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 reprots
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 alska', 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'.
2. 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.
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