Keywords really are the key if you want to get top search engine rankings.
Selecting the right keywords for your site is one of the most important areas of Web marketing – and one that’s sadly too often overlooked. When you combine the right keywords with well-constructed meta tags you are virtually guaranteed to get a top position on search engines.
And you don’t necessarily have to spend a fortune on search engine optimisation experts.
The key to search engine optimisation is to have good, relevant content on your website.
And how do you create good, relevant content? Well, first you need to lay the right foundation.
You need to find the right keywords
Pick the right words and phrases for your website and you are well on the way to attracting visitors. Pick the wrong words and you will sabotage your search engine optimisation efforts.
So what are keywords? They’re the words that people are most likely to use when searching for your product or service on the Internet.
You must pick popular keywords to get top search engine rankings. But you also need words for which there is not too much competition. You need to find a niche market.
Let’s say your business is selling golfing equipment. A potential customer for your products might type “golfing equipment” into a search engine. Or they might type a variety of other words or phrases. (People usually search using phrases rather than single words.)
They might type in “golf clubs” or “golf equipment” or “golfing stores” … or many other possible variations.
Or maybe your potential customers are not looking specifically to buy golfing equipment right now. They might just be surfing the Net looking for information on golf. Wouldn’t it be great if somehow they came across your website during their search?
They will if you pick the right keywords. And if your website also provides lots of relevant information about golf, based around those keywords, your potential customers have a good reason to stick around and check out your site.
If they find lots of interesting information there, they’ll keep coming back. And eventually they will (hopefully) buy your products.
So how do you pick the right keywords?
Now we’re getting to the heart of search engine optimisation. You need to select the right keywords to create a niche market for your website.
You can do this by guess work. But you run the risk of picking words and phrases for which there’s already a lot of competition. And that’s not what you want.
Fortunately, there’s a much better way. You can use a special service called Wordtracker to help select the best keywords. You’ll find words and phrases that are in high demand by web searchers but in relatively low supply.
If you’re serious about search engine optimisation, you really can’t do without Wordtracker. Using this service, you can experiment with lots of different words and phrases that are related to your business. Wordtracker will tell you which keywords have the best demand-supply ratio.
These are the words and phrases around which you will built the content of your website.
Sprinkle your keywords through your Web page
You must use your main keywords – or key phrase – liberally throughout your page. It helps, too, if some of the keywords are in bold. This is an extra bonus that will encourage the search engine “spiders” to give greater weighting to your keywords – and give you a better ranking.
Don’t forget to include your keywords in the TITLE tags in your meta tags to boost your chances to get a top position in the search engine rankings.
Your can read more about meta tags in a special page on this site devoted to the subject.
Five top keyword tips
1) If you haven’t already chosen your domain name, use your main keywords in your domain name. This is an important point that search engine optimisation experts don’t emphasise enough. It will give you an extra edge over your competition.
2) Use your main keywords in the TITLE tag in your meta tags.
3) Use your main keywords in the headline on your page. This is almost as important as the TITLE tag.
4) Use your main keywords in the first paragraph of the page.
5) Use your main keywords liberally throughout the page.