Finding The Right SEO Keyword Combination
To some the process of SEO is a black art and like snake oil. That being said, it is clear that the choice of keywords in relevant positions on your pages does help drive traffic to your blog or web site. Keywords are just a small part, but a critical part in the wider context of web copy, and marketing speak on your site. If keywords are what get your pages in search results then it is the marketing orientated copy that helps catch the eye and bring the punters in. So if keywords are the building blocks to the text on your web site how do you best pick them and place them tentatively?
Well firstly, the trick is to choose keywords that are relevant, and which spring to mind when people are searching. Ask yourself, what you would search for when looking for say: “A place to drink in Birmingham, AL?”. If the answer is “drinks downtown birmingham, al”, then those are the kinds of terms you need to include in page titles, descriptions, keywords, titles and paragraphed content. Critical keywords should be included in the URL.
You also need to think of key phrases, people will just as frequently hit 2 or 3 word phrases as they will search on individual words. Indivudual words work better then they are unique or unusual such as “naturopathy”. In addition, when thinking about terms or phrases you need to consider plurality. “Keyword” as a keyword will be matched with any instance of “keywords”, so in many respects it is better to use terms in the plural when trying to produce traffic from potential clients.
Secondly, you want to try and dominate keyword terms that are perhaps a little less “busy”. It’s easier to fight for second spot and get the lesser market share than to aim for the top, at first, and drive the #1 competitor from their spot. Terms that are searched for 6,000 times are just as good as those that are searched for 15,000 times. Use the omniture keyword search tool to try and figure out the best terms to use initially.
Thirdly, once you have updated the site and the impact of your keyword choice is taking effect you should monitor your choice of words using your favourite web log analyzer, examples include Analog, Awstats, Urchin, or even better, Google Analytics. Modify the terms as required to help improve the kind of coverage and hits you get. Unless your site is high content and high traffic, the search engines are not going to update it in their indexes as often, so you need to pull out the tricks hat to make sure they do.
Sounds simple, and for the most part it is, but there is a certain art to it that you gain with experience. At least start by thinking logically and then let the feedback from Google et al help divine the path you take with your search term hit choice.
