What are keywords?
The words that people type when searching for information using search engines are known as keywords.
Inexperienced surfers tend to use single keywords that encompass a broad range of topics.
More experienced surfers tend to use keyword phrases which result in more focused search results.
For example - two surfers are searching for engagement rings.
- The inexperienced surfer will typically type "jewelry" as their search word.
- The more experienced of the two will probably type "diamond engagement ring" or "diamond engagement jewelry" as their search phrase.
But nearly all surfers are lazy and it is quite rare to find search phrases of more than three to four words.
What is the importance of keywords?
The use of properly researched keywords is the foundation of search engine optimization.
In its simplest form, search engine optimization consists of two processes:
- Finding which keywords, related to the theme of a web page, surfers are using when when searching for information on the web.
- Strategically placing these keywords into the web page content, in such a manner, that the web page details will be appear in any search made using those keywords.
There is nothing devious or complicated about this process.
It is a methodical and logical process, but it takes a fair bit of time to accomplish (this is probably why people don't like doing it).
How do you research keywords?
There is an incredibly useful resource called WordTracker that maintains a searchable database of keywords and phrases that have been searched for in each search engine. From these records you can find keywords that are regularly searched for, but which do not have many competing web pages.
More specifically, WordTracker will allow you to carry out an intensive search for keywords related to the theme of your web page and will provide you with:
The free trial version is adequate for preliminary research (for finding broad categories), but the paid version is vital for narrowing the search for keywords to use in your web page.
You can get a paid membership for one day (which sometimes lasts for three) and do all the research necessary for a number of websites.
Your goal should be to make a list of as many keywords and keyword phrases as possible that are related to the theme of your website.
Once you have this list, you need to choose keywords and phrases that have little competition (and have a high KEI number).
Your research should be done for the Google search engine as it is the biggest and a lot of the other search engines are trying to emulate it.
Use WordTracker to research your keywords using the following guidelines:
- Find and research suitable single words that broadly define your website content.
To find these single words, imagine you are a lazy surfer. What single words would you use to find information pertaining to your website theme.
- Drill down within these single word categories and find other search phrases that people are using.
Stick to words and phrases that are relative to your website theme. You are trying to find the particular words and phrases that people are searching for.
- Save your results in a spreadsheet by copying the KEI analysis page and pasting it into your spreadsheet. You may need to sort these results:
- Alphabetically
- By KEI number
- By the number of searches
- Repeat the process until you have exhausted all related keyword and keyword phrase possibilities.
Sort your list of keywords by KEI number and look through them. You will want those that have at least 50 visits per 60 day period.
If you are new to this and you want to be pretty certain you will get a reasonable search engine ranking, only choose keywords that have a maximum of 1000 competing pages.
You will now have a drastically reduced number of available keywords and phrases that are related to your website theme.
there are two ways to use these keywords:
- Choose only those keywords or phrases that closely fit the theme of each of your web pages and write your web page content using these keywords. This is covered in the how to write great content section.
Or...
- Create new web pages based on the keywords or phrases in your list. A good way to do this is to write articles based on these keywords or phrases and create an article directory or archive. This is covered in the how articles can increase website traffic section.
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