Choosing keywords

[peterjhale]

I've reposted this into the correct place

How you set your website up all starts from deciding what "keywords" youare going to target.

Keywords are the words or phrases that you want your customers to find you from the search engine results pages.

But how do you find these ?

Think of the easiest type of phrase someone might try to search for. It's probably going to just be one or two words eg: Small business, marketing, internet explorer, sky satellite etc..

These are the top phrases, but with established sites around it's very unlikely you're going to be able to get into the top 10 - so try others - these will be searched less frequently but you will have a better chance to be ranked highly for these.

Choosing your words:

Go to digitalpoint's keyword tracker

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

type in your main words from above and see what comes up.

Target 2-3 word combinations per pay.

I'll publish more info on structuring your pages later on.

Peter
__________________
Peter Hale

Business planning

[Motter]

Quick question on that Peter,

I see you are looking for searches with only one or two hits a day. ANy reason for this?

I know that it will be easier to get higher rankings for these but also with such a low interest where will the traffic come from?


Motters

[peterjhale]

I think I have confused you


The way to do this is think of the most obvious thing people will search for that's related to your site: say "broadband"

Now, you're unlikely to be able to compete with that phrase, so type it into the keyword suggestion and you're see loads of other combinations. Here's what's been searched for on Overture

broadband2,974.9/day
broadband speed test516.1/day
aol broadband313.0/day
broadband wireless276.3/day
broadband pay236.8/day
broadband internet188.3/day
broadband test175.2/day
broadband phone162.0/day
broadband msn137.8/day
broadband satellite117.6/day
broadband dsl111.4/day
99bb broadband109.6/day
at t broadband105.4/day
broadband speed81.8/day
att broadband72.2/day
bt broadband69.6/day
broadband provider64.1/day
broadband gear63.1/day
broadband services61.2/day
broadband phone service59.3/day

OK - not all are relevant, but pick a few and the hits will soon add up.
Peter

[Motter]

Hi Peter,

I think I understand what you are getting at.
If I just went for 'broadband' then I'd have lots of competition. If I went for a few lesser keywords and if the ranking went well the total would mount up.

Is that where you were going with it?


Motters

[peterjhale]

Absolutely correct !

[Motter]

I guess now the hard bit is to select the right keywords to use and find a way to write them into good sales copy to encourage orders.

One other thing to do would be to see how many results there are for each keyword/phrase.

If you can find a few that have fewer competition then you should have a better chance.

Even with this method you will still not be getting the amount of traffic that could result in a large amount of orders.

Do any SEO marketers still go for the big keywords and battle it out?


Motters

[james]

When writing a webpage you should write for your customers first.

See how that page ranks

Then you can tweak it for the search engines

So long as you keep a copy you can always re-load if the page tanks

[Motter]

Hi James,

I understand what your saying, in a perfect world this is the way it should be done.
But, is this on peoples mind when they are writing new sites?

Motters

[peterjhale]

Hi Motters

James has a point and it's all too easy just to write for search engines - I went back and forth when I first started and probably have a sensible compromise.

Trouble is, search engines are getting better at spotting stuff (although things do creep through).

I would write a page that you believe sells your products well.

Run it past the density/ prominence checker (www.ranks.nl) then tinker a bit with it - then just make slight changes as you see fit.

[theplanner]

Once written also check out your competitors to see what they are up to.

Go to their page and "view source" - you may get some tips