Website Optimization

Everything in website optimization and website marketing is based around keywords. The first and most important step in this process is keyword selection. Normally you focus on 2-3 for each page of your website. Of course, your home page is the most important, but a good webmaster knows that each page could be a possible entry point and most should be optimized.

This article will discuss some of the tools and techniques of the trade!

You start with what you think your customers would type in - if they were in the market for your product. Normally these are 2-3 word phrases. Most people who are ready to buy have refined their search by using at least 2 words in their search. One word phrases (in general) tend to be too vague and competitive. They seldom bring the results that the customer is interested in either. To that end, it may bring a lot of traffic, but it is very expensive and not very focused traffic.

Unfortunately, you may not choose the keywords that many others do. If your selection is keywords people seldom type in, then you are not likely to get many visitors - even if you are number one for that keyword. If your keywords are very competitive and you are not an SEO expert, then you are not likely to get the top position. You ideally want achievable goals. You want to optimize for keywords that you have a chance of getting a good ranking in. And you want these keywords to be the ones that bring paying customers to your website. It's all about the right balance.

FREE TOOLS TO BOOKMARK:

1) The keyword selection tool from Digital Point. After typing in your idea of a good keyword, it shows various alternatives and how often it was requested in WordTracker and in Overture in one day. This is great information! It tells you what keywords are used more than others. If you chose a flop, you could easily pick a better one.
2) The Google Adwords keyword selection tool is another great freebee. When using this, I normally select the keyword popularity option. This will show the keyword you selected, various synonyms, and their relative popularity and competitiveness.

COLLECTING DATA

In a spreadsheet or on a piece of paper, write the following columns:

• Keyword Phrase
• WordTracker Search
• Google Search Volume
• Google Competition
• # Google Results
• Avg # backlinks (top 3)

The Keyword Phrase is the phrase you are investigating. It may be the one you initially chose, or it may be one of the automated suggestions from one of these tools. If you think it would be a good one to use, write it down.

WordTracker Search: Write down the number of searches that WordTracker has in a given day. This is not Google or Yahoo searches, but the proportions should be pretty similar. Bigger numbers is better.

Now use the Google keyword selection tool for that keyword.

Google Search Volume: Write down a numeric representation of the graph shown (0-10) for your keyword. Bigger volume is better. This should complement the WordTracker numbers. Big numbers in both is a good sign. Normally when I start, I sort the list of suggested keywords by search volume. This keeps me from looking at keywords that are hardly being used by my customers.

Google Competition: This is AdWords competition, but this is also reflective of the competitiveness of the market for that keyword phrase. The smaller the competition the easier it will be for you to optimize for this keyword. If this number is high, then lots of people are trying to be positioned for this keyword - and spending money on it. Those that look like a 7-10 in this category will likely take more effort. People are spending money for these keywords - and likely on both SEO techniques and AdWords.

If you are wanting an "easy keyword" to be found on, sort them by the Google AdWords competition. Look for keyword phrases that have no competition, but have some significant searches.

Now open a new browser at http://www.Google.com and do a Google search for your keyword phrase.

# Google Results: Write down the number of pages Google has returned for that keyword phrase. This is in the top-right of the page. Lower numbers are better. If there are less pages available for a given keyword, you fare a better chance at having good position.

Avg # backlinks: This is the average number of backlinks for the top position. For each of the top three type in link:http://www.yourcompetion.com to see how many other webpages they have linked to them. Write down the average number of backlinks the top 3 have. If they have a lot of webpages linked to them, then you have a lot of work to do - in a link-building campaing. This can be time consuming and expensive.

FILTERING THE LIST TO 3 KEYWORDS

Now you try for "achievable goals". You want to choose 3 keywords that you are going to optimize your page for. Each of these must be good bets of driving some traffic to you.

One of these should be an "easy goal". Look for a keyword phrase that is not very competitive, but has enough targeted customers to be worth attempting. Often this will be one that has a smaller number of searches - but that is OK. This is something that you may be able to achieve in a shorter amount of time, hopefully within 4-6 months. If you read up on the SEO halo effect, you may have a clue on why we start with at least one easy goal.

One of these should be a "reach goal". It should be one that will drive a lot more traffic to your site, but is not too competitive that it would break your pocketbook. There is always time and money involved with any website optimization efforts. Don't be surprised if it takes over a year to reach this goal.

For the third, I usually choose another "reach goal".

Now you need to design and optimize your website for these keywords... If you are choosing a domain name, you should consider having one of your keywords within it.