Archive for November, 2009

Get Keyword Rich, Not Keyword Stuffed

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Producing a keyword rich page means creating text for your site that rhythmically uses your keywords.  This involves incorporating your keywords multiple times within your content to get a top ranking for that keyword.  In creating your keyword rich content, keep these tips in mind:

  1. Avoid over using keywords as search engines may penalize or ban your site for keyword stuffing.
  2. Content should be relevant to each page, not the website as a whole.
  3. Text should contain great, readable, useful, current information for your clients.  Steer clear of content that is simply redundant and unnecessary repetition of keywords.

Search engines typically read the beginning of a page, so try to keep as many keywords at the top, then distribute them proportionally throughout the rest of the page. Also, if it is possible to continue the flow of your content without sounding too redundant, include your keywords in the first and last sentence of each paragraph.

Since search engines do not publish their rules for keyword usage, there unfortunately is no trick to deciding how many keywords to use per page.  There is however a strategy to where you should place keywords.  Include keywords in the headline, title, subtitle, subheadings, paragraphs/body, images (alt tags), meta tags, links, and url’s (domain and page names).  Use your keywords strategically, and you will notice an increase in volume and quality of traffic to your website.

Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

The Hunt for Keywords

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Since keywords are the foundation to SEO, it is crucial to select the best keywords possible.  To ensure successful optimization for your site, opt for words and phrases that include both of the following:

  1. Words/phrases that your customers are most likely to use in a search
  2. Words/phrases that best describe the content of your site

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes.  For example, when was the last time you did a one word search?  Probably not in a while because you know the results would be way too broad.  With millions of websites available today, competition for one word searches are much too aggressive.  So try using words and phrases instead of a single word. Need ideas? Google provides a free Keyword Tool, an amazingly user friendly tool that aids in finding new keyword ideas.  Simply type in a few phrases that your customers would use to search for your site, and BAM!  The Google Keyword Tool generates a list of your keywords along with suggested keywords.  For each word or phrase on the list, Google provides Advertiser Competition Rating, Local Search Volume, and Global Monthly Search Volume.  Good words to use ideally have a high search volume and a low advertiser competition rating. Here are some tips to consider when choosing keywords:

  • Location. Location. Location.  If your service/product is offered in a specific location, use your location as an element in building a keyword/phrase.  Take into account whether your customers would include a location in a search for your service.  For example: “Pizza Delivery Las Vegas” as opposed to “Pizza Delivery”.
  • Search engines differentiate between singular and plural words.  For example, the word “computer” and “computers” would bring up different search results.
  • Consider the order in which the words are placed.  For example “repair manual” and “manual repair” bring up different search results.

Tags: ,
Posted in Google Adwords, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

Go Organic!

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

How do you get your website to rank higher without paying for each click? One way is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  SEO uses free or “organic” search results to gain visitors.

The SEO process determines the most successful keywords and phrases people use to search for your particular industry.  Those keywords are then used to optimize sections in the HTML coding of your website pages.  These sections are read by the search engines and are used to match people’s keyword searches with relevant websites.  SEO not only increases volume, but also improves the quality of traffic to your website.

Organic search listings, as opposed to sponsored or paid search listings typically have better placement on the search results page.  While organic search results are pulled up in the main body of the search results page, sponsored search listings appear on the sides of the page.  Since organic search listings are usually clicked on more often than the sponsored search listings, it is vital that companies optimize their sites in order to ensure the best placement possible.

Although a good SEO company can work on an existing site, the best time to optimize is during the developmental and planning stages.  This way, you can be sure your entire site is designed to be search engine-friendly.

We will be sharing many more tips on how to optimize your own site in upcoming articles! For up to date info and tips on SEO and online marketing, follow us on Twitter.

If you’d like to go organic and see the difference that SEO can do for your site, click here

Tags:
Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »