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Importance of Identifying Relevant Keyword Phrases

When you are optimizing your website for search engines, one of the most important steps is identifying and using relevant keyword phrases. A keyword phrase is a set of two to four words that people are likely to search for when they are looking for information online. If you find and use the best keyword phrases for your target market, your website will appear near the top of the search engine results when people search for those phrases. This translates to more hits, and therefore, more business for you.

If you are curious what keywords people are using to find your site, you need an analytic tool that tracks where your website traffic comes from. After letting the analytic tool gather data for several weeks, look at the top search phrases that are generating traffic. If these aren’t the ones that you want to target, your next project is to identify what keywords are the best ones for your target market.

You have plenty of options for free tools to help you find the best keyword phrases to use in your text. One of the most powerful tools is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Although this one is designed for people buying ads on Google, it also works well for identifying keywords to use on your website. When you type some words to describe what your site is about, the tool comes back with results for popular keyword phrases. In addition to telling you how many searches per month each phrase gets, it also gives you an estimate of how much competition you have in that keyword. Your goal is to use the phrases that have the most searches, but the least competition.

Wordtracker also offers a free version of its keyword tool that you can use to supplement the Google results and help you come up with additional keywords to consider. It is not as powerful because it does not show you the competition for each keyword, but it can help provide additional information to make your decision.

Once you know some relevant and popular keyword phrases, it is time to include them in the text of your website. For each page of your website, identify a primary and a secondary keyword that people are likely to search for when they need to find the information you plan to provide. Choosing a different primary keyword for each page helps your search presence because you can appear near the top for lots of different searches. Once the visitors are at your site, they can navigate through the site on their own.

Your keyword should appear in the title for the page, in the metadata, in the first 100 words of text, and again about once every 300 words throughout the page. Don’t overuse it, which can look unnatural and hurt your search rankings, and try to incorporate it as naturally as possible into your text so the readers feel like they are getting real content, not SEO junk.

Natural-looking search engine optimization is a form of art, and keyword phrases are your building blocks or the paints you use. It is your job to add relevant content around the keyword phrases to make them look natural as part of your website as a whole.

Content Development Tips

How do I develop good content on my website?

It’s no secret that when it comes to websites, content is king. In short order, it’s what differentiates a successful site from a total flop. Think about it this way: what does it even matter if your website comes up in the top three results of any given search engine query if there’s nothing on your site to keep a visitor’s interest, much less ensure they bookmark your page and come back again? The trick to doing that actually isn’t a trick at all–it’s the result of thoughtfully developed content. Here’s how to do that.

Write well-crafted content. This has been discussed before and will likely be discussed again. And do you know why? Because it’s important. What’s even more important is remembering that you don’t have to be a gifted writer in order to captivate someone’s interest. One of the keys to doing that is by offering something of value with every blog or news article you publish to your website. Without that, you’re just writing fluff. And fluff doesn’t earn repeat visits, a loyal following, and those highly valued inbound links that help drive up your position in search engine rankings.Use keywords. Before you haul off and churn out a 500-word blog post crammed with keywords and key phrases, take this into consideration.

There’s a huge difference between keyword driven content, and keyword stuffing–and it’s not just your audience that can tell the difference, so can search engines. First of all, website content that is so packed with keywords that make it impossible to read is a great way to drive people away in droves. There’s an art to the proper use and placing of keywords that relies heavily on subtlety and moderation. Second, content that’s comprised of nothing but keywords separated by a few commas and semicolons with the occasional adjective sends up red flags with search engines, practically guaranteeing that your site will be identified by the likes of Google and Bing as spam.

Web copy with strategically placed keywords, on the other hand, grabs a search engine’s attention and increases your chances of placing high in its search results.Focus on tips and top 10 lists. People love top 10 lists, and they can’t seem to get enough of tip-based articles. The reason? Top 10 lists are far easier to digest than the typical, convoluted narrative structure that has a tendency to make reading difficult. This isn’t to say your audience is stupid–far from it. But reading something from a computer monitor is far different than reading something in print.

People jump on the internet to find information quickly and easily, and they have a tendency to skim through articles as opposed to sitting and reading for extended periods of time. The human eye is attracted to bullet lists and bits of information. Tip-based articles, on the other hand, appeal to the DIY creature that exists in every person that’s ever paid too much to hire a professional for something they could have handled themselves. Develop your content. Expertly crafted content doesn’t come about as an accident. It’s the result of careful thought and planning. If you don’t already have a plan in place that maps out precisely how you intend to build and grow your audience, it’s time to get started.

Dan Thies on SEO101, 5PM EDT Monday April 13

The legendary Dan Thies joins SEO101 hosts Ross Dunn and Eric Lander today at 5:00PM(EDT) on WebmasterRadio.FM.

Dan has been involved in search engine optimization and digital marketing for over a decade. He is one of the pioneers of the field and one of the true innovators. Ross and Eric will be discussing the enormous field of keyword research with Dan.

Join SEO101 on WebmasterRadio.FM each Monday at 5PM or download a podcast on-demand from the SEO101 archives or iTunes.