Popularity vs. Competition

There are really two parts to keyword research once you have in your mind the kind of keywords that are relevant to your page. You need to be concerned with how many people search for the keywords and how much competition there is for the keywords.

No Searches = No Traffic

It is useless to optimize for keywords that no one searches for. You need a way to get an idea of how many searches per month are done for your selected keyword phrase. Fortunately, there is a great free tool from Google AdWords that you can use. You can even enter the URL of the page you want to target and the tool will suggest keywords.

Competition

The other side of the keyword selection coin will determine how hard it will be to rank for your chosen keyword phrase. You need to see how many Web sites are competing for the same keywords. The easiest way to gauge competition is to do a search on Google for your phrase and place quotes around it to specify the exact phrase. If there are hundreds of thousands of pages found you may want to choose a less competitive keyword phrase.

Remember to read the rest of the SEO tips to get more ideas for optimizing your site.

Words That go With Other Words

Latent semantic indexing is something Google is incorporating into its indexing algorithms to try to figure out exactly what a page is about. Here is an hypothetical case: Suppose Google finds a page with the main keyword phrase “mouse movements” and needs to match it to user searches. Is the page about moving a computer mouse or is it about the movements of a rodent? There will be clues in the text. If it is about a computer mouse there will be words like computer or mouse pad, or optical, or right click, etc. If it is about a rodent there may be words like cheese, trap, maze, droppings, etc.

How can you Use LSI?

Now that you know what it is, how can you use latent semantic indexing to help your Google rankings? The best thing you can do is to make sure your writing is unambiguous. Say you are targeting “blue widgets” and you want to make sure Google knows clearly what your page is about. Think about the context in which you are using the term and make sure the wording you use stays on topic.

You could also go to Google and search for Blue Widgets and read the pages that come up with the highest rankings and see what other words they are using. However, don’t spend a lot of time trying to second guess Google. Just keep LSI in mind while you are writing and it may help you focus on your targeted keywords and the naturally related words. Remember, LSI is all about the context of your words.

Want even more search marketing tips?

Times Change

At one time the search engines relied heavily on what you put in your META keywords tag. At that time the search engines did not have the sophistication they do now in parsing a page and determining for themselves what it is about. Many Webmasters abused the keywords tag and stuffed it with irrelevant keywords that they thought would get them traffic. As a result, they META keywords entries are mostly ignored by the search engines, especially Google.

I Use Them Anyway

I still like to use META keywords. There is some evidence that Yahoo does still pay attention to them and used properly they can’t hurt your rankings. You should be sure, however, to not keyword stuff your keywords tag. Don’t put words that are not actually on the page and don’t repeat keywords dozens of times. In fact, I almost never list a keyword more than once in the tag just to be safe.

It Helps you Focus

One reason I still use the META keywords tag is to make sure I’m focused on which keywords I’m targeting. It helps to be thinking about the exact keywords you want to be ranked for while you are writing the page. If you figure that out ahead of time and document the keywords in your META keywords tag you can be more organized and deliberate about your keyword targeting.

There are lots more search marketing tips for you to explore.

Uniqueness Counts

Just like with the title tag you should have a unique description on every page that tells the users what they will find when they visit. First impressions counts and this is your chance to make a good first impression. You should also try to avoid just copying the first paragraph of your content unless you rewrite it for the description.

Use Your Keywords

You should use your main keyword phrase in the description. This has two benefits. Google will highlight the keywords in the description that the user searched for. The highlighting of the keywords draws the user’s attention to your listing and encourages them to click. Remember, getting good search engine rankings does no good unless the users actually click on your listings. The presence of your targeted keywords in the description also may help a little with the actual ranking on some of the search engines.

Keep it Brief

Don’t try to put the whole content of your page in the description. Typically you should keep the description to 160 characters or less. Some of the search engines may balk at a description that is too long. Additionally, you don’t want to give away all the information you have in store for the user before they get to the page. If you do that they have no reason to visit your page.

You can find more search marketing tips to help you maximize your search marketing results.

The good news is that on-site search optimization is much easier than most people think it is. You just need to take it one step at a time and make some small changes that can help you big time in getting good search marketing results. That is why I’m giving you bite sized tips that you can put into practice right away.  Each tip is listed below with a brief description. Click on the title to get the full text of the tip. Please note that I’m still working on this site and all links may not yet be available but they will soon.

Choosing Keywords

It all starts with choosing the right keyword phrases. You want to use keywords people search for, that are not supper competitive, and are relevant to the content of the page you are optimizing.

Keyword Rich Titles

The title of every page on your site should be different and contain the main keyword(s) for that page. Lean how to use keyword rich titles to get better rankings.

META Description

Learn about the META description tag and why you should write accurate and enticing descriptions for every page.

META Keywords

You should always use carefully selected keywords for every page on your site. Find out the truth of how search engines use the META Keywords tag and how it can help or hurt your rankings.

Keyword Density

Learn how many times you should mention a keyword you are targeting on your site’s pages.

What the Heck is LSI and Why Should you Care

LSI is short for latent semantic indexing. It sounds highly technical and difficult, but it’s not. Find out exactly what LSI is and how you use it to get better ranking for your site.

Internal Linking

The way the pages on your own site link together can have a significant impact on yoru search engine rankings. Learn about using proper anchor tags and content hubs.

Incoming Links

Why are incoming links the most  important factor in your search marketing results? How can you get the right kind of incoming links from the right sites at the right pace to please Google and the other search engines?

If you are ready to maximize your search engine rankings you need to visit the main page of this site and let me help catepolt your site to the top of the search engines so you can see real search marketing results. If you are serious about increasing your profits and can make a small investment in your Web site fill out the form at the bottom of that page and I’ll let you know if I can help your site succeed.