KEYWORD SEO: FINDING WORDS AND PHRASES THAT PAY
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Search engines are largely an index of words and phrases; a virtual library of indexed words. Every time you search for something on Google™, you are asking the search engine to find the web pages that contain the words and phrases you entered. So the goal for every website should be to include those SEO keywords and phrases into the content of their site so people will know where to find you, right? Well, the reality is that most websites don’t. When it comes to SEO keywords, many people just assume that customers will find them by chance or that they simply don’t pick the right keywords to begin with, because they guess. By guessing which keywords and phrases to use, most companies actually get it wrong. You need to begin with the research necessary to truly understand what people are using to find you, using search engines. This is where an SEO consultant can help.
Start With Keyword SEO Discovery
Although keyword discovery should be the first process in building a website, most websites are actually built before keywords are considered. So how important is starting with keyword discovery? Well, keywords can help determine your URL address, your title tags, meta tags, header lines, written content, and your inbound textual links. In short, just about everything that you need for optimal search engine optimization (SEO).
To aid in the SEO keyword discovery process, good SEO firms utilize a number of tools to find terms people search with, how often those terms are searched, who the competition is for those terms and what similar terms are also used. Most companies think they know what keywords to use but a good keyword analysis shows words and phrases that they never thought of using before. Ultimately, it comes down to competition - those who compete the smartest and the best way to win the game.
Competitive Keyword Analysis Made Easy
Competitive analysis on the internet is perhaps the most publicly exposed, yet least utilized, aspect of SEO keyword analysis. Websites are seen around the world, almost anyone can access and analyze practically all aspects of the top performing web pages on the internet, including those of your competitors. If your competitors have a top search engine ranking on Google™, then every keyword both on and behind their page is available for view. You can see what keywords they are using, where they are using them, and how many times they are used. This is where an SEO consultant can “open the hood of the engine” to analyze the information for you.
Another consideration is the overall competition for the SEO keywords you choose. Just because a competitor might use certain keywords doesn’t always mean that they are the best fit for your business. Remember, each growing business should have a competitive advantage – what it is that makes you unique from you competitors, i.e. sets you apart. This is important to understand when considering which keywords to use. An SEO consultant will be able to find the keywords utilized by your competitors, and show you all the similar search keywords and phrases for you to consider when choosing keywords and phrases. Ideally, you want to find those SEO keywords that have the highest search to competition ratio and weigh them against other aspects of your competition including, the amount of content and links. SEO consultants utilize special search optimization traffic tools to help you find the best SEO keyword based on these competitive parameters.Keyword Bolding and Emphasis
Much like a book, bolding and italicizing text makes the word stand out to the reader. The same is true for the search engines. If you are utilizing SEO keywords in your content, you can send signals to the search engine spiders that certain keywords and phrases are more important than others. This of course should be done in moderation and should look natural to both the reader and the search engines.
Keyword Prominence, Relevance & Repetition
Once you have selected good SEO keywords and phrases to use on your website, it is equally important to utilize those keywords in the correct locations of each web page. Remember, you are trying to optimize each web page on your website, not just your home page. As a result, each page must have its own SEO strategy and selected keywords, and be positioned in prominent areas on the page so the search engine spiders can distinguish their importance. These areas include the title tags, meta description tags, header tags, and the earlier sections of your content and paragraphs. Much like people who have a low attention span for deep reading, so do search engine spiders when it comes to indexing millions of web pages. So use your SEO keywords in the key areas of your website. It is also important to repeat the usage of these keywords as well, just make sure to do so in moderation so you are not penalized for overuse.Keyword Combinations
A good SEO strategy will uncover a long list of SEO keywords and phrases, many of which are used in combination with other words. For example, if I search the term “customer feedback” as the best description for my website, a good keyword analysis will show that “customer feedback” is also used in “customer feedback system.” By using this term, I am indexing both keyword phrases in one use. This also applies to plural words as well. If I use both words “consultant” and “consultants” used to describe my business, using the plural “consultants” will incorporate both words in one use.
Using SEO Keywords in More Places
Search engines look at and index many structural elements of your website in addition to your content. They also look at file names, ALT tags and the directory structure of your website. If you have pages in your website that branch off from your home page, do those names in your tree structure include your keywords? How about the internal links to the pages within your website? Or how about the images on your website – what are the file names for those images and do they include your keywords and phrases? Moreover, do your images also include ALT tags that include your keywords? If not, they should. The bottom line is, outside of content, there are a number of places on your website both on and off page that should utilize your keywords and phrases.