Keyword Selection: A Key to Web Success

Keywords are the words search engine users enter into Google's search box. So, if you're looking for baby shower gifts you might type in "baby gifts" and start clicking on links found on page 1 of the search engine results pages (SERPs).

As a web-based business owner, the keywords you select define the topicality of your web site - the products and services you sell and where you sell them. Thanks to localized search, a small boutique on Main Street can target local shoppers and not unqualified prospects in Mozambique.

Your web site should employ a number of keywords because you never know what a search engine user will enter into Yahoo's search box. However, too many keywords, ambiguous keywords and keywords that don't make sense to a search engine spider (also called a bot) will often get a web site slammed, panned and even banned if the search engine "thinks" you're trying to mislead its users.

The objective of any search engine is to deliver the most relevant web sites, ranked according to their relevance. The most relevant site ranks at the top, with sites of decreasing relevance filling up page after page of SERPs. That's why most search engine users never get beyond page 2 or 3 in any SERPs.

If your site doesn't rank in the top tier of SERPs you won't see much organic traffic - visitors who found your site via a search using keywords as part of their query.

Selecting the Right Keywords for Your Web Site

The right keywords deliver more traffic because a link to your web site appears on page 1 of Ask, Bing, Google, Yahoo or any of the other 4,000 search engines crawling the web today. Here's why.

Think of a search engine as an elephantine file cabinet with literally millions of file folders stored in millions of drawers. This is the search engine index - its taxonomy, the way it sorts web sites, blogs and information associated with digital spaces. Your web site will be placed in one of those file folders based on the keywords you use in your HTML code (the code that actually produces the presentation layer of the web site) and the site skin itself.

If you're a certified financial planner, you want to make sure that "certified financial planner" and "CFA" appear in your HTML keyword tag and in the site text itself. Typically, search engine optimizers recommend a keyword density of 2%-3%, though some of these on-line marketers will go as high as 5% meaning that out of every 100 words of site text, five will be keywords.

An overload of keywords should be avoided. It's a practice called keyword stuffing, something search engines frown on.

Start by making a list of intuitive keywords - the keywords that you, the business owner, believe would be entered by search engine users looking for your goods or services. You, better than most, know what your prospects are looking for so start by making a list of 10 to 15 intuitive keywords.

Then do a little research on each one.

The Google Keyword Generator

Use it. It's one of the most valuable tools available to new web site owners:

• The Google Keyword Generator doesn't project results, it delivers actual search terms and phrases entered by Google users in the past 30 days.
• These are real users of the most popular search engine in the world.
• It indicates the number of searches conducted for each keyword or phrase.
• It will expand and refine your list of intuitive keywords.
• It's really simple to use and interpret the data.
• It's Google, for goodness sake.

Enter each of your intuitive keywords and phrases to determine how often these terms were used. Simple changes to your list will make a huge difference in the delivery of visitors to your website through organic search results.

Long-Tail Key Words

Long-tail keywords are typically keyword phrases. The disadvantage to using long-tails is that fewer search engine users enter these keyword phrases. The advantage is that those who DO enter these long-tails see your web site at the top of page one of SERPs.

Example: if you own a bicycle shop that specializes in high-end, Tour de France quality racing bikes, then using "bicycles" as a keyword won't deliver as much traffic as "high quality racing bicycles." Why? EVERY business related to bicycles will use "bicycles" as a search term so your little site may be buried deep in the SERPs, never to be seen be serious biking enthusiasts.

On the other hand, fewer search engine users will enter "high quality racing bicycles" into a search box, but if you use that long-tail, your web site will rank higher. And as a side benefit, you get more qualified buyers - buyers willing to spend a great deal of money on their hobby.

Add a couple of long-tail keywords to your list and track their performance. Your keyword list is always a work in progress with successful keywords added and poorly performing keywords - long-tails or otherwise - dropped.

Local Search Keywords

Local businesses - the ones that line Main Street in your town - are turning to the web more and more thanks to local search.

Local search enables small businesses to target local prospects. A bistro downtown can post that evening's specials for local diners to check out. Search engines offer the option of local search, but you'll help search engines by adding your town's address, including zip code.

If you type in "racing bicycles 78201" you'll see a list of bike shops in that part of San Antonio, Texas. You'll also see a map with "pushpins" providing addresses, telephone numbers and printable directions to the local shops that sell bicycles in zip code 78201.

