Find Out What Keywords People Will Use To Get To Your Site

Unless the site visitor knows your domain name, they will use a search engine to find you or your product or service.  To do this they will type in their search words; this is where you need to do a bit of detective work ? what search or keywords do you think that they will use to find your products or services?  It may not just be one word, it may be a phrase.  Also do not forget, you will use trade or technical terms ? your searcher may use more day to day terms so look at the search process form your customers? point of view. 

If your business operates in a specific geographical area, think about a keyword phrase that defines that to help the search engine, say ?estate agent Hinckley?.  Have a look at what your competitors? websites for ideas about keywords, but try to come up with between 15 and 40 keywords. 

The next step is to decide which are the most likely keywords that people will search for your products or services with.  If you operate in a competitive marketplace like financial services, car insurance etc, you will find it hard to get your keywords and site highly ranked unless you take time and effort to achieve it.  Try not to go for broad phrases or keywords like ?insurance or accountant, but qualify the phrase with the type of service you provide like ?car insurance? or better still ?under 25s car insurance?.  In other words, try to relate the keywords to your business; this is where keywords phrases will help. 

So where do we go next?  Well we now need to make use of the keywords.

Optimise Your Site Content

If you want to convince Google, Yahoo or the other search engines that your site provides the best response to potential customers? searches, then you have got to show that you have good content.  The search engines ?read? the text on your site and see if it contains keywords and content that is relevant to the searchers query.  However, you have also got to satisfy the human side of the equation.  Your content should not be copied from other sites or repeated from other pages, the search engines reward unique content that is relevant to the searchers needs.  If your keyword is ?coal? and ?coal? does not occur within the text, then the search engine may think the page is not relevant to the searcher?s needs.  One word of warning here, do not get carried away with using the keyword too often as this is seen as spam ? as a rule of thumb, about 10% of your text should be keywords.

Help both your site visitor and the search engine by using headings on pages, making good links to other pages on your site that help the visitor gain the information they want.  Also, in the META tags, make sure that you have included keywords that are relevant to that page and the description tells potential visitors what they will see on that web page ? do not be vague or flowery.

The design is important, but is only part of the equation.  Some important points to remember when your web designer lets their imagination and flair run wild:

?         Search engines do not at this time decipher pictures ? use the ALT tags to describe exactly what a picture is or to amplify sales messages.  Also, some people?s browsers settings do not download some or all images ? they just get a nice red cross as a picture holder.  

?         Flash is great to add to your communication of ideas and concepts ? but again at this time search engines do not generally see or understand flash. 

?         WARNING a website that is entirely made up of flash can be optimised but it takes a lot of hard work and expertise.  At the moment the search engines only really read text.  Unless there is a compelling reason for a flash-only website, use some html pages as well or you will have problems.

Link Building

The most potent way to get search engines to rank your website is to build links from relevant sites to your site.  Reciprocal links can be useful but are not generally as effective as inbound links.  Outbound links can play a part, but they are definitely the poor relations in your bid for search engine ran king.  The rationale for this is that search engines see an inbound link as a vote of confidence for your site.  That is, other sites think it is important enough to link to, so a link from a highly ranked or relevant site will have more effect than a link from a poor site or one unrelated to your site.  Quality links will definitely help improve your search engine rakings.  Be careful of using software that guarantees high search engine ranking by registering your site with thousands of search engines and directories.  Google, in particular can blacklist your site if it thinks you are spamming or using link farms.  It is also putting less importance on most paid links.

Monitor Your Site Statistics

You will not get an instant good search engine ranking, depending how competitive your industry is, it may take up to 6 months or so to get a good ranking.  Use your web statistics (also known as analytics) to monitor how effective particular search terms have been.  What brought your site visitors to your site, where did they leave your site?  Over time you should watch and record your search engine rankings by doing a Google search for your chosen keywords to see where you rank.

Make sure you keep your content up to date.  Add new pages or content regularly and build new links to your site on a continual basis. 

Your WSI Internet Marketing Consultant can help you see the big picture and grow your business through a variety of tested industry best practices, such as Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing campaigns, email marketing, and website enhancements. Working with a WSI Consultant means that you can profit from their experience, research, and product offering, while still focusing your efforts on running your business.

If you are an online trader and are unsure if you can safely support your customers, leverage the experience of your local WSI Internet Marketing Consultant today, contact Gordon Diffey at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 01572 495007, and start growing your business! Check me out at http://www.wsitopinternetmarketing.co.uk