Grow From Here

Why Analyze Keywords

One of the first steps in Search Engine Optimization is determining what keywords people will be searching for to find your product.  Two weeks ago I wrote a post about using the Google Keyword Selector to get the right people finding your website – people who are actually looking for your products and services.   They’re the best ones to have coming to your site because they’re the most likely to actually buy from you.

The first step in helping these customers find you is determining what the right keywords are – what are your best customers actually searching for?  The second step is writing content that:

1. Provides value
2. Uses those keywords
3. Is unique

Writing Content that Provides Value

I am going to assume that you can write content that provides value.  If writing is not your strong point, I know a number of companies that have succesfully found either professional writers or students who are passionate about language or other types of communicators who can write up the information.  One company I know hired a great communicator/online networker and has established a place as an industry leader in their field in less than a year – huge ROI.  But that’s a topic for a different post…

Check Keyword Usage

Once you have the content that provides value, the next step is to see how it stacks up in terms of keyword usage & attracting the right traffic via search engines.  Always remember that you need to write the content for users, not search engines (and in fact, too high density can get penalized or be very hard to read).  But real language keyword density that makes sense and provides value is the lodestone you are aiming for.

A great tool for determine your keyword density (=how much you use your selected keywords) is E3 KWD Check - it’s a nifty little tool that you install on your computer.  You can then load into it web pages or local documents & it will tell you the keywords used in those web pages/documents, along with how many times each is found & what the keyword density and prominence of each keyword is.  Once you have a draft of the content, run it through E3 KWD Check & see whether the keywords you selected in step one are actually reflected in your content so they bring the right customers to your site.

Is Content Unique?

The unique factor is mainly a list of Do Not’s

• Do Not use content that has been posted elsewhere on the internet
• Do Not  post the same article/blog posting to multiple different blogs
• Do Not  copy someone else’s content
• Do Not post the same content multiple times throughout your site (you won’t actually get penalized for this, but the duplicate content will be ignored).

Or, to put it another way, do post original valuable content that was developed only for/by you.  The closer your site gets to being considered an ‘expert’ by Google, the more valuable the search engines perceive your content to be.

Helping The Right People Find You

As I said in my post on Tuesday, don’t make people think! 

Make it easy for them to find you when they are looking for what you offer.

Make it easy for them to buy from you.

Make it easy for them to keep coming back.

Then keep adding value and repeat.

Katryn Communication, Search Engine Optimization, Technology, Time Savers, Tips