SEO: Keywords Define Websites

Yes, we’ve talked about the importance of keywords before, but since they are the single biggest way your site is found online, their importance should never be understated. Web Analytics is the science of studying keywords, and has become a recognized method of internet market research and product promotion. Basically, Web Analytics is little more than understanding which keywords are being used effectively, and staying aware of all trends that develop.

As an example of a trend developing, think of how a major news event is suddenly on the tongues of everyone you meet, and pops up everywhere you go. Keywords are exactly like that, in that sudden surges emerge in the use of a specific search phrase, often fueled by social network sites, or even conventional news services.

The hardest part of SEO and SEM is to create an online definition of your website in a way that people will find it every time they enter a search for your products or services. Think of your keywords, if you wish, as the slogans used by major corporations, which are linked to their products by association. If I say “So easy, even a caveman can do it,” you will immediately think of two words: GEICO, and insurance. It has been drilled into your head that those words are equivalent to the phrase. Your keywords, which can include both single words and short phrases, work exactly the same way, only in a virtual world that is composed of an underlying textual nature.

For search engines, the words and phrases you choose will define your website for all the world. Your sitewide keywords chould conform to a pattern of interconnections, using a similar but different set of keywords for each page. Why different words for each page? to increase your chances of matching a particular search query. The main page may use the company name, and “Computer, peripherals, storage, <other keywords>”, and the page dedicated to hard drives would have the company name, and “hard drives, hard disks, computer storage, internal storage, external storage,” which expands on the list from the first page, and shows a direct relationship to it, as well as to a particular type of search: computer storage devices.

There are many ways to increase your traffic and get the search engines to give you better placement, for now I will stick to the essentials.
Keywords 

Keywords are used to categorize your site by search engines. Then the search engines share your site when those words or phrases are searched. You want to make sure you are using the right keywords on your site’s copy and in its meta tags. Meta Tags are a a few lines of html code that explain your site’s title, description and keywords to the search engines.

First you need to figure out which keywords or keyword phrases are relevant to your business and searched often by people. Many you may be able to guess. Think about what you would type into Google if you were going to look for your products or services. Start creating a list of these words and phrases.

If your site has been up for a while and gets a regular stream of traffic you can use the traffic reports from your site. Better yet use an analytics tool, some are free like Google Analytics, to see what keywords are bringing in the most traffic for your site. Setting it up is easy. You sign up with Google and it gives you a tracking code. Then either you or your web designer just need to paste the code into the website. If you have access to a content management system or are using a system like WordPress this shouldn’t be too hard. Just follow Google’s instructions. Once active see what keywords bring in the most traffic.

Another way is to use Google AdWords’ new Search-based Keyword Tool (also free). After you sign up with Google and sign-in you can type in your Website address, add a few words that you think would work and Google will give you more suggestions. They will also tell you how many people search for those words per month, if your competition is buying those words for search engine marketing (SEM, or paid search marketing) advertising and how much it costs.This is helpful to determine what will work for you.

Since you are a small business you may not be able to compete with large companies that are always optimizing their site’s keywords and appear at the top of searches for popular phrases. Instead you want to find your niche, an area that isn’t extremely popular or competitive and then you want to be strong with those keywords.

Look for words that have:

* A high volume of searches on it
* A high relevance to your site
* Low competition

Add these words to your list, to the copy on your site and to your meta tags to help optimize it for search engines. This will help build traffic. Remember it takes time for you to do all of this and time before the search engines go through all your new keywords, sometimes a few months. So be patient. But remember you’ll save in the end by not having to pay someone.

Article written by SEOnotepad.com