RSS Feed (xml)The Internet runs on words. The words and phrases people use to find what they are looking for must match those you use to describe your products and services or you will not be found by valuable prospects. So, the most important part of your search engine optimization effort is carefully selecting and using keywords.
Follow these five basic steps and be on your way to improving your rankings.
Choose one page on your website you would like to work on to generate more traffic. Review the current content and pick out the relevant keywords you’ve already used.
Brainstorm another 10 to 20 words and phrases you think prospects use to search for your topic or product. To make sure your list is as inclusive as possible, ask current clients the keywords or phrases they would use to find a site like yours. To broaden your list, look at the source code of your highest ranking direct competitors to find the keywords (meta keywords) they use. You may discover clues to their success.
Divide the list into categories with three or four words per category. Don’t over analyze the categories as your only using them to manage your keywords. It’s a great way to make sure you cover the key topics you want to include on the website page.
Use a keyword tool to determine the popularity of each word on your list as well as variations you might not have included. In some cases the singular or plural form of a word can dramatically change its popularity. Different tools reveal slightly different information so use more than one for more thorough research. Free tools are a great place to start, but offer limited information. Subscription keyword tools such as Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery offer more in-depth information.
Try these free tools to refine your keyword list:
http://freekeywords.worktracker.com
http://adwords.google.com
http://siteanalytics.compete.com
Develop one major keyword phrase and two to three closely associated terms that best describe your product, service or topic. Use these in all aspects of a page’s content, particularly close to the top of the page and in lead paragraph sentences as well as in headlines, articles, and case studies. Create internal links using keywords to move your prospect deeper into your site. Think up as many ways as possible to increase the opportunities to use your keywords. In addition, insert the keywords in the meta tag, page title and page description.
Repeat the keyword exercise for every important page on your site. Periodically do a search using your keywords to see how your web pages rank against your competition and never let more than six months go by before repeating this process on every critical page. Keyword popularity shifts and changes and can tank your results unless you keep up with the trends.
Use keywords as many times as needed to create good content and take every opportunity to add keywords in the most natural and search engine friendly ways. Overdoing keywords for the sake of boosting organic rankings, however, is called stuffing, which may cause the search engines to actually penalize your rankings. You can significantly increase your rankings using these tips and without resorting to tricks.
Follow these five basic steps and be on your way to improving your rankings.
Choose one page on your website you would like to work on to generate more traffic. Review the current content and pick out the relevant keywords you’ve already used.
Brainstorm another 10 to 20 words and phrases you think prospects use to search for your topic or product. To make sure your list is as inclusive as possible, ask current clients the keywords or phrases they would use to find a site like yours. To broaden your list, look at the source code of your highest ranking direct competitors to find the keywords (meta keywords) they use. You may discover clues to their success.
Divide the list into categories with three or four words per category. Don’t over analyze the categories as your only using them to manage your keywords. It’s a great way to make sure you cover the key topics you want to include on the website page.
Use a keyword tool to determine the popularity of each word on your list as well as variations you might not have included. In some cases the singular or plural form of a word can dramatically change its popularity. Different tools reveal slightly different information so use more than one for more thorough research. Free tools are a great place to start, but offer limited information. Subscription keyword tools such as Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery offer more in-depth information.
Try these free tools to refine your keyword list:
http://freekeywords.worktracker.com
http://adwords.google.com
http://siteanalytics.compete.com
Develop one major keyword phrase and two to three closely associated terms that best describe your product, service or topic. Use these in all aspects of a page’s content, particularly close to the top of the page and in lead paragraph sentences as well as in headlines, articles, and case studies. Create internal links using keywords to move your prospect deeper into your site. Think up as many ways as possible to increase the opportunities to use your keywords. In addition, insert the keywords in the meta tag, page title and page description.
Repeat the keyword exercise for every important page on your site. Periodically do a search using your keywords to see how your web pages rank against your competition and never let more than six months go by before repeating this process on every critical page. Keyword popularity shifts and changes and can tank your results unless you keep up with the trends.
Use keywords as many times as needed to create good content and take every opportunity to add keywords in the most natural and search engine friendly ways. Overdoing keywords for the sake of boosting organic rankings, however, is called stuffing, which may cause the search engines to actually penalize your rankings. You can significantly increase your rankings using these tips and without resorting to tricks.
