Keyword Selection Strategy
Keyword selection is one of the first steps in
implementing a search engine optimization strategy. It goes without saying that
if you select and optimize for the wrong keywords, your overall optimization
campaign is worthless. In this article we will cover the keyword selection
process, tools available to assist you in selecting the right keywords, and how
best to place keywords throughout your site.
In this article, the term keyword or keywords
will be used often. For our purposes, the term keyword or keywords includes the
term "keyword phrase" or "keyword phrases".
This article contains the following sections:
Keyword Selection Process
Tools to Assist in Keyword Selection
Keyword Placement Strategy
Keyword Selection Process
Keyword selection can vary greatly based on the type of Web site the client requires.
Static sites (sites that are simple HTML pages and are not database driven) by
definition are limited to a defined number of keywords, whereas, dynamic sites
(sites that are database driven) can be optimized for an unlimited number of
keywords. If your static site is predetermined to contain 5 pages, then the
number of keywords is limited to those five pages. I do not recommend
optimizing a single page for more than five or six keywords, unless necessary.
With dynamic sites it is easier to optimize for single or two word keyword phrases as well as plural and singular terms.
If you are creating a new site from ground up, it is wise to select the number
of possible keywords you want up front. Then you can plan the architecture of
the site based on your keyword selection criteria. If your client sells 10
different products, create a 10-page site, plus pages for contact information
and other boilerplate content.
Based on the type of site you decide you want or currently have, you must sit
down and write down keywords. The first step in developing your keyword list is
to have a brainstorming session. Anything that comes to mind should be written
down. Keep building this list until you have enough to work with.
After you have built up your keyword list, you will want to prune the list
down. There are certain factors one should keep in mind when pruning the list.
(1) Many search engines to not do "word stemming" (word stemming is
adding on to the end of the word, for example the word "keyword" and
"keywords"), (2) most people type keywords into a search engine all
in lower case, and (3) it is generally easier to rank well for longer keyword
phrases.
That covers the keyword selection process; you should however consult the help
of the various tools available on the Web to help you select keywords.
Tools to Assist in Keyword Selection
Too often we run into a wall and can't go beyond 10 or so keywords for the
site. Lucky for us there are plenty of free and low cost tools available on the
Internet to assist in the keyword development stage. We will first discuss the
free tools, and then go over one tool that you need to pay a fee for.
Free tools:
Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
This is an excellent tool for locating new keywords and determining the
frequency that Web searchers search for specific keywords. You simply type in
your keyword or keyword phrase into the search box and hit enter. Overture then
looks up all the data it has in its network for the past month and brings back
your keyword and the number of times it was searched on for that month. It also
suggests other keywords that might be good alternatives with their respective
frequencies. The only draw back of this tool is that it only has data for the
overture network. But that is a small drawback due to Overture's presence on
the Internet.
Google Adwords Keyword Suggestions:
https://adwords.google.com/select/tools.html
This tool is provided by Google to help advertisers
determine the best keywords for their sites. This tool functions a lot like
Overture's but does not display the frequency of searchers for each keyword. It
does however provide a detailed listing of keyword suggestions based on the
keyword you entered. And since Google is the most popular search engine, its
list represents an accurate representation of data.
Search Engine Related Matches:
Many search engines and directories including Yahoo!, AltaVista, MSN, AllTheWeb contain keyword suggestions after you conduct a
search. For example, lets do a search on
"design". You will see that Yahoo! has the words "related"
directly under the search box followed by related keywords. AltaVista has a
section on the right that says "Refine your search with AltaVista Prisma", and a listing of similar keywords directly
below. MSN Search has a box directly below the search box that says
"narrow your searchÉ" followed by similar
keywords. And AllTheWeb has, at the bottom of the
page, "similar queries" section that displays four keywords that are
similar to the one you searched on. This might have changed since this article
was published, but most search engines will continue to offer this service.
For a Fee Tool:
Currently there is only one tool worth mentioning in this section, WordTracker (www.wordtracker.com. WordTracker
is the most comprehensive keyword selection tool available in the market today.
They compile a database of terms that people search for over the major search
engines. WordTracker contains a powerful
"lateral search" feature to locate all your related keywords. Just
like the Overture tool, WordTracker has a keyword
count (frequency) but unlike Overture, WordTracker's
database contains more search engine networks. The application also contains
lists of misspelled words based on your keyword entries. There are many more
features contained within this application, please visit (www.wordtracker.com
for more information.
Keyword Placement Strategy
You should now have a list of keywords that you want
to rank well for in search engines. The next step is to place these keywords in
the various locations throughout your page's code. Below is a listing in order
of importance of the places to put your keywords.
Title
Anchor Text (incoming and internal)
Header Tag Content (i..e H1,
H2, H3, H4, H5)
Title Tag in Anchor Tags
Bold/Italic Tag Content
Body Text on top, middle and bottom of page
Alt Tags in Pictures that are Links
URL/Filenames
Meta Keyword Description
Alt Tags in Pictures that are not Links
There are experts that might argue with the order of this list, and the order
might change in the future. There are some items missing from this list. I will
try to update the list regularly. The concept is to place keywords in these areas
and in order to optimize your site for your keyword list.
Keyword development is a time consuming process. It is a critical component to
any SEOs job and has the potential to make or break a
site's revenue. Keyword selection is thus an extremely important part of the
overall SEO process. It is important to select the right keywords and use the
right tools in your keyword development stage. It is then important to place
these keywords throughout your site for the search engines to properly rank you
based on their constantly changing algorithms.
Author:
Barry Schwartz
RustyBrick, Inc.
barry@rustybrick.com
www.rustybrick.com
845-369-6869 x201