Be sure to add the name of your community and state, as well. This information should appear as text so it can be read by spiders. If your bike shop's local search information appears in a graphic, it can't be read by search engine bots so it won't do you any good.

Display complete address and other contact information on every page of your site. It increases the likelihood of appear on the top SERPs during a local search and it provides quick information for site visitors who want to pick up the telephone to give you a telephone call.

Think of keywords as the means by which your web site is sorted in that gigantic index called a search engine, whether it's Yahoo, Bing, Google, Ask or any of the other general search engines we all use every day. Choose the right keywords and your site will be placed in the proper "file folder" of the search engine. Choose ambiguous keywords, or conflicting keywords, and search engine bots won't know where to file your site within its index.

With keywords, it's better to be clear than clever so keep it simple, constantly tweak your list, test new keywords against existing keywords and make it a good web business practice to constantly refine the keywords in your HTML code and on site.

Bots aren't bright so explain, exactly, what your web site is about to ensure you're properly indexed. It could well mean the difference between fast growth and business success and a web site with cob webs on the home page.

Which would you rather own?

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Improve Website SEO - 3 Quick Tips For Boosting Your Website SEO

The website SEO improvement tips I share below are based on my personal experiences as an SEO content writer for more than 7 years. I have mentioned the 3 most important techniques of effective website SEO that I have tried and tested myself, working along with dedicated Search Engine Marketing experts to create websites that Google loves!

3 Quick Tips For Improving Website SEO:

1. Keep Keyword Basics in Mind For Improving Website SEO

Proper keyword research before writing the content of your website is vital for effective website SEO. To maximize the effectiveness of your keyword research, it is recommended website owners utilize all the free web tools that are easily available on the net, like Google AdWords and other similar services, some of which may require you to pay for the more advanced programs.

Don't focus too much on keyword density, which is an outdated concept. Instead, aim for organic SEO, which means ensuring your targeted keywords are naturally integrated in the content of your web pages for increasing website SEO without going overboard with keyword stuffed content that can get your site banned by Google.

If using the Google Keyword Tool, remember to target large number of terms that have a lower level of competition, since these offer fastest results for increasing website SEO.

2. Choose Keyword Rich URLS That Stick In User Memory And Relate To Your Business

Creating great URLs is another effective technique for improving website SEO and is among the first steps to getting the word about your business out on the world wide web. This means, starting with the correct domain name and keeping it short and simple. Short, memorable and catchy URLs are easy to remember and have high re-call value, which is important for any website owner to ensure prospects connect it with your business' most important keyword phrase.

Search engine marketing professionals advise against using hyphens, which though acceptable, can appear spammy or unprofessional, especially if there are more than two hyphens in your business URL.

Choose web page names wisely and try to integrate a relevant keyword on each of these individual pages too. Also, do not use session IDs or dynamic page variables, since doing so will only lengthen your web page URLs.

Finally, if you've already purchased a domain name where you cannot modify web page structure to include keywords in your URLs, you can buy more domains to build mini-sites that will support different segments in your chosen business niche. These mini-sites will work together to increase more traffic to your main domain.

3. Target Long Tail Keywords For Increasing Website SEO

If you want to target buyers, you need to target long tail keywords, which hold the secret to high search engine rankings. In simple terms, Long tail keywords mean relevant key phrases that contain at least three words that are closely related to your niche. This also reduces competition for you, since the traffic your website gets is more effectively targeted, ensuring better website SEO results.

Moreover, you can add long tail keywords to your website URL also, especially if you want to increase your earnings from directing the right website traffic to your site

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SEO Content Writing - More Than Keyword Stuffing

Too many times, businesses over-simplify key elements that lead to successful communication of the messages that they are trying to get out to consumers and clients. When SEO content writing is mentioned you often hear the response: "that is a no brainer." Just pick a word or phrase that search engines can easily spot and you have it made. SEO content writing has become much more involved and complicated than simply choosing a keyword or phrase. In today's internet business arena, you must use a much more sophisticated approach. A two-pronged strategy works best.

Keyword selection remains critical

There is no SEO if there is not at least one central keyword or phrase highlighted in your business communication. Choose that keyword or phrase carefully and wisely. Consider it the first prong in the process. The next important decision to make is what density you want the keyword to have within the article. You need to realize that this density question is NOT an area where "more is better." Keyword density abuse has become widespread and common and is one more reason you need to employee expert SEO content writing services. If the keyword is not used enough, it may cause your business writing to be missed. Overuse of the keyword can basically cause your content (articles, web pages, etc.) to be ignored as spam. So be sure you have the correct keyword or phrase chosen and used within your content just the "right" number of times.

