Posted on 16 November 2009
Keyword research is crucial to the success of your website’s optimisation campaign. Choosing the right website keywords can produce a lof of traffic and get your website ranked high in search engine listings while choosing the wrong website keywords will leave your website on page 100 or worse, with barely any visitors at all.
Many website owners think they know which website keywords are best suited for their search engine optimisation strategy. But unless you know exactly who your target market is and what terms they use to find businesses like yours, chances are you need to undertake some serious keyword research to find the most effective search terms. Keyword research will give you an idea of what keywords your potential customers are searching for, how much competition there is for any given term, and which website keywords are the most popular.
It is important for you to know what search terms your potential customers are looking for. The keywords your customers are likely use when searching for your product may not be the ones you would think, especially if your business is one that has a lot of industry jargon. You may be tempted to use website keywords that don’t relate to your business just to bring in traffic, but this technique will always backfire, because the traffic it does generate is not interested in your website.
Keyword research will also give you an idea of how great the competition is for any given keyword or keyword phrase. It is important to know how many other websites use the same keywords and how many people are searching for them. The most effective website keywords for your optimisation strategy are the ones that are searched for the most with the least amount of competition. Weigh each keyword’s popularity with the amount of other websites already using it. You should always include the most popular ones but concentrate on getting ranked for the website keywords that have less competition.
Investing time in keyword research for your website will help you to increase traffic and get ranked higher by search engines. There are many tools available to help you find the right keywords. Google and Overture have some of the most popular website keyword research tools and there are many others that are free as well as paid keyword research programs such as Wordtracker.
By: Robert Smith
Posted on 25 September 2009
So you have developed your idea for a niche website and you’re raring to go, but before you go ahead and start writing content there is another vital step you should take. It seems so obvious and yet many people make the error of failing to take it. What is this critical next move? Keyword research.
The importance of keyword research
The effective use of keyword research can mean the difference between a website that climbs the search engine listings, has thousands of visitors each day and generates an excellent revenue and a website that goes unnoticed. Using niche keywords can improve your sales and boost your profits. Keywords or keyword phrases are the terms that a searcher types into a search engine to find whatever they’re looking for on the internet. Keyword research is the process of selecting the most appropriate keywords on order to optimize your search engine rankings and help lead visitors to your site.
How to research keywords
You don’t have to be a marketing expert to do your own keyword expert; there are already tools out there to help you. Two good examples are Instant Keyword Research and Keyword Elite. Both are simple tool to use and will save you a lot of time and leg work. The advantages of such a tool are obvious:
You can find more specifically targeted keywords
You can improve your search engine ranking
You can save time
You can increase your profits
You can generate large keyword lists
You can uncover negative keywords to avoid
Keyword analysis
Another advantage of using a keyword research tool is that it will give you an estimate on daily clicks per keyword and pay-per-click bid values. Why is this important? If you want to optimize your profits you need a heads up on the competition. These figures will allow you to analyze how many pages are competing for the top rankings and to focus your keywords.
How to use your keywords
Once you have completed your research and generated a list of targeted keywords you need to know where to place them on your website. Strategic placement will greatly improve your search engine ranking. It’s important not to fall into the trap of overusing them otherwise the search engines may interpret them as spam.
Optimal use of keywords is 3-7 times on each page
The title tag should contain your most important keywords, usually 5-6
Headings tags should contain your most important keywords or keyword phrases
Use keywords in hypertext links
Keyword content should be placed in the upper third portion of the text
Most Internet marketing experts will tell you that keyword research and proper usage means more to your website’s success than almost any other aspect. So take your time, do the research and create your content the right way.
By: Andy West
