This article assumes you already know what a 'meta-tag keyword' is and know a little about their importance to search engines. In this article I will attempt to explain the art of choosing the most appropriate and best performing keywords for your web pages.
As you should already know keywords contained within your websites' meta tags are extremely important in allowing search engines to determine the content of your web pages. In order to make sure that these keywords are bringing your site up within Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) and driving visitors to your site, the most important factors in determining your keywords are:
All your keywords should ALWAYS be relevant to the content within the page they describe. Adding keywords to your site just because they are commonly searched for words is not recommended. Not only will it frustrate visitors who are looking for other information, but it may well get your site black-listed from search engine rankings.
Highly relevant keywords will attract visitors who are actually interested in the products and services your website offers. At the end of the day, it is better to attract fewer visitors who actually have an interest in your website than it is to attract more visitors who leave immediately.
Although your keywords should all be relevant, sometimes it is best not to be too specific.
For example, I once discovered a new fossil (honest!), it was new to science so I named it, wrote a paper on it and had it published. I didn't ever build a web page dedicated to it, but if I had the most used keyword and most relevant word would have been the fossils name (Trypanites fosteryeomani). You might therefore think that it would be sensible to use this as one of my most important keywords? However, that would (at least to start with) have been wrong. No one else has ever heard of this fossil, so it is very unlikely that anyone would ever type its name into a search engine. And sure enough, a quick check shows that during Dec 2004 there wasn't a single search for this term within a particular, popular search engine.
I would therefore need to be more generic with my choice of keywords. The fossil itself was a trace fossil of a worm from the Jurassic, so keywords/phrases such as 'fossil', 'trace fossil' or 'worm trace fossil' may be more successful.
There are several tools available that allow you to check the number of times a particular word or phrase has been searched for. It is important to choose keywords that are regularly searched for and these tools can help in this decision. It is also worth including common mis-spellings of your most relevant keywords as your competitors may not have thought of this when choosing their keywords.
The section above may lead you to believe that choosing very generic keywords is your best bet as they are often searched for. However, if you get too generic in your choice of keywords then you will be competing with many more websites for the top spots in the SERPS. If we go back to our fossil example we can see what I mean. A quick search in Google brings up the following numbers of results:
As you would expect, the more generic we get, the more results we get. It can be seen then that choosing the best keywords is a matter of balancing the number of times the keywords are searched for against the number of other sites competing for rankings with those keywords. The best keywords will be those that are searched for often but have few competing sites (assuming the keywords are relevant to your content).
I find that it is best to have a balance between the generic and specific keywords relating to your web page and using key-phrases is a useful way of achieving this. In this way the entire key-phrase can be specific to your particular page, but the individual words within it are fairly generic.
e.g. Affordable Website Design Wales (4 generic keywords to create a specific key-phrase)
To Summarise, choosing keywords is an essential part of producing a successful website. Your keywords need to be highly relevant to the content of your page and specific enough to reduce competition. They also need to contain some generic keywords that are often searched for. As always, the single most important factor is relevancy and good content to go with the keywords.
Alan Cole runs Pixelwave Design, a one-person web design studio. His aim is to provide cost effective website design production and maintenance by offering professional web solutions that stand out from the crowd.
Pixelwave Design specialise in accessible, conformable search engine friendly websites.
"Owning your business category online is more than just a... Read More
Web site owners need to have realistic expectations when it... Read More
#1 question when it comes to web advertising is how... Read More
Visit Google, Yahoo, MSN or one of the lesser search... Read More
A while back, I read an article that explained how... Read More
It is no secret that Google and Yahoo are on... Read More
Welcome to the second part of our series of articles... Read More
More and more search engines rank your web pages based... Read More
The world of search engine optimization (SEO) can be a... Read More
Being listed in search engines and ranked high on searches... Read More
If you've been involved in SEO (search engine optimization) for... Read More
These days with millions of websites out there, you need... Read More
Back in November 2004 I discovered a way to get... Read More
The "Number One" Question - the question that I (and... Read More
Search engine marketing vs traditional offline marketing. Most often, traditional... Read More
Anyone involved in an Internet-based home business will soon come... Read More
Are Meta Tags Really Dead?Right in their Guidelines Yahoo Tells... Read More
I want to give you a few more things to... Read More
Question 1.What do you mean by conversion? Do you mean... Read More
Link building is a waiting game. Many clients have asked... Read More
The recent patent application filed by Google details numerous items... Read More
We all know that the search engines can't "see" or... Read More
Everyone knows that if your website has a high Google... Read More
Search engines love content. Graphics may make your site look... Read More
Time is a factorTo obtain positive results is not very... Read More
One of the key things to remember when developing your... Read More
The internet marketing industry is now flooded with various page... Read More
If you are like me, you created web site metatags... Read More
This is part 1 of a 7 part series that... Read More
All the great efforts made for making your own site,... Read More
Are you aware of how vitally important and valuable CONTENT... Read More
Think about the first thing you ever heard about "marketing... Read More
Search Engine Optimization is emerging as the most powerful form... Read More
The new MSN Search is quickly gaining popularity among internet... Read More
Definition:Google banning occurs when Google removes your site from its... Read More
It's unfortunate that many website owners are so hung-up on... Read More
Woaah! Wait a minute. Before I exclusively reveal these insider... Read More
If you have ever been into a McDonalds you will... Read More
Are you working on getting your web site up onto... Read More
When exploring good keyword choices there are several steps one... Read More
To get your website listed well in the major search... Read More
In part I - Google Page Rank Is Dead -... Read More
There is a way to generate links with the content... Read More
Welcome to part five in this search engine positioning series.... Read More
Why, you ask? Mainly, because search engines want to provide... Read More
Question 1Does it help to track visitor behavior on websites... Read More
Getting Honest With The Search EnginesI spend a lot of... Read More
Okay, you have a domain name, layout and content. Now... Read More
Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the amount... Read More
I don't know about you, but I felt a lot... Read More
Search Engine Optimization is a widely misunderstood industry. Many webmasters,... Read More
Search engines are constantly tweaking their ranking algorithms and when... Read More
PageRank - an exclusive technology developed by Google which can... Read More
With more and more experts and search engine enthusiastsclaiming the... Read More
Rankings, Rankings, Rankings!How do you get your website ranked well... Read More
My inbox this week provided glaring examples of three all... Read More
With the Internet beginning to stand up and be counted... Read More
Google use a very complex function to determine which search... Read More
Given that Google now provides over 75% of all Internet... Read More
What Are Search Engines?A search engine is a database system... Read More
I built my website, it's perfect. My chosen subject of... Read More
What are Search Engines?There are numerous different search engines, and... Read More
Getting your site noticed by the search engines and rewarded... Read More
Perhaps the simplest of all the lessons I have learned... Read More
Keyword research is certainly the most important phase in Search... Read More
Search Engine Optimization popularly known as SEO.SEO is the process... Read More
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |