Keyword Phrases Are Dead in Search Engine Optimization :: Online Marketing

Jun

Keyword Phrases Are Dead in Search Engine Optimization

You know, I read that all the time and yet, I still manage to get clients to the first page of Google through the proper use of keyword phrases. Sure, there’s more to SEO than just keyword phrase manipulation such as increasing relevant content, driving links, etc. But keyword phrases are still at the top of our Search Engine Optimization list of “things to do”.

For those who want to create their own list of keyword phrases, here are some tips on where to start:

Brainstorm keyword phrases on your own. You know your business. What do you think people are looking for when they search for your product or service?
Talk to your friends, your employees and most importantly, your customers. Who would know what they’d type into a search engine like Google or Yahoo or MSN better than your customers?
What do your competitors think are important keyword phrases? Go to your competitors’ websites and right click on each page. Look at the HTML section called <keywords> and see what they are using. I recommend looking only at the competitors that are in the top 5 places in Google. The others are irrelevant.
Take the list of keywords you’ve generated and run them through a keyword analysis tool like the Google Keyword Tool. It will tell you how competitive and popular each of your keywords is.

Unfortunately, you have to narrow down your list to one or two keyword phrases for each page of your website you intend to optimize. Each page must be optimized separately and must have its own unique keyword phrase.

If Google sees the same keywords in your <keywords> meta tag on more than one page, it will down-grade you and you’ve hurt yourself more than you’ve helped. If you’d like to learn more about keyword phrases or classes on do-it-yourself search engine optimization, just follow the links in this paragraph.