How to choose the keywords and phrases that drives most targeted traffic
- Try to think the way your potential customer thinks. What words will your potential customer select when conducting a search for websites like yours? Write down the 50 most likely words and the 25 most likely phrases (combinations of these words) you believe they would use. Create two, three, and four word phrases. Ask others for their input, including new customers - you may be surprised at their suggested search terms.
- Rank these keywords and keyphrases. Rank the most likely word or phrase no. 1 and the least likely word no. 50 and phrase no. 25.
- Analyze your web server log files to determine whether your existing traffic has been using similar terms and if the ranking is similar.
- Conduct further research on likely search terms and their competitiveness, using keyword tools at WordTracker, Overture and Google AdWords.
- Concentrate on three and four word phrases - you will have the most success with these e.g."information technology consultants" or "toshiba plasma display reviews" or "cadillac cts features".
- Examine the rankings of your competitors in appropriate search engines, for the same keyphrases you now have in your final list.
- Re-rank your keyphrases list, based on the above information.
- Analyze each of your main pages and select the most suitable page for each keyphrase - a page is suitable if the keyphrase reflects the subject matter of the page. If no page seems suitable for a particular keyphrase, then create a new page for that keyphrase.
- Ensure your keyphrase appears in the page title, meta description and keywords tags and more than once, in the page content.
Selecting the search terms that prospective customers would most likely use to find your products and services, is critical to success. It is worth devoting considerable time ensuring that you have correctly identified and then used them, in your web site.
Search engine consultants can help you optimize your keywords selection.
Drive traffic to your website by targeting search terms that people typically would use to find a website like yours.
