Saturday, July 24th, 2004
Keywords are the words/phrases used by people searching on the internet.
They are very important as relevant, targeted keywords can help get you to the top of search engine rankings and help you attract visitors interested in your web site’s content and products.
Choosing keywords requires input from you as you have a deep understanding of your business and industry.
We start the analysis by looking at your current keywords, your page content, the keywords and content of high ranking competitors to get ideas for keywords. We use keyword popularity tools to get other ideas and options. We will then present this to you for your ideas and feedback. This process continues until we decide we have the optimum keywords for your web site.
Your keywords should reflect the focus of your site.
Ask yourself:
- What is the site’s focus?
- Why is the site’s information valuable?
- Who is your audience?
These questions are useful because they make you think about how your site’s content serves its intended targeted audience.
Don’t limit your keywords to your products; people visit your site looking for information too.
We then research keyword popularity
- How many other sites use the same keywords?
- How many people actually search on those keywords?
- Overly broad or generic keywords rarely work well. e.g. “bicycle”
- More targeted keywords increase your chance of getting to the top of the search engine rankings. e.g. “mountain bicycle”
- If you really want to get specific, your site would always be at the top of a search on “Red Trek mountain bicycle” – if any users were to actually search on it.
Our objective is to find out what keywords people actually use to query search engines for your product or service. We do this using keyword popularity tools.
We provide the following information.
- Count
- the number of times the keyword has been searched for in the previous 332 million searches.
- 24hrs
- the number of searches for the keyword in Google in the previous 24 hours.
- Competing
- the number of competing web pages for the keyword. The lower the competition the easier you will find it to reach the top using this keyword.
We generally look for 2-4 keywords per targeted page.
Integrate keywords into your page text
It is important that your page text features intelligent use of your keywords as this affects the search engine rankings.
Keyword analysis is performed as part of the Elixir Systems Full Search Engine Optimization packages. To learn more about how Elixir System’s search engine optimization services can aid your business contact us today.
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Thursday, July 15th, 2004
HTML encoding errors will break search engine spiders. To understand why you need to think of the differences between browsers and spiders:
Browsers have been written to be backwardly compatible with widely used, badly formed HTML. This is due to user insistence that sites that work in one browser also work in another, no matter how buggy the code: if they didn’t then the user would swap to a browser that did ‘work’. Spiders do not have this requirement, if your site can’t be read then there will be others that can be.
Browsers have kept pace with the internet and have been developed and enhanced through the years. Spiders still behave as Mozilla 2.0 did 7 years ago.
Don’t be fooled by other sites out there that have HTML errors. Not all HTML errors will cause spiders to break, but some will.
Not all sites need to be spidered – Dell, Gateway, IBM, Nissan, Ford, Honda, all these companies have spent a lot of money putting their brand into your mind as the place to go for computers, cars, etc. People who want information on a Ford will go to www.ford.com without needing to go via a search engine.
Here’s an article on this issue: http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol5/promo_no23.htm (appears to be biased as they supply a validation tool)
When a new client signs with Elixir Systems, we will run HTML validation checks on their site. If there are minor HTML errors these will be fixed as part of the search engine optimization process. If there are major HTML errors then we class this as extra major non-SEO work and provide a quote for fixing the issues. If the client wishes to use their own webmaster we can supply a full report of all errors on the site.
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Tuesday, July 6th, 2004
As your company evolved its web presence did you have a clear picture of the market for your product? Or did you put up a web site and hope that the right people would somehow manage to find you? Did you develop your web presence around your potential customers? Or was it developed around your company and its products? It has become clear that a customer-focused web site that targets a distinct market offers you the most opportunity for growth. Perhaps it is time to re- evaluate your potential customer base.
Attracting and Keeping Visitors
The first step is to figure out what the target markets are for your product. You then need to focus your web visibility on attracting and keeping those visitors.
Your target market consists of the groups of people who are potential customers for your product. Begin by looking at your existing customers. Analyze their characteristics by observing their demographics, psychographic and behavioral differences. Do you notice different group characteristics? These groups are your market segments. These are the markets that you can target. You customize your marketing efforts towards these groups or target markets.
It is a good idea to determine the priorities of your different target markets. Are there some markets that offer you more opportunities? Analyze the size and potential growth of each market. These should be in line with your own company objectives and resources. You may have to focus on one or two markets.
By now you should begin to develop a clear picture of your potential clients and your competition. From this you can plan your marketing strategies to maintain an advantage over your competitors. This should be done for each target market.
You should try to develop an in-depth understanding of these markets. What are your customer’s needs, their motivations and their interests both now and in the future? The marketing program for your particular target markets should be carefully thought out with this in mind. This is easier to do for smaller sized niche markets. One goal could be to communicate the idea that you are the market leader to potential customers.
The main marketing communication vehicle for many companies is their web site. The goal is to develop a strong web visibility program which will attract and reach your target market. This is done through effective search engine rankings. Once you have attracted your audience your site must be effective in communicating with and retaining your customers.
Choosing Keywords
An important aspect of your marketing communication will be your web site’s content and its focus on keywords and search terms used by your potential customers.
Keywords are very important. If you choose the wrong keywords you will miss your target market, and attract the wrong type of customer. You should not use keywords that you think are the right ones. You should know in advance that they are the right ones. When it comes to visitors you should be looking for quality not quantity. To find out what keywords to use you should undertake some research.
How do you choose keywords? Your keywords are generally phrases, not words. You should listen to your customers and how they describe your product. What are your industry buzz words? What keywords do your high ranking competitors use? Look at your server logs and determine what search terms people are using to find you. Use tools such as Wordtracker or Overture to determine alternatives.
Analyzing potential keywords will give you an understanding of which ones are highly competitive. This will help you to identify possible keywords that have been missed by competitors and will offer a niche opportunity for you. Your ideal keywords will have low levels of competition. Your keywords should also have existing levels of searches. The higher the better. Low competition for keywords and high levels of searches will offer you the greatest opportunities. You should plan to avoid the highly competitive, generic, one word keywords that have many searches. You should also avoid keywords that have no or very few searches done on them. Plan to use only 2 to 4 keywords per page. Make sure you integrate these keywords intelligently into your written text.
Before you finalize your initial keyword selection you should find out where your competitors rank on the major search engines for the proposed keywords. The competitiveness of a specific keyword can be estimated using Google. Search for the keyword and look at:
- The total number of results returned.
- The number of incoming links to the top sites.
- The Google page rank of the top sites.
This will give you an understanding of how you stand against your competition.
Your goal should be to be ranked on the first or second page of results for your keywords. This is because most search engine users do not go past the first couple of pages of results during their searches.
There is so much research and analysis you can do relating to keywords and your target markets. And it is worth while as it is a way to stay ahead of your competition. It is not a one-off task but rather a work-in-progress. Keywords should be analyzed, maintained, and matched against your target market and competitors on a regular basis. You should aim to have a comprehensive understanding of your market and of your competitors. By understanding the needs and challenges of your market, and what your competitors offer, you will then be able to identify niches that you can target. Use this to position your company as one of the few with in-depth expertise in those niche target markets. Build your website around that expertise to distinguish your company from your competitors. Always aim to give the impression that you are the market leader for the niche.
A customer focused web site, together with an effective web visibility program utilizing identified target markets and researched keywords which show up well in relevant search categories will attract traffic and deliver sales.
Originally authored: 6 July 2004 – James Peggie
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