Search
Engine Positioning- "Keyword Selection"
This is what many of us
take for granted when optimizing our site for higher search engine
rankings.
Selecting the optimum
search phrases that people are likely to use when searching the Internet
for your products/services is actually not as simple as it might seem.
For example, our site may be about "Search Engine Ranking",
but there are many other possible word combinations that could bring in
traffic to our site, some of which might not be so obvious.
For example, this website occupied
a #1 position on AOL against
the search phrase "search engine ranking"- that brought in an
average of around 110 visitors per day. At the same time we occupied a #1 position on AOL
for "search engines" which brought in an average of 650
visitors per day. However, the inquiry rate when we hit the top spot
against the latter term did not increase any. The people who were being
more specific in their searches and using the term "ranking"
were far more likely to be looking for one of our services than those people
just using the more generic term "search engines".
This is an important point to
consider. If for example your site were in the business sector of
providing mortgages and home loans for people with poor credit history,
you might think having a #1 listing against "mortgages" would
be good. In fact it would probably bring in a great deal of traffic, but
most visitors would take a quick look and leave. A top 5 listing against
"bad credit mortgages" would probably bring in one tenth of
the traffic, but your inquiry rate would be much higher. The point here
is that most people who are serious about finding a service/product will
take the time to add an extra word or two to their search, and locate a
more specific range of search results.
There are various websites
offering ways of helping you determine the search terms that
people are using to find products and services related to yours.
Notice that I am focusing
here on selecting search phrases and less so on 'Keywords' tags and such
like. Once you have determined the optimum phrases that will deliver the
most targeted traffic, you can look at our "keywords" use
section, and how to construct a good Meta Tag. Keywords
Next Stage - Body Text
Or
read more about Keyword selection
