Keyword selection and search engine optimization are vital tools in producing and running a successful website. Before we continue talking about keyword selection and search engine optimization, I want to make sure that we all understand what the terminology is saying.
Keywords are the words selected by you to define your site. They are the words that you hope to rank well for in Google. So, for instance, if you want to have a web site selling ‘fashion’ – ‘fashion, fashionable, high fashion, haute couture’ may become your keywords (more on this later).
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is about presenting your work – the website and any text connected with it – in such a manner that search engines find it easy to crawl and index, which enables people to find you on the Internet.
Let’s use Google as an instance of a search engine – after all, it is the biggest, most used and so most crucial. Google wants to present its users with the best results – that is, most relevant results – that it can for each keyword entered, in order to improve customer satisfaction.
Therefore it has built up an immense database of which keywords are on which sites. Then ‘all’ has to do is rank the sites by popularity and, in theory, the most relevant websites should pop up for each keyword entered.
Now there is you, or me, with our dreams of a web site on fashion. If you make ‘fashion’ your keyword, you will be taking on the colossal fashion houses and huge department stores with their colossal budgets and gigantic websites head to head. Who do you imagine is going to win?
It is a no-brainer. You will never even get to page 20 in Google search results. In short, you will have no business. But what if you used a long-tail keyword (LTKW) and focused your website? Say, use the LTKW ‘fashionable plus size black dresses’ and build a web site on that. It may be a keyword that no one else has considered.
This is why keyword selection is important and there are many books and articles written about it. It is a specific job, a bit of a slog, but some individuals, like me, actually enjoy it. Or you could automate the task.
So, that is the first stage: finding relevant keywords to your business so that you have a opportunity of being listed on the first page of Google for that keyword. The second stage is making your web site search engine friendly so that Google can crawl it and index it for your keywords.
If you do not do this correctly, Google’s spiders will crawl off onto another website and it may be a whilst before they come back, which leaves your website in dead water.
This article is too short to go into this colossal subject in any worthwhile way, but I will strive to give you the most relevant pointers.
Keep your website focused on a small assortment of products and define and use keywords for each item, but do not over use them. Do not repeat a keyword phrase simply for the sake of it.
Make your internal links easy to find by using nav bars, menus and sitemaps.
Do not have loads of external links for your visitors to go off to, make your site interesting enough for surfers and spiders to want to remain there.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a number of topics, but is now concerned with the SEO Content. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at PLR Articles