than the unique code/content added by your product details then most of your pages will end up in the supplementals

Thanks guys, will keep this in mind for the future.

As of right now, I have major SERP issues being handed to me by Google, so I'm trying to figure that whole mess out.

But thats a topic for another thread elsewhere.....

Just a note Stitch but through my explorations people were hitting my site for specific computer products. I just gave up on that aspect because of lack of sales and my energy was better directed elsewhere due to circumstance. VIRUSES.