- Click the document icon to view the article in simple HTML.
- Use your browser's "view source" function to copy and paste the HTML to your website or ezine.
- Once finished, use the "back" function to return.
Planning A Keyword Strategy
by Eric Lester
Keywords are the most important decisions an SEO must make when starting out. Choosing the right keywords will determine the overall SEO strategy and can make all the difference, saving both time and expense in the campaign.
The core of most Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, work is good planning. Virtually all future efforts will be based on the initial choices made about goals and strategies. Chief amongst these choices is that of keywords. The keywords chosen will determine how much of a struggle the SEO efforts will take and what kind of strategy will be used. This is why careful analysis is required in the choice of keywords. Choose poorly and the consequences in terms of time and money can be steep.
Building The List
The keyword choice process is one of elimination. The first step is the
easiest, brainstorming as many candidate keywords as possible. The hard
part is taking that big list and picking out the truly worthwhile entries.
When brainstorming, think in the broadest terms possible about the products,
services, and industry in which the business operates. The object is to
create a very broad list, as it will be more likely to contain the terms
best suited to the overall SEO strategy chosen.
Process of Elimination
With the list prepared, it is time to start eliminating choices. Keep in
mind the following basic SEO rules when doing this. First, any one page,
including your website's homepage, can only be effectively optimized for
2-3 keywords or keyphrases. This number can be higher, but that depends
on the use of fairly obscure keywords and phrases. Though not usually ideal,
one should not entirely discount obscure words and phrases. They can be
useful and will be touched upon later. With a 2-3 max in mind, make a short
list of what is considered "ideal" in terms of the business or
products being offered. One can always optimize internal pages for additional
terms if the homepage cannot support all the most highly prized keywords.
Doing The Homework
Research the chosen keywords. This can be accomplished through a variety
of ways. First, and most rudimentary, check them in the search engines.
View the listings and get a feel for the "competition." Some keywords
are more hotly contested than others, though, and this might not be apparent
by a mere glance at the results. This is where some deeper analysis is warranted.
Various tools exist to gauge the popularity of keywords. Most well known
is, perhaps, "Wordtracker.com",
a keyword analysis tool that requires a monthly fee to use. Many marketers
consider its information invaluable, though, providing a good idea of how
many people are likely to be searching on a particular keyword or keyphrase.
As a general rule of thumb, the more searches, the more competitive it may
be. Alternatively the Overture Keyword
Selector Tool provides similar information at no charge. Both tools
are also useful as suggestion tools, as they will provide a list of related
searches that might provide more valuable keywords than were already chosen.
Two Strategies
The data from Wordtracker or Overture, or both, will provide an good idea
how much effort will be required to appear in the Search Engine Results
Pages (SERPs) for a particular keyword or phrase. The more searches, the
likely more competitive. More general searches are more common, and these
can be the hardest to successfully optimize. This is where more obscure
terms and phrases can be useful. Depending on the business or products being
sold, some kinds of more obscure phrases can be very useful.
For instance, someone searching on "cars" could have any number of reasons for doing so. "Cars" is very popular term, and trying to optimize for it would require a great deal of time and money. Whereas someone searching for a particular type of car, or, better yet, a particular type of car in a certain area, is far more likely to be looking to buy that kind of car. There will also be far fewer people doing that search than for "cars", perhaps making it easier to optimize a site or product page for that keyword instead. The traffic from the specific, individual search is also far more highly targeted and far more likely to click through and make a purchase.
It is important not to lose sight of the purpose of the SEO campaign, that of driving potential customers to the business's website so they will purchase a product or service. Optimizing for very broad, general terms can drive large amounts of traffic if successful, but a far smaller percentage of that traffic is likely to buy. Optimizing for more targeted keywords might not bring as much traffic, but that traffic is more likely to make a purchase. Finding the right balance is important. For some companies, the broad, large amount of traffic may still be preferable and create more sales than the smaller, targeted traffic.
Conclusions
Keyword choice is one of the most important to be made in SEO. What keywords
are chosen will determine whether the overall strategy is broad and directed
at a large amount of traffic, or small and directed at smaller, more targeted
audiences. Each has their merits, though one will generally be more expensive
than the other. Always research keywords and know their value before proceeding.
Optimizing for poorly chosen keywords is a mistake that takes a lot of time
to overcome.
About The Author
Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com
and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring
knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting
provides website hosting, ecommerce
hosting, vps
hosting, and web design
services to a wide range of customers. Established in 1999, Apollo prides
itself on the highest levels of customer support. Click for more hosting
articles.
Note: These articles are provided for general interest and content purposes only, and should not be construed as "support" materials. Apollo Hosting does not guarantee the information contained within. All articles are free to reprint so long as they remain unchanged, the "About the Author" section remains, all hyperlinks are preserved, and the rel="nofollow" tag is not added to the hyperlinks.
