Don't Pick
Single Word Phrases
If you
optimize for a keyword phrase consisting of 2-3 words, you
increase your chances that your site will be found. Yes, the
keyword popularity will be less than for a single word, but the
phrase will be more focused and your traffic will be more
relevant.
Here's an
example. There was one client who was convinced he had to have
the words "swimming pool" as his main keywords because his
company installed pools. Now even though the phrase "swimming
pool" is 2 words, it is still too general and someone using that
term in a search engine is going to get very general
non-relevant results - everything from swimming pool supplies to
hot tub spas.
The
searcher hunting for specific information for swimming pools may
initially search on the general term and then refine their
search when they see the non-relevant results. The key is:
put yourself into the mind of a customer. People wanting to
install an outdoor swimming pool don't buy from a company across
the country; they buy from a local pool company.
In this
case adding the town name to the keyword phrase "swimming pool"
and optimizing for the longer keyword phrase allowed this client
to get a top ranking in that keyword phrase and traffic that
converted into sales. The longer keyword phrase was less popular
than "swimming pool", but popular enough and more focused so
that it brought qualified motivated buyers to the site. Everyone
was happy: the client got more relevant traffic for his business
and the customers were better able to find a local swimming pool
maker.
One more
thing to keep in mind about your 2-3-word phrase is to keep the
phrase together, don't put a lot of other words between the
words in your phrase. Keyword adjacency is important. So if your
keyword phrase is "venomous American snakes" say "venomous
American snakes", don't say "venomous live-bearing reptiles and
snakes living in America."
Make It Relevant
Another rule to keep in mind when selecting keywords is to make
sure they are relevant for your site. Don't just pick something
off the Lycos Top Fifty list to try to drive traffic to your
site. Optimizing for "Britney Spears" only makes sense if your
site actually is about Britney Spears. The search engines
learned that scam ages ago and will at best, ignore them, or
worst, penalize you. There's no reason to spam if you optimize
your page correctly.
Divide And
Conquer
Don't try
to optimize your home page for every one of your keywords.
Focus your pages so 2-3 keywords are relevant per page.
Spread out the related keywords on other pages in your site.
This will create additional entry pages for visitors to enter
your site on.
Select 10
pages on your site and target 2-3 phrases per page as
appropriate. Since each page is targeted at specific phrases,
they will score higher than a "one size fits all" solution.
Keywords
Placement Counts
Once you
identify your keywords, it's time to put them to work. Search
engines read the HTML code on your Web page and score the page
based on established criteria. If the search engine finds
keywords in specific locations throughout the document, it will
assume that your page is very relevant to that keyword.
After you
strategically place your keywords on your page, be sure to
proof-read your page - and read it out loud. Make sure
the text on your page sounds natural, not artificially stuffed
with keywords. Remember, you have to please human visitors to
your site as well as search engines.
