Find Best Keywords For Your Site

Keyword optimisation is probably the most important thing that you want to concentrate on with regards to search engine optimisation (SEO). Unfortunately, not many people know this, or do enough to optimise their sites' keywords. Before I knew the importance of keyword optimisation, I used to pluck any keywords that seemed relevant to my site, insert them into my title tag and meta tags, then submitted my site to the search engines. And then wondered why I didn't really get much traffic.

Well, now I've learnt something: make sure you don't rush, and you have to do your due research to find out what exactly are the keywords that are best for your site.

To do this, take a good look at the first page of your website, and really try to get a feel of what that page is about. Is the theme clear and defined? Or are there too many conflicting topics on that single page?

Your readers and the search engines prefer a single themed page that focuses on one particular topic, so try to keep to a subject. Split your page up into multiple pages if you find it to be too long or too complex.

Once you've done that, try to find the keywords of your page. These are the words or phrases that can best describe your content. Put yourself in your readers' shoes: what kind of words or phrases would they use if they wanted to find a page like yours through a search engine? Make a list of these keywords and keyphrases, and don't worry about making it as long as you want, you can scratch off all the excess keywords later.

Your goal is to try to find the one or two keywords that are best for your site, and optimise your site for them. Also try to remove those highly competitive, single-word keywords such as "books", "dvds", "mp3", "toys", "computers". You don't want these keywords, because it is so hard to get a good ranking with them. Hundreds of thousands of other websites are targeting these highly popular keywords, and it is simply not worth your effort.

Remember, it is always better to rank 5th for a less popular search term than to be ranked 500th for a highly popular search term! Choose keywords or keyphrases that still have searches done for them, but are not that competitive.

To have an estimate on the popularity of a search term, use a free service such as Overture's keyword suggestion tool to get a rough guide on the number of searches done. Run your list through the free keyword suggestion tool and Overture will be able to tell you how many times a particular term was searched for during the last month. This keyword suggestion tool is great to get a general idea of where your keywords stand.

You may also want to consider WordTracker, which is a paid service, but gives you a much clearer picture on which keywords are better to optimise for. WordTrack does offer a trial option, so you can make use of that to try out their service, or search for good keywords if you just have a small, one-time website project.

Once you have an idea of the popularity of the keywords and keyphrases in your list, consider scratching off the less commonly used terms. You might also discover some new terms with those tools as well, and you can add them to your list.

And that's it! You should now have a list of good, medium-popularity keywords and keyphrases. Make sure you repeat this process for each of your pages, and have a slighlty different list for every page that you have.

Alvin Poh has been specialising in web development, content distribution, advertising and marketing strategies since 1995. His goal is to provide practical information based upon his years of experience to help webmasters, website designers, and self-employed people achieve their goals in today's competitive Internet. At his site, you can learn how to make money online.

---

A Play In The Sandbox Is Necessary

There has been a good deal written about the Google... Read More

What is Your Sales Message?

So you built a website, you have a product, but... Read More

Pay Per Click Versus ?Organic? Search Engine Listings - The Pros and Cons and Best Uses for Each

What's the difference?For those who aren't quite clear what the... Read More

Submitting Your Site to Search Engines and Directories

Regardless of which type of business you currently have, you... Read More

The Google Sandbox ? A Frustrating Inevitability or a Golden Opportunity?

IntroductionThe Google Sandbox is a term applied to the phenomenon... Read More

How To Rank High On MSN Search

The new MSN Search is quickly gaining popularity among internet... Read More

How Search Engines Connect Sellers and Buyers

Maggie knows how to find what she wants. She lets... Read More

Mindset from Yahoo!- Changing the SEO Game

Yahoo! has a developed a new concept in search engine... Read More

All About Google

If you read The Search Engine Showdown,... Read More

SEO Facts

The internet is the largest market place on earth. It... Read More

The Real Search Engine Optimization Guide

Nowadays, there is so much talk about SEO (search engine... Read More

Building Link Popularity with Topical Articles

One of the important factors in ranking high in search... Read More

The Google Phenomenon: Greatest Hits Collection

As my readers know, I've been one of Google's harshest... Read More

Got Spiders?

Many internet marketers blow mountains of start-up cash on their... Read More

PageRank for Websites: Is There More to the Web?

Google's PageRank has been around for years, and in the... Read More

Gaining Additional PageRank

Google is the major search engine webmasters have to deal... Read More

How To Avoid The 3 Biggest Title Tag Mistakes With Search Engines

Your title tag is the most important 3 to 12... Read More

Common Sense Approach to Search Engine Optimization

Most web surfers start their sessions at a search engine... Read More

Basics to Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization popularly known as SEO.SEO is the process... Read More

How To Boost Your Keyword Density On Your Web Site To Gain Top Positions At The Search Engines

Let's talk about what keyword density is and how to... Read More

Search Engine Optimization Explained

Search Engine Listing And OptimizationIn the world of website marketing,... Read More

Press Release + PRWeb = Top Google Rank... True or False?

I've always been a big time press release aficionado.And up... Read More

Search Engine Ranking - What Works Now

The methods employed to increase your search engine rankings may... Read More

Are Your SEO Efforts Going To Waste?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a long and complicated process... Read More

Search Engine Optimization --- An Overview

Search engine optimization is one of most popular online marketing... Read More

How to Get the Best Deal on Your SEO Project

If you own or manage a business Website, chances are... Read More

Opinion ? Search Engine Success

This article is actually the summary to a book soon... Read More

Link Building Services

In today scenario when we talk about Search Engine Optimization,... Read More

Branding Versus SEO

Branding versus search engine optimization is a marketing dilemma that... Read More

Googles New SEO Rules

Google has recently made some pretty significant changes in its... Read More

Search Engine Visibility - The Mantra of Corporate Profitability

The corporate fundamentals are par excellence! The product is unsurpassable... Read More

Should You Buy Text Links?

You can rank number one (Or at least in the... Read More

Search Engine Optimization, Positioning: Is Chasing Google Algorithms Worth It?

Google is the undisputed heavyweight champion of search engines. Most... Read More