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SEO Keywords
SEO Keywords - What
are They and Why You Should Care?
SEO Keywords are THE most important aspect
of getting ranked highly in the search engines. If you pick
the right keywords you can get ranked highly and get a lot of free
traffic from Google and the other search engines. Pick the wrong
SEO keywords and your site will be buried way down in the search engines
where no one ever looks.
What are SEO Keywords
Why Should You Care about Keywords
How to Choose Good Keywords
What are SEO Keywords?
A keyword is the search term you are targeting on your
web page. It's what you want visitors to type in to get to your
site. A keyword can be one word or several words.
For example, the keyword for this web page is "SEO
Keywords."
Why Care about SEO Keywords?
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Using keywords on
your website helps Google and the other search engines know what
your website is about. The more ways you can show Google
your website is about a particular keyword the more Google
thinks "Ah-ha! This site is about that keyword." So, the
more chance that Google will bring your website up near the top
of its results when a user types in that word or phrase.
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The 'trick' to getting high in the search engine
rankings is to figure out the best keywords to target on your website.
That's the part that a lot of people have trouble with because they just
pick a word they think will work and don't bother to do the work
necessary to choose the best keyword.
How to Choose Good SEO Keywords for your Website
Your goal is to choose a keyword to target that meets
the following criteria:
1. A lot of people search for that keyword each
month, AND
2. It is pretty easy to get to the top of the
rankings for that search term.
Google has a GREAT keyword tool that is free to use that shows you how many people
search for a specific keyword each month.
Simply type in what your website is about in 2 or 3
words and it will bring up how many people search each month for that
keyword as well as how much competition you are up against for that
search term.
For example, let's say that you sell trains on your
website. A lot of people would just target the keyword "trains"
but you are smarter than that.
You know that you don't care about all the different
searches people could be making for trains out there - ex: train tickets
to Paris, train schedule, subway trains, etc. You just care about
people wanting to buy trains. So, you type the keyword 'buy
trains' into the search box.
This will bring up a list that looks like this:
You can see at a glance what your competition is like
as well as how many searches you can expect on your keyword each month.
For example, using the information above we can see
that the term "buy trains" gets 3,600 searches a month and has above
average competition. The term "buy a train" gets 33,100 searches a
month and has less competition. Which is the best to target based
on this information? The one with less competition which in this
case is "buy a train."
What's Next?
Choosing the right keyword for your website is THE
most important aspect of getting your website ranked high in the search
engines but it is just step 1 of the 4 step process.
The next step is really easy and will take you about 2
minutes - Inserting SEO Meta Tags into your website.
If you want help with your
keywords and optimizing your website, I recommend Search
Engine Visibility. It's a great tool to help you figure out
your keywords and analyzes your website to make sure it's set up
correctly for the search engines. It's cheap, easy to use and
great for beginners.
Click here to go to Step 2: SEO Meta
Tags
Search Engine Optimization Tutorial
Step 1: SEO Keywords
Step 2:
SEO Meta Tags
Step 3:
SEO Optimize Your Website
Step 4:
Get Links
This is just a brief look at the basics of SEO
keywords. For more specific information on choosing the right
keyword, how to analyze your competition and how to optimize your
website, you may find
my
ebook on How to Start and Grow your Internet Business helpful.
I go into a lot more detail there.
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