Searchers rarely go past the first few pages of search results when they are looking for something online. Sites that are listed in the first few pages of search engine results get the higher exposure as compare to sites buried under several pages into the result. Choosing the right keywords for your web site and use them correctly in your content could help your web site to be placed in the first few pages of the search engine results. The higher your web site ranks in the search results, the higher chance the searcher will find your web site.
How Do You Know Which Keywords to Use?
Using the right keywords for your web site will improve your search engine rankings. This will tremendously increase the traffic that visits your web site. The traffic your web site received from search engine rankings will also be more targeted to the products or services that you are selling on your web site. To decide what keywords are right for your web site, you can start by asking yourself these questions:
- What words that come to mind when you think of your product and services?
- What variations of words and phrases that you may use to find a similar product or service?
To broaden the list of keywords, you can also ask your customers these questions. They are able to tell you what keywords they think of or use when searching for your product or service. They can be your best source for the right keywords. Besides, you can also check your competitors’ web site for additional keywords that you may not have considered up until now.
Keyword suggestion tool are useful for keyword research. Many keyword suggestion tools are available on the web. Some of the top tools include:
- Overture Keyword Selector Tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
- Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com)
- Google Adwords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal)
Choosing Effective Keyword
A lot of effort has gone into researching your keyword list so far. You’ve created a list of potential keywords based on your customer input and brainstorming. You’ve also included all of the keywords that are suggested by keyword suggestion tools. You might even use a thesaurus to find additional keywords and phrases that you have not thought of.
Your keyword list has enough words to cover all the services and products that your sit offers. You can include everything and do not have to worry about the quality of the keywords. However, there are a few things that you can do to ensure your keyword list is effective:
- Remove all of the keywords that do not apply to your web site in any way from your list.
- Remove generic keywords for which the competition is fierce. These words are incredibly difficult to rank high with and would probably not drive quality traffic to your site. Instead, focus on non-competitive relevant terms that are specific and targeted to your site.
- Removing any keywords that are not used by your potential audience at all.
How do You Use these Targeted Keywords?
You’ve probably heard of keyword density. What does it mean and how is it related to your web site search engine ranking? Keyword density is a measurement of the number of times that keywords appear on the page, versus the number of words on a page. If you have a page that has 1000 words of text and your keyword appears on that page 50 times, then your keyword density is 5 percent. Enough keyword density brings good ranking results.
So, what is the optimum keyword density? No one has been able to provide a definite figure. Some experts suggest it should be around 5 to 7 percent. It is certain that too much keyword density can negatively impact the ranking of your web site. Your site ranking will suffer too if there is not enough keyword density. To dictate keyword density, there is no hard and fast rule. Site owners have to experiment with different keyword density and find the right figure that works best for them.
You should implement your keywords on your site slowly. Only use keywords the number of times that it is absolutely essential. Monitor the results after each new keyword is added to your web site.
Keyword research and testing is an ongoing progress. You should constantly be changing and updating your keyword list.