Search Engine Optimisation Meta Tags Choosing Keywords What Search Engines? Directories Pay Per Click FAQs

Getting a high listing on Search Engines which brings you the results you need depends on focusing on the words people are likely to type in to search engines to find your site. It may be easy to get a top ranking for your own company name - but how many people know it? As part of any promotion strategy, you need to select the right phrases for your market.  If you need assistance find out more on our Resources Section. 

Target the wrong keywords and it is a wasted effort. Choose the right keywords, and you'll see your traffic grow and sales increase. Therefore, think long and hard on what keywords people are likely to use to find you.

The question to ask yourself is how do you really know if you're optimising your pages for keywords that Web surfers are looking for? There are several good techniques you can apply to determine what people might be searching for:

a) Put yourself in their shoes and brainstorm. Ask around the office, the Pub, or at home what other people would type in if they were looking for your site.

b) See what keywords your competitors are targeting by typing some of these phrases into major search facilities your target market use.

c) Organize and focus your keywords into short phrases, etc.

However, the best way is to stop guessing and actually SEE what people are searching for. There are a number of free and inexpensive tools available to help you do this which you can find in our Resources Section

Here's the strategy we recommend:

1. Brainstorm on what general words apply to your industry and list them all out in a word processor or on paper.

2. Next, conduct a search for a few of them on a major search engine and then travel to the sites you find in that search.

3. View the HTML source code for the page and write down the keywords used in the Meta tags and any you see on the visible page. You'll quickly find a variety of keywords you hadn't considered before. This does not mean these are the best keywords to target, but it can help you in your brainstorming process.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you only write down words and phrases that specifically apply to YOUR business! You don't want to waste time targeting keywords that will not bring you high quality leads.

If you follow the procedure we've just outlined, you'll soon have a list of dozens, if not hundreds of keyword phrases you could target on all of the search engines. There are literally 1000's of opportunities available for any business. Find YOUR niche, make sure it's one that people are looking for, then pursue it!

Some of the keywords are going to be much more competitive than others. For example, ranking well on the single word "travel" will be much more difficult than ranking in the top 10 for "Caribbean cruises." Remember that single keywords usually return the least targeted leads. If someone is searching on just plain old "travel" are they:

Helping their child with an exam on some aspect of "travel". Looking for the "travel program". Looking to plan a cruise? Day dreaming about time travel?  Looking for driving instructions for their travel in Europe? Looking for a travel agent? Wanting to travel to Mars? etc., etc.

If you own a travel agency that specialises in cruises and optimised your site for the single keyword "travel," only a limited number of the people identified in the example above would be qualified prospects. You'd find a great number of search engine referrals to your site if you attained a good ranking on the keyword, but many of them would select the "back" button in their browsers, turn around and effectively walk out of your online business! That's not the outcome you should be looking for. When you target longer keyword phrases there is a much higher likelihood that you have focused in on exactly the right prospects. It's the difference between attracting actual buyers versus time wasters.

The best thing to do is to target multi-word keyword phrases that give you the highest quality leads. For example, we sell search engine optimisation software, but we don't waste our efforts trying to rank #1 on the word search. That's just too general, not to mention too competitive.

Amazingly, the majority of Web site owners are targeting the incorrect keywords. A recent study showed that only 34% of Web site owners knew enough to include a the appropriate words on their Web page! Therefore, just by adding in a proper title tag, meta description and properly optimising the rest of the page for your keywords, you'll be doing far more than the 66% of Web site owners have ever done! If you take the time to target the RIGHT keywords, you'll be ahead of 99% of the world and you'll be generating more traffic with less effort. Targeting key words and phrases does work! It is probably the way you found this web site!

Don't think you just have to add words to the keywords tag. All major search engines (with the exception of Inktomi) ignore the keyword tag. You need the correct words on the page - not hidden away!

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Search Engine Optimisation, Meta Tags, Choosing Keywords, What Search Engines?, Directories, Pay Per Click, FAQs

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