Keyword research is one of the most important parts of online marketing. Sometimes we dont realize just how much of a difference it can make in the overall success of a search engine marketing campaign or even the success of an online business. In fact, its my belief that the keyword phrasethe term that a searcher types into the search engine when theyre searchingcan make or break online business. Target the wrong keyword phrases and an online business is destined to fail.
Domain names by themselves are no longer the most valuable location on the internetkeywords are. If you buy a domain name and put up a website, visitors wont automatically flock to your website and buy your products. The popular phrase if you build it they will come is not true when it comes to online businesses. You must market your website online, and one of the best forms of ROI for an online business is through search engine marketing. All search engine marketing campaigns need to start with a set of keywords. Its those keywords that are an online business location, just as a traditional brick and mortar stores location is a physical street address.
Location, Location, Location
If youre considering opening a gas station, one of the most important decisions related to the success of the gas station is going to be its location. Selling gas near a busy highway where there is a large traffic count would be ideal. So, its logical to get the traffic count data for several locations before deciding where to purchase land and build your gas station. In the online marketing world, we have the opportunity to get traffic counts as wellthe average number of searches per day for certain keyword phrases. By positioning your online business in the proper keyword locations, your online business will thrive. Target the wrong keyword phrases and your online business wont get any search engine traffic, and no potential customers will visit your website.
If youre a brick and mortar business that sells power tools, proper keyword research can be a tremendous helpeven before you set up your online business. Keyword research can tell you exactly which power tools are more popular onlinewhich may be different than the best selling power tools in your retail store. Armed with this knowledge, you can focus on the more popular products that customers are looking for online. For example, did you know that more people search for portable generators online than any other type of power tool Perhaps this is due to the recent weather-related disasters that have hit the United States or the pending winter weather, but focusing on selling portable generators online might be good for business. Keyword research using Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com) gives us this valuable informationit can also give us the list of other power tools that are being searched for, which will be a good start for a list of keywords.
Keyword Research Tools
There many online keyword research tools, and many of them work differently and provide you with different data. Oftentimes there will be differences in the data, and thats primarily due to the actual source of the data. For example, according to Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com), one of the most popular keyword research tools, All search terms are collected from the major metacrawlers - Dogpile and Metacrawler. Yahoo! Search Marketing, formerly Overture, still has the free Overture Keyword Selector Tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/), whose data comes directly from their databasethe keyword data is usually one month old. Searches performed there in October will show data compiled from September.
Other keyword research tools exist, and youll need to check each of the tools websites to determine where they get their data. Remember that using a combination of several online keyword research tools will help, as getting a second or third opinion is always a good practice. The following is a list of the keyword research tools:
Wordtracker - www.wordtracker.com
NicheBot - www.nichebot.com
Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool - http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
Keyword Discovery - http://www.keyworddiscovery.com
Free Keyword Research Tool - http://www.apogee-web-consulting.com/tools/keyword_tool.php
There is a good list of more keyword research tools on the SEO Company website at http://www.seocompany.ca/tool/seo-tools.html.
Keyword research is an important part of the overall search engine marketing process. You must have a list of keywords to target whether your goal is organic search engine rankings or a advertising with a pay per click campaign. Target the right words and your online business will be a successfocusing on keywords that describe exactly what youre selling will provide the best overall return on investment. Target the wrong keywords and youll end up with the wrong type of visitors to your website or no visitors at all.
Bill Hartzer manages the Search Engine Marketing division of , a leading full-service interactive design and development firm in Dallas, Texas. Hartzer recently joined MarketNet, where his vast experience significantly bolsters MarketNets already robust search engine marketing offerings.
Hartzer has infused MarketNet with his enthusiasm and vision for search marketing. Together with the companys leaders, Hartzer is focused on developing results-oriented paid and organic search marketing programs to help clients increase visibility, broaden reach and maximize their return on investment.
What are keywords and why are they so important in optimizing your website
Keywords, basically, are the words or phrases that are most associated with the subject of your business. These are the terms that people will most likely use to search for information about the topic of your website.
For example, your website is dedicated to the general subject of cat care. The keywords that are applicable for your business should be:
cat care
care cat
care of a cat
cat care clinic
cat care society
care of my cat
take care of my cat
take care of a cat
cat health care
to take care of a cat
how to take care of a cat
care for a cat
care of cat
care for cat
care of your cat
to care for a cat
how to care for a cat
taking care of a cat
cat dental care
persian cat care
There are more, most definitely, but these examples should give you a good idea on how to come up with the most effective keywords for your online business.
You could manually think of 1000s of applicable keywords, but such would be a brain buster. Instead, check out the tools found on the following websites:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox
http://www.inventory.overture.com
http://www.goodkeywords.com
The features on these sites will give you a lot of suggestions for possible keywords which you can use. Once you have selected your keywords, its time to put them to good use. Here are the things that you should do with them:
Populate your websites content with the keywords. Try to insert 2 to 4 keywords per 100 words. This will give you a 2 to 4 percent density level, which many experts believe is the optimal amount of keywords to attract the attention of the search engine spiders without compromising the logical integrity of your content.
Remember, just because you use the keywords in your content, doesnt mean that the readability of your content should be sacrificed. Always keep in mind that you have to keep your content informative.
Insert the keywords in your meta tags. Meta tags are HTML codes that help the search engine spiders to identify your web pages. Simply include the following tag in your source code:
Please Note: In each of the HTML instances below, to create PROPER html tags you will need to replace [ with < AND ] with >.
[META name=keywords content=(place your keywords here with each term separated by a comma)]
Meta tags should also be present for your title, with the use of the tag [title] , as well as your headlines, with the use of the tag [h1], [h2], [h3] and so on and so forth.
Heres an example of a title tag for your source code:
[title]An Introduction To Cat Care[title]
And heres an example of a headline tags:
[h1]Why Should You Care For Your Cat[h1]
[body](the appropriate part of your content goes here)[body]
[h2]How To Start Caring or Your Cat[h2]
[body](the appropriate part of your content goes here)[body]
Use your keywords in your ALT tags. ALT tags is the alternative text that appears every time the mouse cursor passes over an image. It is advisable that you have a working knowledge of HTML for this, though most HTML editors like Microsoft Front Page and Macromedia Dreamweaver have features that will make this easier.
It is important to note how search engine spiders read your website. Once they have pinpointed your page, courtesy of the meta tags in your source code, the search engine spiders will read your content from the uppermost left part of the page going to the extreme right, and back left in the next line, much like how a web surfer will view your site.
It is therefore essential that the uppermost left portion of your webpage contains your keywords. This can be done by including the said keywords in your title.
Your first paragraph is critical. Make sure to include your keywords in the very first sentence, and also try to mention your keywords at least twice in the rest of the paragraph. Succeeding paragraphs need only mention your keywords at least once.
Divide your content into paragraphs, and introduce a shift in subtopic with a sub-headline. The sub-headline should also include your keywords.
Lastly, about the bottommost right portion of a web page, many people are actually having a hard time figuring out how to include the keywords in this section. Heres a simple trick. The bottommost right portion of a page is usually reserved for your copyright notice. In our running example of a business involved with cat care, where cat care are the primary keywords, you could use the copyright format below:
2005 cat care
That should do it, right
Keyword research and website optimization are only a small part of getting high search engine rankings. I will cover other strategies in coming articles.
Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan
Mal Keenan is publisher of Home Business Tips newsletter: Download his FREE Report with Loads More Search Engine Tips and other Strategies for Running a Successful Online Business: