The Power Of The "Niche" - Choosing Keywords People Actually Use by Jill St Claire, President - JSC Marketing, LLC

The Power Of The "Niche" - Choosing Keywords People Actually Use by Jill St Claire, President - JSC Marketing, LLC

Keywords and keyphrases are the search words and terms Internet surfers use to find the products, services or information they are looking for.

Choosing the right keywords and phrases for your search engine optimization (SEO) program is critical to its success. The right keywords drive targeted traffic to your website - prospects that are ready to buy. The wrong keywords attract web visitors that are not likely to purchase your products and services - wasting everyone's time and your money.

By following these simple rules, you will be able to determine the right mix of keywords and phrases that will generate targeted prospects to your website. Remember that good search terms are those that are related to your business and have sufficient monthly search traffic.



Rule #1 Select keywords that represent your company's "bread and butter." What products and service lines are the most profitable, have the strongest sales, and continue to show good market demand. And yes, typically the 80/20 rule applies here. 80% of your sales and sales leads are produced by 20% of your keywords and phrases.

Rule #2 Look at complementary products and services that people tend to buy that you don't offer. Often, these keywords generate good prospects and typically have less competition than your primary keywords and phrases.

Rule #3 Use online tools to help determine keyword variations and search frequency. The best free programs to use include Overture's search term suggestion tool - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion and Google's AdWords suggestion tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/main.

Rule #4 Use WordTracker - www.wordtracker.com. For a small fee, you can use this tool to find niche keywords, use the thesaurus to find related search terms and determine general monthly search frequency. This is a great tool and worth the investment.

Rule #5 Use pay-per-click programs like Overture or Google's AdWords to choose keywords and phrases for your SEO program. Both programs help you generate search terms based on specific keyword relationships and show how often they are searched for. Set a small monthly budget and track the number of keyword impressions you receive for each search term. After one to two months of data, choose the search terms with adequate search frequency and incorporate them into your search engine optimization program.

Rule #6 Don't forget Geographics. If your products and services are local or regional, be sure to include your state or city within your search phrases. For example, an investigations company that conducts most of its business in the Midwest would want to choose "Indiana and private investigator."

Rule #7 Take a look at your competition. Based on your top three competitors, look at their website for specific search terms being used. Also, look at their META keywords to get a good idea of what search terms they think are important. Remember you want to look at competitors for your different markets served and products and service lines.

Rule #8 Analyze your website traffic. Make sure your web hosting company provides you with the ability to analyze your website log files. Some hosting companies have you log into your account to view monthly web traffic reports, while others email monthly reports. Information obtained can tell you the top search terms and search engines used to find your website and other valuable information. To get the most out of your log file data, it is recommended to use a log file analyzer such as Web Trends or Urchin.

By applying these simple rules, you will be well on your way to generating highly-targeted keywords and phrases that attract the right prospects - prospects who have direct interest in what you have to offer.

Rather have a professional develop your SEO strategy?

About the Author
With over 20 yrs holding executive level positions in the corporate arena, Jill St Claire discovered that most organizations produce viable products, but they fail to identify who their "best" customers are and how to effectively reach them. St Claires proven strategies are now applied to Digital Media Marketing providing cost-effective solutions that increase the "bottom line". Jill@JSCMarketing.com 1.888.435.5156

How to get your site a top ranking in Google by Paul Bliss

How to get your site a top ranking in Google by Paul Bliss

It's the new American dream. Your website appears in a top spot on Google for your chosen keyword. Next thing you know, orders start coming in faster than you can handle, and you are rolling in the money. If only it were so easy, right?

Well,

It can be done. I've done it many times in many different industries. There is no secret, but rather, it's just knowing what to do. I've made just about every mistake one can make with a website, but I learned from every setback. If you were only allowed to do one thing to get ranked for your site in Google, without a doubt, all you'd need to do is get links for your site.

Yes, there are many other factors involved in getting your site to a top position. But this is the most powerful way as of this writing to get a top spot in Google. It's not just enough to have links pointing to your site, but you need to have your keyword "anchor linked" to your site. Anchor linking is when you use your keyword phrase as the click-able text for a link. So, instead of saying "Click Here", you would use "Widgets" as the link text.

Now, another point of consideration is determening what keyword/phrase you want to use to get your site found. Most times, people impulsively choose a one word phrase. While this would be a great way to bring traffic to your site, would it bring targeted traffic, with people looking specifically for your product or service? Most times when people type in a one letter keyphrase, they are in the beginning of their search.

They may type in "Shoes", but are really looking for "Running Shoes". So, if you have a top ranking for shoes, do you serve that user's needs? Maybe, but they may also be looking for dress, casual, Women's, Men's, Children's, athletic, girl's, boy's, etc. This is why when you begin to optimize your site, you should focus on more targeted keyword phrases.

Suppose you sell a certain brand name of dress shoes. For this example, we'll call the famous brand XYZ. So, by getting anchor links as "XYZ Dress Shoes", you are already eliminating those users who are looking for another brand or line of shoe. Next, you need to make sure that the page that gets linked contains the on the page content with "XYZ Dress Shoes". If you would link to a page without relevant content, Google would view this link as possible spam, or more appropriately, irrelevant content.

Now, once you have compiled your list of keywords, you need to see which one are searched on the most. The best tool for this is WordTracker, and it is worth the tiny fee you need to pay to have access for one day. There are also free tools online that you can use, but WordTracker will give you the most accurate results.

Once you have run through your list of all your keywords, the obvious choice is to pick the ones with the highest amount of searches (and content relevant to your site!). The next step is to then begin the process of a link campaign. Now, I can already hear you complaining about doing a link exchange. This is only 1/3 of your campaign. The ideal method is to not only engage in a reciprocal link exchange, but to also engage in strategic linking.

Strategic linking is when you get a link to your site without having to return the favor. What's the best way to do this? Write an article just like this one. If I get one website to use this article and have it point to my site, I've just created another link to my site. Pretty easy, eh?

Since you have now engaged in a linking campaign, you should expect to see results in Google in as little as 4 days, and as far as 6 months. All of this is determined by where your links are coming from, and the popularity of the site from which the link came. Next, you need to get as many links as you can pointing to your site with your popular keyword phrase anchor linked to your site.

As I mentioned before, there many other factors that wll only enhance your rankings in Google, but the omplementation of a link campaign is the strongest method to get your site to a top ranking!

-To your online success!

Paul Bliss
About the Author
Paul Bliss is a leading authority in the emerging field of search engine optimization. Paul has more than four years experience in the field and has produced some truly amazing results. Email Paul at pbliss@seoforgoogle.com or visit his site at: http://www.seoforgoogle.com