Are you sick and tired of hearing about keywords, keyword
optimization, keyword stuffing, keyword ratio and more?
Why all the hype about keywords? What do they really do
for a business?
Keywords are important plain and simple. They are the
words customers, potential customers and website visitors
might use in a search engine to find your information.
For example, a person researching cell phones might use the
following keywords typed into Google, Yahoo, Metacrawler or
any number of the available search engines.
- Cell phones
- Wireless phones
- Cell phone planes
- Prepaid cell phone
- Best cell phone
- Cellphone
- Cell phone deals
- Cell phone reviews
When choosing keywords for a business the first step is to
consider what terms people will use to find you. To
accomplish this, a three step approach is often recommended.
1. Brainstorm ideas. Sitting down with a pen and paper to
brainstorm keywords may seem silly at first however
brainstorming is a successful strategy. The more a person
is able to think outside of the box and put themselves in
their prospects' shoes, the more productive the
brainstorming exercise will be. Challenge yourself to
come up with 50 potential keywords. Remember that people
often misspell keywords, like the 'cellphone' example used
in the list above.
2. Consult with associates, friends and family, current
customers. Step two is to start asking around. Ask people
what keywords they would use to find information on your
business topic. Friends, family and associates are
generally the best place to go however if a business has a
close relationship with their customers, then asking a few
key customers may be beneficial.
3. Research using keyword popularity tools. This third
step is where business owners often skip right too however
if you don't attack a keyword popularity tool with a plan,
you can end up with thousands of potential options ' a real
mess. Instead, take a look at keywords that you are
confident in and comfortable with and then use the keyword
tools to tell you how often those keywords are used. This
will help business owners determine what their primary
keywords are and what keywords to use in their content or
on secondary website pages.
Here are a few free keyword tools:
a.
https://adwords.google.com/select/
Keyword Tool
b.
https://www.wordtracker.com/trial/
Free trial
c. inventory.overture.com/
d.
Free Trial
That leads us right into a very frequently asked
question...where are keywords used? Several places
actually...The primary place keywords need to be used is
the home page or index page of a business website. This is
the page people land on when they come to a website. Maybe
it has sales copy, maybe it tells a bit about the company's
products or services, or maybe it offers informational
copy. The general rule of thumb is to focus on one or two
primary keywords. Place them in the headline, first and
last paragraph and then naturally scattered throughout the
copy. Keyword stuffing or jamming your copy full of you
keywords makes the copy read like a phone book and the
search engines don't like it.
Secondary keywords can be used on subsequent website pages,
articles, press releases, press releases, advertisements,
blog posts and so on. Using the example from earlier a
primary key word might be "cell phone" or "cell phones" and
a secondary keyword might be "cell phone reviews"
Keyword hype is justified. They are a direct contributor
to a company's bottom line. Keywords help potential
customers find the information, products, and services
they're looking for. They help people find your business.
Taking the time to choose the right keywords, the most
commonly used keywords, and then setting up your business
to highlight those keywords will help drive traffic to your
business website. The end result is more traffic and more
profits.
----------------------------------------------------
Joan Finholt is a retired teacher and loves using the
internet. She is co-owner of Bound and Determined books and
yes, the domain name spelling is correct.
http://www.boundanddetrmined.com
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