I am going to start off by saying there is no exact way to perform keyword research for SEO. In fact, there is no such thing as perfect keywords. When choosing keywords for SEO, ideal keywords are those with high searches and low competition. Therefore, the trick to keyword research is making an educated decision to find ideal keywords. So before you jump head first into finding keywords, take some time to create a plan of attack.
Here a few things to consider BEFORE starting keyword research:
Grab Their Attention With Page Titles and Headlines
At first glance these topics may not seem to go togther too well but please stick with me. Page titles and headlines basically have one function in life – to grab the readers’ attention and make them want to read more.
Page titles, although not an actual meta tag, reside in the <head> section of your html pages.
- Example: <head><title>This is your page title</title></head>
When you view a page in a browser and you notice the words at the top of the page in the blue bar above the browser navigation – this is your page title. Many times, when web site building tools are used they will automatically insert page titles for you like “Home”, “Page 2″, etc. These are very important in relation to how search engines will display your listings when they do come up in search results – so do youself a huge favor and follow these tips!
Keyword Research Made Easy
You’re probably saying, “Hey Mike! You just told me last week that keywords weren’t used by many search engines.” That is partially true. The keyword meta tag isn’t used very much by current search engines but keywords themselves are very important to the success of your site.
Keywords are the words or short phrases that you are going to use when optimizing your site. If you select the right keywords, you could open up a niche market and find a nice little traffic hotspot. If you choose the wrong keywords, you could end up in the search engine black hole where nobody will ever find you.
Who is Your Target Market Really?
A while ago I was starting a marketing campaign for a client and after a nice long chat about goals this question came up: “So who is your target market“?
“Everybody that has a business,” they responded.
WRONG! Defining your audience is a crucial step in marketing (online and offline) and unfortunately, this is a step that most people skip. They assume their market is everyone and they move forward without any precision in their campaigns. Lack of precision WILL result in lack of conversion.
Beware the Black Hat
Or: How to Ruin Your SEO Efforts
There is a lot of bad advice on the Internet [DUH!] but especially about search engine optimization [SEO]. To cut corners and “save time” some websites out there will try to sell you on a program or method to cheat your way to the top of search engine page rankings. The problem is that these techniques, collectively referred to as Black Hat SEO can actually lower your rankings and could possibly get your site banned.
Now that we defined SEO and gave you some nifty onsite tips on our blog, be sure to avoid these ways to completely ruin your overall SEO efforts!
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