As stated previously in Keyword Research Tool it’s so very important to your overall success. Do not take keyword research lightly if you want to get top indexing with Google, or any of the major search engines.
Often to my sheer surprise I continually come across websites that are not using Keywords, Titles or Meta descriptions. So do your homework and understand what is required to rank well . Below I give you the step by step process so you can refine your keyword research and break it down into a well thought out plan. Keywords will always be important as it is a means for search engines to match relevant websites to a users search query.
- Visit your competitor’s website. Use your mouse and right click and choose from the sub menu “ view page source” If your competition is on the ball you should see the html tag <meta keywords>
- The intent is not to copy your competitor’s keywords, but rather to show you the keywords your competition is using, placement and how they are structured. All too often I find competitors keywords not relevant, or the keywords are so competitive it’s not likely performing the intended purpose which is to have your business show up in the SERPS ( Search Engine Results Page)
- Once you understand your competitors and which keywords they are using you should write down names which describe your business. Because you are intimate with your business you should choose others to write down words and keyword phrases they would use when doing a search for your product and or service
- Now take your list of keywords and keyword phrase compiled from your own study and that of your friends and family members and put them in one list in a word processing package
Competitiveness Analysis
- Now you need to check those keywords and keyword phrases with either Google’s keyword research tool, Google’s Adwords ( requires an account) or use a service like Keyword Eye
- Your goal is to find a handful of competitive keywords which still have enough user search results you can generate traffic from users organic searches. Mid to low volume of total monthly searches with low to medium competition
- You should understand there are certain keywords which are extremely competitive; it would be extremely expensive and highly unlikely you will rank if you compete for the highly popular keywords and keyword phrases
- Take all of the words and phrases you compiled and run them through the test to see how many searches there are for each word or phrase for both Local (your country) and Global (worldwide) searches. If you are a local barber as an example then concentrate fully on local searches and not global.
- Now that you have found the keywords and keyword phrases which are low competition you can take those same keywords and keyword phrases and spread them about your website pages which had previously been prepared. Pay close attention to making the words fit properly as to remain relevant to your niche and not come across as spammy ( repeatedly the same keywords for the intention of ranking) Remember you want good quality content with good readability.
- I actually believe it’s best to create your content and then do your keyword research since your content will look natural and not like you were trying to write to get the best organic search ranking. It will flow better for you if you sprinkle the keywords throughout your webpages.
Google’s Panda Updates and what is means to your business
Since the advent of Google’s Panda the dynamics over the last year have changed relative to search results. Panda updates by Google pure and simple are something you need to research and understand fully so you can see firsthand how the rules govern how your website is ranked with Google. Let’s face it if you like Google’s updates or hate their ever evolving changes we have to play by their rules. Here is an explanation of what Google’s Panda is courtesy of Wikipedia If you really want to keep up to date on Google’s progress, changes and implementation we encourage you to visit Matt Cutts blog Matt Cutts is head of Google’s Webspam Team
Next time we will discuss Backlinking, Anchor text and what it means to you and your page domain and page ranking
