It is obvious that choosing the right keywords can do much for
your online business exposure optimizing your positioning and
searchability with major search engines including Yahoo, Google
and MSN. However, no one says that it is easy.
Determining Keywords
Determining keywords is a critical step in web design. If your
website and meta tags do not contain related keywords, web surfers
will be unable to find your website when they conduct searches.
The formula is a little tricky - you will need to locate terms
that are popular and relevant to your business. These terms may or
may not be terms that *you* feel are relevant terms. The optimal
terms in a site should be terms that a potential customer would
use when searching for a website with your content. In order to
achieve success your website should be optimized with terms and
phrases that are descriptive, related to your content, and which
receive a significant amount of searches. The caveat, of course,
is that you want to find terms and phrases where there is little
competition, so you quickly achieve high ranking in the important
search engines.
relevant + popular with searchers but not with competitors =
success
Markets saturated with other sites competing for search terms
make it difficult to find quality keywords. Sometimes it is better
to optimize for a less popular term, one that is more targeted at
your visitor, as it will likely have a higher conversion rate than
a less specific popular term. The first step to determining
keywords is brainstorming a list of logical terms and phrases that
relate to your product or offerings. This should be done by a
number of individuals; sometimes people have very different ideas
for search terms and by identifying a variety of people and their
search terms you may tap words that hadn't occurred to you. There
are a number of free and low-cost tools available online and for
download that will allow you to expand and research terms that
have been brainstormed. The results typically vary with the tools
but overall the tools will assist you in determining where to
focus your keyword efforts. The tools will often assist with
pay-per-click engines, creating expanded, related keywords or
phrases that can be bid on.
In addition to examining log files to see what terms customers
are using to find a website, visit competitors' web sites and
examine their meta tags for additional terms, use a thesaurus to
find related terms, include misspellings of keywords in your meta
tag keywords, and optimize for various forms of nouns and verbs,
including tenses and plurals.
Keyword Tools
KeywordTumbler - KeywordTumbler takes existing keyword phrases
and generates multiple variations, reordering the words. This
allows you to build a large keyword list in seconds.
http://www.keywordtumbler.com
TheDowser - Overture Keyword Tool, Google Keyword Sandbox,
Keyword Harvester, Google AdWords report analyzer, Google
AdWords optimization tool, log file analyzer, conversion
tracking and optimization tool.
http://www.thedowser.com WordTracker - Wordtracker helps you choose the right internet marketing
keywords that will help your search engine placement and
ranking. Use Wordtracker for keyword research. Web marketing
is all about search engine ranking, and that starts with the
proper internet marketing keywords. Get a free keyword report
and web site promotion information!
http://www.wordtracker.com
Keyword Suggestion Tools - A handy little tool will show
you the results of your query from both Wordtracker and
Overture for determining which phrases are searched most
often. Enter a search phrase below to see how often it's
searched for, as well as get suggestions for alternate (but
similar) keywords.
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
Keyword Ranking Tool - This utility can be used to check
search engines for keyword ranking and track search engine
ranking for your various keywords over time, which, as you
probably know, is critical when doing search engine
optimization.
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/
Overture Keyword Tool - After entering a keyword or phrase,
Overture provides a list of related phrases that have been
searched on. The tool provides a count that indicates the
number of times the phrase has been searched on.
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
Google Suggestion - The Google Suggestion is a new online
tool for webmasters. As you type into the search box, Google
Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in
real time. This is similar to Google's 'Did you mean?' feature
that offers alternative spellings for your query after you
search, except that it works in real time. For example, if you
type 'bass', Google Suggest might offer a list of refinements
that include 'bass fishing' or 'bass guitar'. Similarly, if
you type in only part of a word, like 'progr,' Google Suggest
might offer you refinements like 'programming', 'programming
languages', 'progesterone', or 'progressive'. You can choose
one by scrolling up or down the list with the arrow keys or
mouse. The tool provides a number that indicates the number of
searches a specific word or phrase has had.
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
Keyword statistics give webmasters a way to tap into what
is on the minds of Internet consumers. When you can match your
marketing efforts to the various ways people locate their
items of interest on the net, potential customers will be
streamed to your site like ants to a picnic. |
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