In the
Open for questions forum, Steven R. asked;
=========================================
In reguard to Key Words. I know they are "vital" as far as search engines are concerned. What is the best way to figure out what Key Words you should use especially on a site that's composed of more Banners and Links than text content? That should give you a "good idea" on how "new" I am to this. The top link in my sig file is "text content" and bottom link is more "Banner and Link" content. Every little bit of information I get helps.
=========================================
Ready for a crash course?
First thing - the only reason to choose keywords is (obviously) because you want people to find you in the search engines. Choosing keywords won't do you any good if you're not ranked well in the search engines.
The Two Areas of SEO
There are two important areas to search engine optimization. One is "on site" optimization. The other is "off site" optimization.
On site optimization refers to the content of your site. For example, a site filled with banners is like an empty book to a search bot. You have given it no words to read to tell what you're about. If you put your mouse on each of the banners and read the text in the alt image (does not work in some browsers) - that's the only text you're giving the spiders to read.
Offsite optimization refers to things "off" your site. Things like - how many sites link to you without you linking back? How long do people stay at your site?
Essentially, "on site" is what you are telling the spiders about your site. "Off site" is what the rest of the Internet is saying about your site.
It's a little like the old popularity issues in school. If no one likes you (links to you) you're not popular.
Choosing Keywords
With all that said - on to actually choosing the keywords.
You have to start with common sense, and then refine it. (lol) For example, I would never want to optimize my site for "html" even though I write html. Know why? Because I would attract people who want to learn html instead of people that want to hire me to write it.
So, you need to think of 2-4 word phrases that people might search, and be happy at finding your site. It's not enough to have the right keywords. You must also provide the kind of content that people searching those words are looking for.
Once you have a list, then you use a keyword tool to determine which words are being searched most. Overture has a free one, at;
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
For example, if you sold diet products, typing in "diet" would show you that over 92,000 people searched for "weight loss diet" in the last month... but only 9,000 searched for "protein diet"
Most people would automatically think they should use the most popular search. Not so. I would only recommend going for the top terms if you think your SEO expertise can compete at that level.
See, if you search those two terms at Google, you'll see that 13,600,000 sites are competing for the keywords "protein diet" -- but 22,800,000 are competing on the term "weight loss diet"
Thus, a search engine novice might be better to choose the less popular terms because there is less competition for them.
Once you choose your keywords, they need to be used in your page content, not just meta tags. Many search engines don't even bother with meta tags anymore because so many people abused them in the past.
Last, but not least...
OH... and one more thing. Keywords are NOT vital as far as search engines are concerned. Site popularity is vital. You can be on page one, spot one without ever having chosen a keyword. If a lot of sites link to you, and you have high traffic with good visit duration - you'll rank well.
Adobe is on page one of Google for "click here" - and those words aren't even on their site. Not in their meta tags either. But tons of other websites have this funny little thing on their site. It says
"Need Adobe Reader? Click here to download."
Those links got Adobe ranked as page one, spot one for "click here" Now THAT is offsite optimization. *wink*
Hope that helps
: )
Linda
Anyone else have questions? Comments?