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Choosing The Best Keywords
Return to text blog entriesArticle date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:51:33 GMTWeb design and internet marketing isn't just about creative flair; it's all about analyzing data and coming up with effective content.
Search engine optimisation is still a scary term to many people, but optimizing a site really comes down to getting the right copy. And in order to have the right copy you have to have great keywords.
Whether it's a new or existing website, it's all too easy to look at the competition, check their Meta Keywords and say "fine, if they're competing on those keywords, those are the ones I will compete on".
It's true to say that you have to consider these terms, but if there are already other organisations competing for those terms, those sites have history and links - you have to be a bit smarter.
For those of you used to the world of search engine optimisation and search engine marketing, it's all too easy to fall into the trap of basing your website's keywords on the keywords you know have been successful in pay per click campaigns. If you can afford it, you can buy the big terms with a PPC campaign - optimising copy is a different ball game.
How to Pick Keywords?
Keyword Research! Find out what people are searching for in your sector, don't just guess based on what you think you know and don't just rely on what your competition are focusing on.
For example, it's great to get the top spot on Google for a term such as CMS, but if people are mainly searching for Content Management Systems then you need to compete on that one.
In every industry there are always keywords that convert - these are the big terms that everyone competes on. Make sure that your site is littered with these. But don't expect that by inserting in the most obvious and competitive keywords you'll attain Google's top stop, because you won't, at least not at first.
You have to start to view the search results as your competition. If you search for Internet Marketing, there may be 79,800,000 pages returned. That's 79,800,000 pages for you to compete against. Although you want to compete on that term, is it realistic to expect that a new site can enter an existing/mature market and rise straight to number 1? It's possible, but improbable.
You have to be a bit smarter and start picking-off the less competitive top spots first. So for example Internet Marketing in Manchester might only return 900,000 pages, making it an easier target than the big term Internet Marketing. Notice though that by sticking to a similar theme you will also begin to increase your search ranking for the big keywords you originally wanted to go for.
By continuously improving your copy to attain the top spots for the less competitive search terms, getting little short term gains, you will find that your website will start to gain natural links which will ultimately improve your site's rankings for the big terms.
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Samantha, 2008-11-10 09:27:55
I couldn’t agree more! I think it is important to be logical when choosing the keywords for your website. By looking at the amount of competition for the search term it easy to see whether you want to enter a market or not based on its saturation.
Finding low competition keywords in many niches, is a fantastic way to create a powerful website by building traffic from thousands of tiny traffic sources. So when the competition tries to work its way into your niche territory, it will be too late and very difficult to beat your ranking!
Simon Dalley, 2008-11-10 10:23:48
Absolutely Sam. All too often people think there is some kind of magic wand that can be waved; everyone wants to compete on those big terms.
We should always be thinking about the incremental gains that get us those big search results in the long run.
