The Radiance of Knowing

The first step in a search engine optimization campaign is to choose your keywords or keyphrases for each of your web pages. Keywords are the terms that search engine users type in the search box to conduct a query. The right keywords are those that:

1. clearly describe the purpose and content of your site, and,

2. allow your site to show up as close to the first results page as possible.

A good position doesn’t depend only on your choice of keywords. It also depends on how well do you position those keywords in your web page, and how many quality external pages link to you. However, choosing the wrong keywords can throw off your entire search engine optimization strategy, so you need to invest a few hours and make sure you do it right.

Let’s start with your homepage. Look at it carefully and write down the words and phrases that best define your site. Try to form two or three word phrases, since competition for one-word keyphrases is fierce, and it is virtually impossible to get a top position for them. That is why, from now on, we will talk about keyphrases, not keywords.

Once you have developed your list of potential keyphrases you are ready for the next step: to analyze the demand and supply for those keyphrases, and choose the best ones (those with good demand and not enough supply).

We will first check the demand for your selected keyphrases. For this, we will go to Overture’s Search Term Suggesion Tool:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Overture is a popular pay-per-click search engine (as we know, pay-per-click search engines are the only ones that disclose keyword poplularity for free). You will then type each of the keyphrases you selected, and see how many people search for those terms. This tool will show you only those searches conducted in Overture (and only in one month time). However, the relative popularity of each search term will be very similar in other search engines as well.

In addition to telling you if your selected keyphrases are popular, this tool will show you other keyphrases that you may not have thought about, which may even be more relevant to your site. For example, if your first keyphrase was “Italian Restaurant”, the Search Term Suggestion Tool will also display other popular search terms, like: “Gourmet Italian Restaurant”, “Northern Italian Restaurant”, “Italian Restaurant Pizzeria”, “Italian Restaurant Miami”, etc. You may also try other keyphrases, for example: “Italian Cuisine”, and come up with more specific keyphrases, like: “Fine Italian Cuisine”, “Italian Cuisine Miami”, “Northern Italian Cuisine”, “Italian Cuisine Fine Dining”, “Gourmet Italian Cuisine”, etc.

What you have done is to validate and enlarge your pool of popular, in-demand, potential keyphrases for your web page.

The next step is to check the supply, or, in other words, to see how much competition there is for your selected keywords. Naturally, you want to focus on keyphrases where competition is less fierce. For example, chosing “Italian Restaurant” alone will certainly hurt you. There are so many of them that your chances of showing up in an advantagous position within the search results are pretty slim.

Having said that, get your list of keyphrases, go to Google ( http://www.google.com ) and type-in each of them in the search box. Enter your keyphrases within quotation marks (to filter-out less relevant results), and see how many results each individual query produces, making a note of those with a relatively small number of results (less competition). You will stick with the keyphrase that:

1. Best describes the topic and content of your page.

2. Is a popular search term according to Overture’s Search Term Suggestion Tool.

3. Generates a relatively small number of results after performing the Google search.

If “Gourmet Italian Restaurant” is the keyphrase that best meets these three criteria, it will become your primary keyphrase. To get even better results, you can choose a second keyphrase to make your page more relevant to an even more specific niche. For example, if your restaurant is in Miami, you can consider “Miami” a second keyphrase.

Once you have chosen the keyphrases for you homepage, do the same for the other pages on your site.

You will then take your selected keyphrases and optimize your pages heavily for them. This involves placing them in strategic locations in the title, headings and body of each page.

About The Author

Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ), an online collection of web design and Internet marketing articles and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles in your website, ezine, newsletter or ebook.

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So it seems that content is still king, and that RSS article feed does a nice job of streaming in fresh, keyword-loaded content that gets your site indexed fast AND brings Adsense Revenue. That’s great, but if you think that articles replace traditional web copy, you’re dead wrong.

Look at any top corporation’s website structure to see that the traditional website model still takes first prize. Even if you’ve unearthed the absolute best articles on the web from leading experts, an article feed is still no way to greet a customer who’s just landed on your homepage.

Think about this. How did you feel the last time you clicked and landed and sat there blinking at an article that you weren’t planning on reading? If the article managed to suck you in, were you tempted after perusing it, to explore other parts of that website? Or did you just go, “Ahh, good one” and continue on your merry ADD-like web-surfing way?

My guess is, you clicked away. So if you’re looking to launch a new site or considering making improvements on your existing site, how about putting that RSS feed back where it belongs - on the article page.

Remember your visitor. Now that he’s there, how can you keep him interested in sticking around? The guests who arrive on your homepage are no different than the guests who come to your home. You work hard to create a home that reflects who you are - your unique style, your hobbies, habits, culture and beliefs. When someone comes into YOUR house, you don’t push someone else’s stuff on them. Why would you do that on your website?

Give your website guests the opportunity to get to know your company and what you stand for. That means including lively, inspiring and sales-driven copy that explains your product and service offerings. That means a company philosophy and a personal bio that tells the story of who you are and builds a case for your trustworthiness and expertise. That means copy that addresses your customers’ emotional mindset and sucks them into wanting and even needing what you sell. And let’s not forget the hallmarks of a real business - the privacy policy, user agreement, payment policies and “customer-satisfaction guarantee” as each pertains to your profession.

Nobody should ever be confused by what they see on your website. Nobody should ever be “lost” on your website. Give your website a “test run” - click from a few different outside links and see where you end up. You MUST have a logo–on every page. Your company name must be clearly labeled on every page, even the “deep content” pages. Your contact information should be easily accessible and at the very least include an email address or comment submission form. Give your customer every opportunity to reach out and get in touch with you.

Finally - your website should be strategically linked from page to page, keyword to relevant keyword, with the ultimate purchase end in sight. Sure, it’s fun to create websites for the heck of it, but if you’re interested in having a real business that reflects true professionalism, then YES you need legitimate, one-of-a-kind web content that tells the story of you and what you do. And above all, it should expertly lead the customer to buy!

Hire an experienced designer who knows about Search Engine Optimization. Hire a copywriter who can create sizzling content on all the pages that will remain stationary and even those that will require regular updating. Take care in creating a website that’s a marketer’s dream come true. Invest in the future of your business.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Dina Giolitto is a copywriting consultant and ghostwriter with 10 years of experience writing corporate print materials and web content. Trust her with your next e-book, article series or web project, and make a lasting impression on your audience of information-hungry prospects. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.com for more information.

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