|
Keyword optimization
Keyword optimization, the art of choosing the correct
keywords, is one of the most important things related to
search engine optimization. Sadly, it's also one of the
things people tend to spend too little time on. They
think up a few keywords quickly, optimize their pages a
bit and then submit them to the engines. This usually
results in not-so-good rankings under keywords that are
poorly related to the site in question.
Before you start optimizing your site for the search
engines, you should spend some time in figuring out
exactly what keywords, or what keyphrases, you are going
to target. Search engines are an excellent source of
traffic, but in order to utilize them to their full
potential, some effort is required.
What you should do is not to rush things. Sit down, open
up your favorite text editor in one window and your site
in another. Read through the first page of your site.
When you have read it, stop to think. What is this page
about? Which of the words that appear in the document
describe the contents of the page accurately? What kind
of words or phrases would someone use if he was using a
search engine and trying to find documents like this?
When you have found the answers to these questions,
write down the words and the phrases you have come up
with. It doesn't matter if the list becomes too long, as
you can always remove some of the excess words later.
When I do keyword optimization, I usually select one or
two medium-popular keywords or phrases per page. These
are my main targets, and I optimize heavily for them.
Then I squeeze a few less common phrases and words into
the body text, hoping that they will help the page to
come up on some obscure multi-word searches.
Repeat this process for every page on your site. You
should be able to create an individual, distinct list of
keywords for each page. The different lists should not
"compete" with each other, instead each should cover
different areas. This does not however mean that there
shouldn't be any similarities between your lists - it's
perfectly OK to have some, but the lists shouldn't be
100% identical. It is better to have 20 good listings on
different search terms than 20 good listings on the same
one.
So, now you have your lists ready. The next thing would
be to go to Overture's (GoTo) keyword suggestion tool
and type in the different keywords and phrases you've
come up with. The tool will tell you how many times each
keyword and each phrase was searched at Overture during
the last month. It won't tell you exactly how popular
different words are, since the statistics contain only
the searches executed at Overture, but it will give you
a general idea.
Because Overture's data is not always 100% accurate, you
may also want to visit WordTracker. The service is not
free, but the trial option offers a chance to search for
good keywords without having to pay a dime. By using
both Overture and WordTracker and comparing what they
think about the popularity of different keywords, you
should be able to separate the words people search for
from those that are rarely used.
If some of the words you were planning to select aren't
commonly used in searches, you might want to consider
dropping them from your list. If other words look like
they are used quite a lot, then it might be a good idea
to consider adding them. But remember to...
Keep the search engine optimization process in mind!
By now, your list is probably pretty full of very
competitive, single-word terms such as "MP3" or "books"
or "computers" or whatever. Scratch them. This might
sound harsh, but if you're a novice, you have no chance
of achieving a top listing under such terms. Even many
(dare I say most) professionals tend to avoid them, as
they are extremely competitive. There are hundreds of
thousands of sites targeting them and even with
excellent search engine optimization skills, they are
very tough to conquer. What you should do is to narrow
it down a little.
Think about different variations of these popular
keywords. If you were originally thinking about the
keyword "books", how about "buy used books online" or
"antique bookstore"? These terms would be, not easy, but
easier to rank well under. It is far better to be in the
top 10 for a search term with medium usage than to rank
500th for a heavily used term. Select keyphrases that do
get searched, but that aren't too competitive.
You might also want to target common misspellings, if
some of the keywords related to your site are often
spelled wrong . Unfortunately, it is hard to efficiently
target misspellings without damaging the authority of
your site. Would you buy anything from a person that
can't even spell the name of his merchandise? Didn't
think so.. So, be careful with those misspellings.
At this point, you should have completed your keyword
optimization process and now possess a pretty good list
of medium-popularity keyword phrases for each of your
pages. I would recommend that you read the search engine
optimization article on this site next. It will show you
where you should place the keywords you have selected in
order to achieve results with the search engines.
Reciprocal links
Reciprocal links are
one of the most common and most effective forms of
website promotion. The basic concept is simple - you
link my site, I'll link yours and we'll both get an
increase in traffic. But there is more to it than just
exchanging links with a random site.
The very first problem is to find the right site to do
an reciprocal link exchange with. A good partner has
content that appeals to the same kind of visitors as
your site does, and vice versa of course. For example, a
Futurama fan site could have reciprocal links with a
Simpsons fan site, a free stuff site with a sweepstakes
site and so on. To create successful reciprocal links,
the exchanging sites need to be similar yet different
enough so that they don't compete with each other.
After you've found a site that fits the above
description, there are a few other important things that
need to be figured out. First, is the other site
interesting? If it's filled with banner ads and typos,
you're better off finding another site to exchange
reciprocal links with. A good rule of thumb is "If it
doesn't interest me, it's not going to interest my
visitors".
The second thing is to figure out how much traffic the
site gets. Usually you can make a rough estimate just by
browsing the site - if it looks and feels professional,
it probably gets a pretty good amount of visitors. If it
feels like it was a poor site to begin with, and no one
has updated it since 1997, it probably doesn't get more
visitors a day than you have fingers in your hands.
For the exchange to be useful to both parties involved,
sites performing an exchange should have similar amounts
of traffic - that way one site doesn't just rip visitors
off the other one without giving any in return. Because
most webmasters know this rule (some even monitor the
amount of traffic they receive/send out), it's unlikely
that a low-traffic site can get a link exchange with a
high-traffic one. But if your site is really good, your
proposal for a link exchange could be accepted even if
you get less visitors than the site you're trying to
exchange with. The old "content is king"-rule applies
here, too :).
After you've found a site that seems to be suitable,
it's time to contact the webmaster of that site. Tell
him that you run a site that has a similar topic and
describe your site a bit (remember to give your front
page's address). Say that you like his site and have
included a link to it in your site (give him the address
of the page where the link is), then ask him to return
the favor by linking to your site. If you never get a
reply or your proposal gets rejected, just forget it and
find another site.
If you manage to make a deal and get the other webmaster
to link to your site, keep your end of the bargain -
don't remove your link without contacting the webmaster
of the other site first. Because there are some
webmasters who agree to exchange reciprocal links, add
your link on their site for a few days/weeks and then
remove it without noticing you, you should also check
the site of your partner every now and then to see if
he's keeping his part of the deal. If he is not, contact
the guy and kindly ask him to explain why your link has
disappeared. If you don't get a satisfactory
explanation, remove the link to his site from your site
and find another partner.
To discuss your requirements
further, please feel free to
contact us at any time. We would be delighted to
offer our best to you. |
