|
|
|
4
Steps to Find
how people Get
the lowdown
|
KEYWORDS How
to use them to generate INCREASING sales must be the target of all your efforts on the Internet. This is as true with keywords as with anything else. Let's start with what keywords are, how to use them to generate sales, and how to avoid spamming the search engines. A keyword is simply the word used by a surfer when she's looking for a service or a product, or searching through Ads. The search engines rate sites according to their relevance to the keyword input by the surfer. Therefore, you want to know which keywords are likely to get your site rated - before you finalise the layout and text. Because so much of the Internet is based on keywords, make sure you have them in mind whether you're planning any form of promotion - from an email or Ad to a web site. In fact, the time to carry out your keyword research is BEFORE you finalise your web site. What are keywords? Here are some keywords:
These are very general. Your surfer might actually want:
So keywords can be words, like "printer" or a phrase like "laserjet printer" or "Hewlett Packard laserjet printer". Even "Hewlett Packard 12ppm laserjet printer" makes up a key phrase. You need to put keywords in the heading of your web page and in the text. You will also be asked for them when you place some Ads. When you buy pay-per-click Ads in a search engine, you are actually paying for pay-per-clicks for particular keywords. Put keywords in meta tags You need to put keywords in a meta tag in your header, and in your description meta tag. If you put your keyword and description meta tags in the head code, they look like this: <head> Just put something like this in the "head" of each page - just substitute suitable keywords and description for those listed. Also, make sure that the title of your page - in the dark blue bar at the top of the page - includes keywords as well. Don't just put "My web site" or "Your resource". Don't even THINK of submitting your page to a search engine, FFA or even a classified Ad without these meta tags in your site. Also, you need to use plenty of keywords in the text. To continue with the motorcycle theme, make sure that motorcycle appeared at least seven or eight times on the page. Don't put the keywords in too many times But why not put "motorcycles" seven or eight times in the keyword meta tag? There was a time when you could just fill the keyword metatag with loads of keywords and repeat them many times as well. But not any more. The leading search engines will penalise you if you repeat a keyword more than about three times in the meta tag - and remember 80-90% of visitors who come to your site through search engines will come through the big ones, with www.Google.com the favourite. You might think that because "motorcycle", "racing motorcycle", and "old motorcycles", are actually different key phrases, the search engines will see them that way. They won't. They will see them as the same one. Generally, people separate different keywords with commas, but some experts reckon that it's better to leave out the commas, as the search engines will then count all words and phrases as keywords. That's what I recommend. Do use phrases both in the meta tag and in text. You need to do this because nowadays there are thousands and thousands of sites using basic keywords like computer and motorcycle. Therefore, you will do better if you concentrate on phrases such as:
And so on. When you write the text for your web page, use most keywords in the first few paragraphs as these are given more "weight" by the search engines than paragraphs later in the page. Which keywords should you use? The best places to look for keywords are www.google.com and www.altavista.com. There, you can see how many pages on the Web contain the keywords you're interested in. Do this early on in the project. To
give you an example of what you can find, a search at Google for motorcycle
related keywords produced these results: Keyword
Pages (Don't be fooled: this includes the US offices of the Japanese motorcycle companies, so this is not as good as it appears) In this search you're looking for the LEAST number of pages you can find for a keyword, as this gives you a good chance of getting listed. Next, you need to find out much competition there is for your keywords - how many people are using these keywords to search for products. Look up in Overture's Keyword Suggestion Tool to get some idea. It lists the number of searches made. The results were: Motorcycle
835,758 However,
I also found: These show DEMAND, and you want as much demand with as little competition (pages on the Web) you can get. At first sight, it appears that "motorcycles" is the best bet, but remember that you will be competing with the manufacturers and agents with their big budgets. Also, it is so general that a specialist site is likely to get lost. Honda and vintage motorcycles best Honda motorcycles is also a good bet, and if you have specialist knowledge could be worth using as a base for site. Vintage motorcycles has the advantage that it is a niche area. It is much better than classic motorcycles and will give you a much better chance of getting high in the search engine listings. A web site based on Italian motorcycles is more likely to be successful than either American or Japanese motorcycles, too. These differences can be found in keywords of all types, which is why it is important to do this sort of research early on. Let's recap on the essentials Keywords are the words surfers use to find things they want on the web. To be successful with your web site or product you: Find
the supply and demand for keywords before you design your site; By the way, Site Build It! does this all for you almost automatically, and provides "weighted" results and much more. Incidentally, Site Build It now comes complete with ezine and other modules. The E-business modules are sold as a separate package. If you're interested go to the site.
|
|
|
|