Website Traffic

Keyword selection is one of the primary procedures to have a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy implemented. It is extremely important that the right keywords are selected by businesses for their advertisements in order to maximize an online advertising service and gain profits. An advertising campaign can be deemed worthless is the wrong keywords are selected to represent it.

In a nutshell, SEO are methods that aim to improve the position or rank of a web site in listings produced by search engines. The benefits of getting a higher placement in the listings increases the chances that online visitors will view their pages and avail of the services offered by advertisers. It also gives visitors a feeling of security, because to them, a well-positioned ad equals high credibility.

Sites have different goals when it comes to optimization. Some sites employ broad search optimization strategy, they are in search for all traffic that comes along the way. It can be useful for sites that are generates broad interest, such as a directory or a periodical. Other sites go for utilizing keywords that are highly specific, and radiate the probability of a sale. In most cases, going for specific and carefully chosen traffic can prove advantageous, because it gives sales leads with more quality.

The process of choosing the appropriate keywords for a particular advertiser is not a simple task. An advertiser has to accomplish several things to pull it off successfully. First, the advertiser has to be well acquainted with the machinations of its target market. A thorough research into the keywords used by the competitor should be carried out, and whatever result that it will produce should be analyzed in detail. Keyword selection tools will assist advertisers in determining the keywords that is most suitable for their businesses.

Keywords selection can have many varieties, largely depending on the kind of web site that a client needs. These are the major types, static sites and dynamic states, where the former is more limited in terms of keyword numbers compared to the latter. If an advertiser is creating a brand new site, it is recommended to choose the initial number of keywords that will be needed, and afterwards, the architecture of the site can be prepared using the keyword selection criteria as a basis.

After coming up with the keyword list, the terms should be trimmed down up to the specific and necessary ones. In narrowing down the list, keep these factors in mind: Majority of the search engines do not bother doing word stemming, and that most visitors type keywords in lower case, and it is less difficult to gain a good rank for keyword phrases that are longer.

Here are some of the popular keyword selection tools available for advertisers:

1. Google AdWords Keyword Selection Tool
Google is the most successful search engine in the world, and it takes in more searches in the web than its competitors. This tool usually comes with the awards program of Google, and it shows the keywords that are actually utilized by users. Google AdWords provide users with the most sought-after queries, vast matches, and other keywords that the user may consider for usage.

2. Wordtracker
It is a database that people utilize as queries for searching terms. Aside from giving information on how often a term is utilized for web search, it will also inform users the number of competing sites that utilize the same term. The tool aids in finding combinations of keywords that is in any way related to the content of a web site.

3. Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool
A keyword selection tool that provides the number of searches in a month that proliferated within the Overture network. It provides the variations and phrase stems when a certain keyword is used. It also provides pay-per-click bids and a ROI Time CPM Calculator.

4. Keyword Destiny and Prominence Analysis
A keyword analysis tool which analyzes the words utilized on a web page by applying default settings or custom report options. It also reports on the number of times the word was used, and an analysis of a competitive URL. Other information provided includes word count, prominence values, the location of the significant keywords in the elements of the page, and density percentages.

Advertisers should choose the best tool that works for them. With various options available, it will not be too difficult to do so. Picking the right tool can make wonders for their business ventures.

Everyday, hundreds and millions of Internet users access the network in search of something they need or want. In the earlier days, users had a much easier time locating just exactly what they sought because very few online entities were in existence, and they offered very little services. Thus, it was easy to determine which sites actually contained what they needed.

Fast forward to the current period, and instead you find hundreds and millions of content varying in degree almost to the same extent as to the number of average users of the Internet per day. Businesses, institutions, and even individual users generate their own websites and content by using simple means, and as such, a searcher may end up having to choose from hundreds of choices in pursuit of materials related to what they are searching for.

Search engines play a huge role in making the current scenario work. Major search engine service providers, like Google, create user interfaces that allow for their users to enter words, or keywords, relating to what they are searching for. Various methods are then employed in order to search for the content links. Either they employ purely organic searches, which lists matches to the keywords regardless of whether they are paid or not, or they utilize crawler search engines. Crawler search engines simulate the crawling movement when they travel through the codes of each website and deciphering relationships between links and pages.

To maximize the potential of search engines in providing businesses their much-needed online traffic (and hopefully translate traffic into sales), SEO or Search Engine Optimization method was created. SEO is centered in trying to provide a business with quality content and websites in order for it to help rise in the rankings in the query listings. Central to SEO is a customer-oriented approach, and is achieved mainly by providing well-written information in the website, as well as making sure that the content found in their websites are relevant to what the users are looking for.

However, for SEO to work, there must be a clear and tangible relation between keywords and relevant content. After all, if the search engine finds great difficulty in tracing matches back to keywords provided by the users, chances are, the website will not be found by the target market.

SEO works with keywords at the very onset of the business. The business picks a variety of keywords to which their website will be related to in search engines. If the user enters in the search engine a keyword that matches the keywords related to the business’s website, a high-ranking match is displayed among the listings.

Keyword selection and the effort that goes with it is only justified; after all, the nature of the keywords a business selects can make or break its campaign.

In order to effectively match a business’s keywords to those that will be entered by the users, selecting keywords must take into consideration the variety of keywords under the same topic that could be utilized when searching for it. For starters, making a list of around 50 keywords and selecting those that make greatest impact will help narrow down the keywords that should be bid for by the company when trying to get a spot in the listings.

In selecting keywords, it must also be taken into consideration the sort of response generated by certain keywords, alongside the people who would respond greatly to those words. By selecting keywords with the expressed intent of targeting a particular consumer base, the business creates a greater probability of visitors to the website being actual interested buyers instead of web window shoppers.

