Building Traffic Starts with the Keywords!

I've written an article in a past newsletter about the importance of how to target the "right" keywords for improving your search positions. We see many serious mistakes in this area by some of our customers. So many, in fact, that I felt it would be worthwhile to revisit this topic and offer some tricks to maximizing your visibility with your use of keywords.

For this discussion, "keywords" are words that someone using a search engine types into the search screen or search box in hopes of finding your Web site. You will want to create pages that target and emphasize specific keywords related to your Web site's content so that you rank near the top of the search results.

Always target keyword "phrases" -- meaning two to three keywords in a row. Studies show that 80% of Internet searches contain two to three word phrases, NOT single words. Therefore, list all the keywords and concepts that apply to your Web site and start pairing them into likely phrases that people might use to "narrow" their search. By doing this, your page will still be relevant for those single keyword searches but will also capture traffic from the more common multi-word queries. We call these multi-word phrases "Power Combinations."

For example, let's say you run a travel business specializing in the Caribbean. Some of your keywords might be:

travel

Caribbean

airlines

cruises

reservations

accommodations

flight

getaways

Some of your Power Combinations might be:

Caribbean travel getaways

Caribbean travel accommodations

Caribbean cruise reservations

Caribbean flight reservations

Because search engines normally return "partial" matches by default, using the plural form of your keywords such as "reservations" will often return matches with "reservation" too.

NEXT STEP: Regionalize! If your travel business is in Dallas include this city in your keyword combinations:

Dallas travel getaways

Dallas travel accommodations

Dallas cruise reservations

Dallas flight reservations

Many people would rather book reservations with a local agent. Therefore, they will preface searches with their city and potentially their State or Province.

Next, put yourself in the shoes of the "average Joe" using a search engine trying to find a product or service that you offer. Once you've created these keyword power combinations go down your list and say to yourself, "would I really type that into a search box if I were looking for XYZ product or service?" If the answer is no, or "probably not," re-think your choices and try to find a more natural or logical arrangement of your keywords.

Finally, once you've identified your power combinations, create doorway pages (See September issue of this newsletter) that repeat some of these phrases in the title, headings, body, and other areas of the page. After you submit these pages and allow time for them to be indexed by the different search engines, follow-up with WebPosition.

This article is copyrighted and has been reprinted with permission from FirstPlace Software, the makers of WebPosition Gold. FirstPlace Software helped define the SEO industry with the introduction of the first product to track your rankings on the major search engines and to help you improve those rankings. A free trial of WebPosition Gold is available from their Web site.

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