LSI use completes the process

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is computer generated algorithms that analyze not only keywords, but secondary keywords and phrases as well. SEO content writing must now include as much time spent or even more on choosing secondary keywords that compliment the main keyword or phrase. These secondary keywords are commonly referred to as "LSI's." Basically, lsi's give context to your keyword so it can be found and categorized by search engines more effectively. Example: If you use tires as your keyword over and over again, you could end up in the middle or end of search for truck tires or race car tires or bicycle tires. If you want to get to the top of the search list for bicycle tires, you would want to include such lsi's as: bicycle accessories, bicycle wheels, rubber bicycle accessories, etc... You should get the point. Context is now as important as specific keyword for searches.

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Optimizing Your Meta Tags for SEO

Meta tags are special HTML tags that do not modify the look of the webpage, but provide the search engines with information about the webpage. There are some attributes of the Meta tags that are super important and some that are not. You should include Meta tags on each and every page of your website, so that search engines can index those pages easier. Google does not require you to place Meta tags on your site, but some search engines will rank you higher if you do. While Google does account for over 60 percent of all search traffic on the internet, the other search engines still count for at least 40 percent. If you are looking for traffic, then every qualified visitor counts. It does not matter if a sale came from Google's traffic or Yahoo's. Also, why rely on just 60 percent when you can rely on closer to 100 percent, and Google will rank you slightly higher for having your Meta tags match your webpage's content.

Format of the Meta Tag

I will dissect a Meta tag and its attributes so that we can get a better understanding of what a Meta tags does for a website. If we look at the attributes of the Meta tag, then some may apply to the website and some may not. In order to make your Meta tags you need to decide what your page is about. It is not enough to just decide on a title. You need to pick keywords that best describe your content. Your keywords need to be descriptive of the content, or if you have not written the content yet, your content should be about the keywords. There are many aspects to keywords, and this part of your SEO could literally take months if you are not careful. For simplicity, I will give a quick method of choosing keywords. This is not in full detail, but it should help.

What is a Keyword?

Keywords are words or phrases that a searching party types into a search engine's search bar. If you did a search for golden eggs, then golden eggs would be the keyword. If you want to make sure you are writing articles that will be both useful to the reader and useful monetarily to you, then you need to do some keyword research. Simply go to the Google Keyword Research tool and type your keywords into the space provided. The results could be around 800 keywords, and you can manipulate the output for the desired information. You should look for keywords that have over 2000 global searches. Once you find a keyword that passes the global searches, then you need to click the keyword to do a Google search on them. You are searching these keywords to see the page ranks of the competing pages. You will need a tool bar to see the page ranks of the search results. A really good and free tool bar is made by SEO Book called the "SEO Toolbar." Just install the toolbar and you will be able to find a lot of the information you will need for your optimizations. Now when you do your searches on the keyword results in the Google Keyword Tool you will notice a lot of new information appended to some of the search results. That is information about the website's traffic, links and page rank. Just click the "?" next to the information you want and it should appear in its place. If the appended information is not there, then you simply open each page to see its page rank in the toolbar. SEO Book has extensive information about how to use their product, so I will limit my explanation. You are trying to find the page ranks of the top ten web pages that Google has on the keyword. If all ten pages are a page rank of 4 or higher and use the exact keyword in their content then you will want to find a less difficult keyword. There is a whole bunch more information on keyword research than this, but this will help you get started.

Here is some sample Meta tags:

< title >Optimizing Your Meta Tags for SEO< /title >

< meta name="description" content="Internet Marketing is easier to do if you plan for SEO. Optimizing your Meta tags for SEO can be confusing. " >

< meta name="author" content="Charles Ross" >

< meta name="copyright" content="Universal-Marketer Inc." >

< meta name="keyphrases" content="Internet Marketing, Optimizing your meta tags for SEO, Search Engine Optimization with Meta tags" >

The above is a group of five Meta tags that could be located in between the head tags on a page that hosts this article. Let us look at each one.