Moreover, selecting keywords that are closest in relevance to the content of the website better streamlines traffic into that which yields profits.

Popular keywords are those that users often enter into search engines and look for. These popular keywords (and the subsequent websites) usually are recipients to huge amounts of traffic, and as such, are subject to higher rankings in listings.

While popularity, relevance, and targeting are important, it must be balanced with the competitive demand for a particular keyword. Obviously, more businesses vying for the same word would create difficulties in acquiring that keyword for a business’s use. Before selecting keywords, it is imperative that checks may be made in order to make sure that while the keywords are popular, relevant, and targeted, they are also not within the too competitive bracket, which will make it extremely difficult to acquire and rank.

Keyword selection is important in every SEO campaign. Only in pre-meditating keywords and studying market behavior in relation to these keywords can the benefits of this productive relationship be clearly seen.

Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential
customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to
reach their destination - your website - you need to
provide them with specific and effective signs that will
direct them right to your site. You do this by creating
carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the
Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and
presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front
door. But if your keywords are too general or too
over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it
all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits
from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing
strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no
matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the
right people may never get the chance to find out about it.
So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather
and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words
for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven’t
followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG.
It’s hard to be objective when you are right in the center
of your business network, which is the reason that you may
not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the
inside. You need to be able to think like your customers.
And since you are a business owner and not the consumer,
your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of
potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words
from as many potential customers as you can. You will most
likely find out that your understanding of your business
and your customers’ understanding is significantly
different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the
words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you
probably never would have considered from deep inside the
trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from
outside resources should you add your own keyword to the
list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for
the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a
small number of words and phrases that will direct the
highest number of quality visitors to your website. By
“quality visitors” I mean those consumers who are most
likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around
your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating
the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements:
popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an
objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the
more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a
search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity
of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating
based on real search engine activity. Software such as
WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and
phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a
given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to
be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this
concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the
search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are
down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will
probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn’t enough to declare a keyword a good choice.
You must move on to the next criteria, which is
specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater
the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase
your goods or services will find you.

Let’s look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have
obtained popularity rankings for the keyword “automobile
companies.” However, you company specializes in bodywork
only. The keyword “automobile body shops” would rank lower
on the popularity scale than “automobile companies,” but it
would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of
getting a slew of people interested in everything from
buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get
only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled
fenders being directed to your site. In other words,
consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will
immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the
specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you
will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this
requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer
rather than the seller to figure out what motivation
prompts a person looking for a service or product to type
in a particular word or phrase. Let’s look at another
example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as
an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between
“Seattle job listings” and “Seattle IT recruiters” which do
you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were
looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would
you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second
keyword targets people who have decided on their career,
have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you
as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school
who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or
her life in between beer parties. You want to find people
who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires
subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most
specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most
motivated traffic to you site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done.
You must continually evaluate performance across a variety
of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends
change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log
traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how
many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you
judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual
search engines. There is now software available that
analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic.
This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you
the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a
good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find
keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually
buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your
product. This is the most important factor in evaluating
the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the
sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective
or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better
profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for
search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work -
and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into
your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your
business’ rewards.

by: Jeff Schuman

Copyright 2004 Jeff Schuman

Have you ever wondered what people are searching for online? More specifically have you ever wondered what people are searching for as it relates to the theme of your website?

Let’s say you have a website built around the theme of music downloads. Here are 2 easy ways to get a list of keywords you can use to build your home page and then build more pages around each specific word.

1. Do a search by typing in music downloads here:
http://www.pixelfast.com/overture

As of November 2004 the keyword phrase” music downloads was searched 1,068,310 times. We can also see that “free music downloads” was searched 1,169,992 times.

As you look down the list you will find all kinds of combinations of keyword phrases with the words “music downloads” included in them.

You can build specifc web pages centered around each keyword phrase. You will find that lesser searched keywords have less competition and therefore will be easier for you to make it to the top of a search engine and generate free traffic.

For example the keyword phrase ” free mp3 music download” was searched 22,360 times. This would be a great keyword phrase to target in comparison to the more generic phrase “music downloads.”

2. Take a look at what people are willing to pay for a keyword here:

http://www.team-schuman.com/7searchkeywordtool

When typing in “music download” it brings up the keyword, number of searches, and the top 5 bids. It also brings up a complete list of possible keyword phrases and what people are paying for them. You can use this information to find affiliate products relating to each specific keyword phrase and then build additional web pages relating to each specific one. You can add these keywords to your home page and then join 7Search as an affiliate and add pay per click text to your pages.

Then get paid by 7Search when someone clicks on an ad relating to that keyword. I do this to generate hundreds and thousands of dollars each month. It is a great way to make some money on your site for generating traffic to it. Here are examples on 2 of my websites. You will see the text ads for the Top 10 websites at the top of each page.

http://www.team-schuman.com

http://www.sites-plus.com

If you are looking for top keywords being searched in a broad range of categories then subscribe to the “Keyword Report” here:
http://www.team-schuman.com/wordtracker

Click on the link for Keyword Report and you will receive the top 500 keywords people are searching for delivered to you by email every week. Then use the Overture and 7Search keyword tools to find more specific keywords you can build websites and web pages around. This is a great strategy and a great way to get started making money with your own theme website and web pages around that theme.

Remember this simple point. People go to the internet to find information. They will type in all kinds of keyword phrases and variations of those keywords. The more web pages you can build targeting those specific keywords the better off you will be when it comes to increasing your website traffic and making more money online.

About the author:

Jeff Schuman is using this strategy to create new websites around specific keywords relating to a theme. You can see his Top 10 Make Money and Top 10 Small Business Websites here: http://www.team-schuman.comhttp://www.sites-plus.com