Keywords are placed in the title of a web page, in the code of the page and most importantly in the actual content of the page. Websites are looked at by search engine robots (small computer programs that index the content on your site to look for keywords). It’s what they find that ends up listed in a web search.
The first step in optimisation is working out what keywords you want to be found for. When optimising your website or carrying out Google Adword campaigns, picking the correct keywords is essential. There are some great keywords research tools on the web, like wordtracker.com.
These tools let you analyse what words are commonly searched for. Even though you thought people were searching for ‘wall mounted wine racks’ – a great product you happen to sell – you probably didn`t realise the search traffic for ‘hanging wine rack’ is actually 10 times greater! So if you optimise your keywords for ‘wall mounted’ your website won’t be picking up a mass of potential customers.
So pick the right keywords and get them researched – don’t just guess. You can check Google for a daily look at the hottest keywords of the day.
If someone offers to optimise your website, asks you for the keywords but doesn`t come back to you with suggestions for most-searched keywords – be suspicious. Without the research you really just won’t know the right keywords for your keywords.
One good trick is optimising keywords for misspellings, too. Common mistakes – for example, verucca being Googled as verruca – can generate great traffic opportunities. Another tip is make sure you have a high density of your keywords.
Keyword density reflects the number of times you feature your keywords or key phrases in the text on your web page. At AGI we optimise pages to a keyword density of between seven and ten per cent.
For example, if there are 100 words on a page, then a keyword density of 10 per cent will mean 10 of them are keywords. It’s not quite that simple when you add in all the other factors on a web page, but that`s the basic principle of it.
Just so you know, this article includes the word keywords 20 times, which gives it a keyword density of 7.4 per cent. Google will love it!
*Damon Segal is a marketing and SEO consultantPicture source
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