Loading ...Do your keywords support your site? Unfortunately, the answer is no for many people choosing keywords for search engine optimization purposes. According to Mike Murray of Fathom SEO, people depend too much on tools such as Keyword Discovery, Google Keyword Tool, and SpyFu. These tools can be helpful, but there is also a great amount of research on your part that needs to be done.
There must be a web page to support every keyword. Similar words do not count; they must be exact. Make sure your keywords are a good investment. If you choose the wrong keywords, you’re going to lose money and waste time.
Mike refers to people who do this as “people with their heads in the clouds.” He says people who dream up keywords are not going to have success in their efforts and need to come back to earth and be practical.
Mike suggests looking at the following factors when selecting a keyword list:
- Keywords in domain name
- Website analytics
- Competitors’ rankings
- Inbound links
- Where you ranked today, which page ranked, and on what search engine
Also, look for value in your PPC campaign. If someone is paying for a keyword, then it should be taken under consideration for your SEO program as well. It is possible that the same keywords could work for both programs.
Lastly, don’t look at who is ranking number 1 or 2. Look where websites are ranking that are similar to your site. You could be comparing your website, which is operated by 3 people, to a website that is run by a large corporation. Mike recommends first looking at the website’s age, size, and other factors before taking action. You may need to address other issues on your website to compete effectively.
SEO is a long process and the investment into keywords should not be taken lightly. After looking at the above factors, let’s again ask the question: Do your keywords support your website?
that’s great information about “Select Keywords That Work!
spending time to organize webpages is definitely something that a professional search engine optimizer has key word advantage of.
Mike Murray …. how important overall is title tag metadata relevancy in the title of a search engine optimized website….. it sounds to me using 63 keywords or 67 words in title or in code on your website is the optimal choice… for example use this term to be very relevant in my Kauai Massage weblog here is the key words I use “Kauai Massages News Blog”
keyword discovery and other free tools to help get the proper keyword search terms that make the website searchable … because domain age and having keywords in the domain is crucial …….
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Many key words for small markets have already been saturated. What then?
I believe Mike said “people with their clouds in their head”, which is a memorable comment. Too often, people expect to win the Gold in their first race. SEO is a long race, one where choosing the right information vs. attacking all the available information is key.
I am with Mike about looking past the first three on Google to futher down the chain to see what is really working for those sites. Trying to start at the top has never worked unless you are digging a hole. SEO is not a quick over night on stop a few word fix it is a very long process.
Hi,
I own a website which is for finance professionals and cfa students. I would like to ask a question here.
I understand that the website’s SEO success depends on keyowrds, but how shall I get those keywords which work best for my website. As far as I think the keywords which fall in my website’s domain are very common – such as Finance, CFA, Stock Markets, etc.
Please guide me.
Thanks!
Mohit Khurana, CFA
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Thanks for checking out the interview Aaron…
Aaron asked about title lengths – the 63 word reference is closer to the characters – always debated. Some suggest up to 70 characters. It depends on the amount of content on the page.
Focus on one or two keyword phrases and move on.
On noticed on the massage blog that Aaron referenced that the site is ultra-busy with keywords. Regardless, with the blog, you can use the All in One SEO Pack plug in and override some of the WordPress page titles. Think keywords with your blog posts – at least override the creative blog post headlines with something more keyword rich with the page titles.
I wouldn’t keep using “Kauai Massages News Blog.” See how you rank for “Kauai Massages.” Actually you rank well for that – so focus on related phrases. You have plenty to choose from based on the detail you provide on your website.
–Mike
Good question Joseph Passillian who asked about small markets being saturated.
You may be in a niche, but you can still work in more specific keywords – I noticed several offerings on your website.
The key is text on the website. I noticed that Joseph uses the same page title; variety is good. Keyword-rich page headings help too. Look at graphics on your page that could have text -that will help as well.
Mike
Mohit Khurana asked a question about how to break down broad keywords. You just have to look around with basic tools and other websites in the same field. In this case, it may be extra phrases about certification, courses, schools, training, forums, – and spelling out some of the acronyms. Mohit’s website/forum could weave the keywords into the site architecture/framework/design.
–Mike
My problem may seem a bit basic – but as I specialise in weddings and funerals only I have tried to place these words as much as possible throughout the site – as has every other florist in creation! Is there any way I can be more “creative” with these keywords or am I, as a total technophobe, missing the point completely? Would I be better off paying someone to optimise my site (bearing in mind I am a very small business at the moment)?
Abigail, thanks for the feedback. I looked at your website and will contact you based on your contact form. For others, Abigail did include keywords on the website. I’ll show her specifically where there are some drop offs. Don’t neglect precise keywords – unique ones – for each page title near the meta data. While the site has text, some headers only include one keyword when a whole phrase would be more suitable. Abigail and others should take advantage of local optimization given the target market. You can have some of the right keywords, but you do need to think of related phrases and fully integrate them into the website. I did find some broken links. That could be affecting rankings as well. It’s the whole package.
–Mike
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Crucial info.
Look at the guy in the background at 1.38 checking out the chick in the yellow trousers!
Great video by the way.
Keywords analysis is very crucial part in SEO. But from my personal experience some times it looks very confusing. There are so many tools available in the internet to check the keywords search volume but all displays different results. No one is trust worthy. For selecting keywords for your website, just go through your website competitors, analyze them, what they added on there site and how they are getting high traffic, make your strategy according them. Second thing for keywords researching first of all believe that you are a web customer and you are going to search that particular product on search engines, what keywords you may search to finding that particular products and you can make your keywords list accordingly.
Great comments from Mike. I have taken the time to research keywords and build content around them. This improved my ranking and traffic.
I have found that keyword optimization is very time consuming, but worth it.
Raising ‘the Standard
Great information,I have Digged this site to my seo list for future and will keep a eye on your other postings.
There must be a web page to support every keyword. Similar words do not count; they must be exact. Make sure your keywords are a good investment. If you choose the wrong keywords, you’re going to lose money and waste time.
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