1. Title- This is the title that is in the top bar of the browser. You should try to fit your keywords in the title. You should limit your titles to around 64 or less characters in length. Keep it to the point. Do not try to just stuff words in the title.
2. Description- This is what people see under the hypertext results when they search for something. You should use your keywords in complete sentences to provide your description. This will allow you to prove to the reader that you have what they are looking for too. You want to keep your description to around 155 or less characters, and you want to use your keywords in them.
3. Author and Copyright- This is just to help protect your copyright, but it may also help with branding your name too. It is not necessary though.
4. Keyphrases- This is the plural of keywords. You will not want to put just one word keywords in your Meta tag, so you simply use the "keyphrases" attribute to allow you to place your keyword phrases into the Meta tag.

Those Meta tags are what I consider the most important, but there are some optional ones that may be of interest to you.

Examples of the optional ones to consider are:

< meta name="googlebot" content="follow,index" >

< meta name="robots" content="all" >

< meta name="revisit-after" content="1 days" >

Here is the listing for the above tags:

1. googlebot- This instructs the googlebot what to do when it reaches your site. You only use this if you just want to talk to the googlebot and not the other robots.
2. robots- This is the same as googlebot except it is for all the robots and crawlers not just Google's.
3. revisit-after- This is the frequency that you want the robots to crawl your site. If you are adding stuff daily then you want it to set "1 days" to the attribute. But if it you only add stuff weekly then "7 days" or "1 weeks" will do.

You will use these only if you want to tell the search engines what to do when they come to your website. If these tags are not used then the default is that the googlebot and robots tags are set to "all" and the "revisit-after" tag is set to 1 month or what ever the search engine has them set to.

There are still many more Meta tags you can use on your website, but the ones that I have provided will work in most cases. You can find the other Meta tags by doing a search for "full list Meta tags" or something of that nature. You should now be on your way to a good foundation for the SEO of your site.

Hello my name is Charles Ross. I am a full time internet marketer. I have been studying internet marketing off and on for years. I have seen many opportunities come and go right before my eyes. I have watched the internet grow into a teenager. I have sat on the side lines for far too long. I have decided it is time for me to seek out the truth, so I am dedicating my site Universal-Marketer to finding the Truth About Internet Marketing.

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What Is Keyword Density And Why Is It Important?

When trying to optimize your website, you hear a lot about Keyword Density. It is a very important part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the process of getting your site a high rank on Google and similar search engines. This article will help you determine what Keyword Density is, and how you can use it to optimize your site for search engines.

Definition

Keyword Density just means what percentage of your content consists of your target keywords. So if you want someone to search Google for "dog grooming tips" to find your blog on dog grooming (for example), your main keyword would be "dog grooming tips". So if 18 out of 200 words in the main content on your website's homepage are part of the phrase "dog grooming tips", then you have a 9% keyword density.

Importance

Keywords help search engines like Google find your website based on people's searches. Continuing with the dog grooming example, when someone searches for "dog grooming tips", Google tries to find the most relevant pages. And how does it measure relevance? It is a combination of backlinks, which is a whole different ballgame (number of sites which have links to your site), and keyword matching. It uses the keywords in your main content to determine what your site is about. So if your site says "dog grooming tips" five times on the front page, Google is more likely to pick it up as a good result to show someone searching for "dog grooming tips".

What now?

Now that you understand Keyword Density, you should try to adhere to the following standard: keep it between 3% and 20%. It is important that your content contains your keyword at least a few times. If your content is 300 words (an appropriate length) and your keyword is the three-word phrase "dog grooming tips", you should mention that phrase at least 3 times and at most 20 times. But be sure to make sure your content is still readable - nobody is going to stay on your site if you just say "dog grooming tips dog grooming tips dog grooming tips" over and over! Your content needs to be readable and informative, but center around your keywords.

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Edu Backlinks - Search Engine Optimization

Is the incoming user traffic on your website extremely low? Are web users completely oblivious of your website's existence? Is your website's search engine ranking depressingly low, or worse still does your website completely lack a ranking? Are you looking to change the current status quo? If you are interested in a simple method to increase web user traffic to your website through increasing your website's level of search engine optimization, search no further than this.

The answer to your problem is as simple as this; edu backlinks. Edu backlinks will completely revolutionize your website's visibility. They are a simple, yet completely reliable means of search engine optimization. Please note that there are those backlinks which you can get free of charge but depending on your source there are also those backlink source providers which will charge you exorbitant amounts of money for the same service.

