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Good Keywords
Choose Them Carefully
When you are optimizing your site, you will quickly learn that in order to get good results, you have to choose a few choice keywords and phrases to target. Because of this, you want to make sure that you target the right keywords and phrases for maximum benefit. Here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Find Out What People Are Searching For
Use the keyword finder in SEO Workbench to see what keywords people are actually typing in. Make a list of words and phrases that are popular. You will see that some keywords are rarely used, while others are extremely popular. The more popular keywords will obviously get more traffic if you have a good position with them, but you also have more competition for those top positions. Try to find a balance.
2. Don't Be Too General
Remember, the more general your keywords and phrases are, the more difficult it will be to get a good position with them. Consider the following chart:
Term |
Google Results |
Overture Searches |
|
"fishing" |
14,400,000 |
272,330 |
|
"fly fishing" |
770,000 |
136,584 |
|
"fly fishing gear" |
13,000 |
50,952 |
|
"fly fishing alaska" |
5,320 |
12,732 |
The Google Results column shows how many listings Google reports for a search with that term. The Overture column shows how many people searched their index using that term in the month of May, 2003.
If you target the keyword 'fishing', you are competing with more than fourteen million other websites for a top position. On the other hand, for 'fly fishing alaska', you are only competing with around five thousand sites. While there are only 12,732 searches on the last listing, since there is less competition for the listings themselves, you have a much better chance at getting seen by those 12,732 searches than you will ever have for the 272,330 'fishing searches'.
It is also very important to regularly fine-tune it all. What is a very general key phrase now, may not be in a year. As more and more sites appear on the web, there are more and more choices, making it more difficult to stand out. Look at the chart below. It reflects the same search as above, except THIS one was done in May, 2005.
Term |
Google Results |
Overture Searches |
|
"fishing" |
36,300,000 |
308,546 |
|
"fly fishing" |
2,190,000 |
122,461 |
|
"fly fishing gear" |
96,400 |
13,435 |
|
"fly fishing alaska" |
12,000 |
11,892 |
3. Look At The Competition
Search around with the keywords and phrases you wish to target and see what comes up. If you see many pages that appear to be highly optimized, you may be in trouble. If you search enough with many words, you should find that some great keywords and phrases have little competition, allowing you to zoom in and get a top listing.
Keep all of this in mind when you choose the words and phrases you wish to target. You are probably much better off targeting less popular keywords.
