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Author: David Harry Article source: http://www.selfseo.com/. Used with author's permission.
Keyword Development; The path to internet success
One of the first research tasks in search engine optimization (SEO) is selecting
your keywords. This, at first glance may seem like a ‘no-brainer’,
this is far from the truth. The keywords you optimize and market to
the Search Engines with, could, in the end, be the difference between
success and failure of your internet business. Sound excessive? Let’s
consider some facts;
- There are over 1 Billion websites online with over 1.7 billion surfers worldwide.
- Roughly 80% of all website traffic comes from Search Engines
- 75% of surfers click on non-[aid (organic) listings as opposed to paid.
- Keywords figure into the majority of ranking factors on search engines.
With your website/pages keywords playing such a potentially large role in your
traffic and ultimately, revenues, ensuring the competitiveness is paramount.
What are keywords?
Keywords are essentially the text that a surfer enters into a search engine
to find results (hopefully yours). I find it interesting that is called ‘keyword’
research considering it is really ‘key phrase’ these days. You should
look to develop a 2-5 word KW/P (keyword/phrases). Any longer would
be a bit much to focus on.
Factors affecting keyword selection;
Relevance; It may seem obvious, but be sure to be relevant.
Don’t use company branding phrases or phrasing that is not ‘simple’
in terms of best describing your offerings. Also don’t forget to capture
niche searches. If you sell only ‘gold’ jewelry on a certain page,
optimize for ‘custom gold jewelry’ instead of merely ‘custom
jewelry’. More on ‘Phrase building’ in a bit.
Competitive analysis; a major issue to consider when choosing
your KW/P is keyword effectiveness. While there are a few ways of measuring
this, I like the KEI (keyword effectiveness index). It is a
simple formula that has to main parts. The first is raw number of searches for
a given KW/P. using a tool such as Overture’s ‘Keyword Selection
Tool, (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/).
It is certainly not the most accurate of tools, but for abeginner it gives a
good base-line.
For the second part, head over to a major SE (search engine) such as Google
and search the potential term inside of quotations (“search
term”). Conversely the ‘intile:’ operator can be used for
a finer scope. At the top of the results you should see ‘Results 1-10
of 1 200 000’ or something of this nature. This is our competition
To find the KEI (plenty of software out there for this), we divide the ‘searches’
by the total ‘competition’ (KEI= S/C). The resulting number is your
KEI. The higher the KEI,
the more viable the KW/P.
The main point is to find viable combinations that can be obtained without
major effort and expense. Dig deep and find some hidden jewels.
Phrase building; as I have already mentioned, the term ‘keyword’
can be a bit misleading. We’re really looking to 2-5 word ‘phrases’.
A ‘Key Phrase’ really. Considering we have a bit of latitude, look
into combining keywords/phrases, I noticed that on my site I had targeted ‘Affordable
business development’ and ‘internet business’. So I put them
together as ‘ Affordable internet business development’. It does
well for me and I can split it to work on ‘keyword density’ throughout
the page. I get search results on both terms and they work together well marketing
wise.
This is much like the ‘gold jewelry’ example earlier. If you have
targeted ‘custom jewelry’ as well as ‘gold jewelry’
it makes sense to look into optimizing for ‘Custom gold jewelry’.
You will find great many uses for this tactic. It does bear fruit.
Where to start building keyword lists?
There are a number of ways to get started. Once you have some potential KW/P
combinations move into your competitive analysis phase to further refine the
lists.
- Words people would use to find your site/product/service
- Problems that you site is the solution for ie; ‘Web design solutions’
- Competitor’s websites; Have a look at the top site’s code for
meta keywords.
- Keyword selection tools (such as Overture, mentioned earlier)
- Page copy of top competitor sites
- Existing searches; look into your log files and see what terms are getting
you traffic.
The Final Word
For me, all research and planning aside, test and tweak is the name
of the game. As I develop a foothold with a certain phrase, I work
to increase and maintain it’s positioning. I work on new ones and watch
for any nibbles. Some I give up on and start again while others stay on the
‘maintenance’ list. Trial and error will get you there.
That brings me to ‘analytics’. Web analytics or metrics,
is the process of collecting, tracking and analyzing traffic via a plethora
of server log file analyzers. Most hosting companies supply some basic form
of this. I bly suggest putting out the $100-200 for more detailed programs.
But that’s another story, for another day.
About the Author
David Harry is a business consultant of 15 years and currently works providing
Search
Engine Optimization and Marketing Services
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