Make sure that you understand the terms and conditions stipulated by your backlink source provider before you enter into a binding contract with them. Edu backlinks will increase your website's rankings in search engines which basically means that once you employ the use of these backlinks on your website, Internet users will easily spot your website, because it will appear at the top of search result lists. Another means of improving the visibility of your website is by building backlinks. Building backlinks refers to the process of creating links that are directed to your website. Backlinks are important in making your website visible on search engines because the more backlinks you have that are linked to your website, the more important your website is deemed the better will be its search engine optimization.

Building backlinks is an important strategy when used in conjunction with properly placed edu backlinks because the two strategies once combined, will get your website the desired result of higher search engine ranking and will also increase your site's trust levels allowing increased user traffic, because your site will not be blocked by the various security systems employed by internet users. Building backlinks works best when your website's content is related to the theme of the backlink. Therefore ensure that your website not only has the key words search engine users employ, but also that you have content related to those key words.

Increasing site content is a completely natural and easy way of increasing the visibility of your site, plus it supports the various backlinks you will have built. Edu backlinks and building backlinks are not a senseless marketing ploy or gimmick but are a solid marketing strategy you could use today to improve user traffic to your site. Try edu backlinks for yourself today and see the positive results in terms of increased search engine ranking as well as increased accessibility of your website.

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How To Find The Correct Keywords

To get your website found by the S.E, you need to adopt a well planned marketing strategy, however one thing to keep in mind is that you should not rely solely on S.E as your primary source of traffic.

Keyword research is critical if you want to have a successful blog or website, if you want people to find your website and you want your web visitors to be interested in what you have to sell.

Check on your Competition.

How to Find the right keywords and phrases, can be daunting, The trick is to start slowly.

Another quick method of how to find keywords is to let the search engines gather the results for you. You can spot what your competition is doing in order to gain the top rankings in your market, also pay attention to the keyword placement on their sites.

Another shortcut on how to find keywords can be found with tools like seodigger.com and spyfu.com. Seodigger allows you to identify the phrases that competitors are ranking for organically and SpyFu displays what phrases are being used with Pay Per Click advertising.

The first step in this process is to create a list of potential keywords. Brainstorm all the words you think a customer would type into their search box when trying to find your website. This includes thinking of phrases that are broad and targeted, single and multi-word.

Have a look at your competitor's Meta Keyword tag. What words are they targeting? How can you expand on their keyword list to make yours better?

Another great place on how to find keywords and phrases is in the Web 2.0 media.

For web sites that are involved with marketing through optimizing Social media, the use of tags as keywords can reveal the concepts consumers associate with the kind of content being promoted.

The most popular tags, or keywords, are often reported on the respective social media sites such as on the del.icio.us tag page, StumbleUpon, Digg etc.

Start Your Keywords Research.

Researching keywords helps anticipate the demand for topics and to reveal the particular phrases being searched on.

Now that you have your list, your next step is to determine the activity for each of your proposed keywords. You want to narrow your list to only include highly attainable, sought-after phrases that will bring the most qualified traffic to your site.

By inputting your proposed keywords into a keyword research tool, you can quickly learn how many users are conducting searches for that term every day, how many of those searches actually converted, and other important analytical information.

There are lots of great tools out there to help you determine how much activity your keywords are receiving.

• Overture Keyword Selector Tool: Overture's Keyword Selector tools shows you how many searches have been conducted over the last month for a particular phrase and lists alternative search terms you may have forgotten about.
• Wordtracker: Wordtracker is a paid-use tool that lets you look up popular keyword phrases to determine their activity and popularity among competitors. Their top 1000 report lists the most frequently searched for terms, while their Competition .
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool: Google's keyword PPC tool doesn't provide actual search numbers for keywords. Instead, it displays a colored bar, giving users only an approximation.
• Google Suggest: Google Suggest is a great way to find synonyms and related word suggestions that may help you expand your original list.

Finalizing your list.

Now that you learnt how to find keywords, you will have your initial list of words and have tested their activity, it's time to narrow down the field and decide which terms will make it into your final keyword list.

The first step in narrowing down your list is to go through and highlight the terms that most closely target the subject and theme of your web site. These are the terms you want to hold on to. Delete all words that are not relevant to your site or that you don't have sufficient content to support.

Targeted terms are often easier to rank for and help bring qualified traffic. They also make you a subject matter expert to the search engines, since the targeted terms strengthen the theme created with the broader phrases.

Finally

Keep in mind as your customer's and your site's needs change over time, so will your keywords. It's important to keep monitoring your keywords and make tweaks as necessary. Doing so will allow you to stay ahead of your competition and keep moving forward now that you know how how to find keywords.

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