Keywords Are Key In Your Search Engine Promotions

There are way over a billion pages on the web today, and there will be more tomorrow, and the next day. Getting found is crucial, and search engine keyword promotions are the key.

The chances are pretty small that someone will just accidentally come across your site in the search engines unless you use keywords optimally.

Over 75% of internet users find what they're looking for in search engines. Once you're listed, your chances of being found increase, but it's still no good if your site is buried under a million others.

It's all about the keywords you choose, and how you use them. If you are going to kick your website promotion into gear, search engine promotions is the part of the "Doing As Little As Necessary" website creation method that is going to require some time and attention.

I can't be there looking over your shoulder, whispering "keep going!" in your ear. You're going to have to trust me, this part makes or breaks your success. That said, you're on your own.

I'm going to suggest a few alternatives, with a warning. What goes in is what you will get out. If you kick some serious butt on this step, so much of the rest will be easy. If you cop out, so will your traffic and income. 'Nuff said, let's get to the details.

Researching Your Keywords

Lazy man or woman's way to limited success: at the VERY LEAST, find a keywords tool that will give you some semblance of real numbers. I am skeptical of them all, WordTracker included. Overture's Keyword Tool rarely if ever works any more. Google's Adwords Tool is adequate.

The one I use was not free, but I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it. Niche Inspector works great. It's not an affiliate product, so there is nothing in it for me if I recommend it. It saves me hours of work every time I use it. Since I'm in the writing business, I use it a lot.

Research The Competition

I do this every time I write a webpage, and I base my decisions on my instincts (or my BS detector...more about that later). I put my keyword phrase into each of the 3 major search engines and click on the homepages of the top 5 results, top 10 if I'm really into it. I then "View Page Source" and look at their keywords. Sometimes my gut tells me that there's a better phrase for me to use. At any rate, by looking at the source code I get a sense of how SEO-savvy a webmaster is. I can weigh my competition.

When I'm in a rush, this is the information I glean from Niche Inspector (in about 3 minutes, minus the time it takes for Niche Inspector to find the results): I search for keywords based on one or two words that I'm thinking of writing an article about.

In the case of this article, it was one word, "keywords". The results I get are phrases containing the word "keywords". Most of the list made no sense, but the phrase that popped out at me was "search engine keyword promotion". It popped because I have a lot to say about it.

I wouldn't write about that phrase if it didn't have a keyword effectiveness index (KEI) of over 300 in the 3 major search engines. It also has a few Google Ads that use it - so people are willing to pay for this topic.

But the most important numbers are the ones that tell me people will find my page if they use these keywords. I am not intimidated by the fact that there are almost 2 million search results for these words, nor does it bother me that the top 100 are, for the most part, excellent sites.

I know that I can get a page listed in the top 100 easy. I got into the top ten for "affiliate marketing tips". I got into the top five for "work at home business opportunity in Canada". After doing that, anything else is a walk in the park. Those are highly competitive search terms. So is search engine keyword promotion, but I don't scare easy.

But if you are not so confident, you may want to look for keywords with fewer competitors. Maybe 100; maybe 1,000. You also look for the number of searches per month. Since this is just ONE PAGE on my website, I'm satisfied with 500 searches or more.

I do this part really fast, because I know that from every list, I will usually find only one, two or three excellent choices. I don't settle for anything less than excellent these days. There are too many niches, too little time. So quickly I scan for # of searches, # of competing websites, and # of Google Ads.

Plus I use my BS detector. I sense, with my gut, what are real search terms that real people are using as they look for real information, information that I just happen to have.

Keyword Density and Placement

Once you've found your keyword phrase for your webpage, you need to know what is the right keyword density and placement. Once again, there are "experts" out there that don't get past my BS detector. Not even Google itself.

Here's how it works. When the search engines are looking for certain keywords or phrases they scan your web page looking for keywords. If your keywords are scattered on your webpage several times, search engines determine that your page must be useful for readers looking for that keyword. That's it; the mystery of search engines revealed.

Over-optimizing your articles is called keyword stuffing. Your site could be penalized or banned entirely for doing that. However...Google, for one, sets its benchmark pretty high, in my estimation. Google says optimum keyword density is 5%.

I do not believe that the average reader will stick around to read your webpage if one out of every 20 words in a 400-word page is a keyword. My BS detector tells me that I need to repeat my keyword phrase only as many times as it takes to remind me and my readers that I'm still talking about what I said I was talking about in my title and first paragraph.

I say 2% is a good maximum density for keywords. I use them in my titles, first and last paragraphs, resource box if I'm syndicating articles, sometimes in my subtitles, and I try to put a link to another relevant page in there somewhere, if applicable, that uses the keywords as anchor text.

When it comes to using keywords in search engine promotions, there's nothing like having enough experience that you can start trusting your gut feelings. So just keep at it, practice, research, and try again.

Using these techniques for writing one webpage using one keyword phrase is much easier than finding a niche for a whole website. One page at a time, you'll do this over and over until it becomes second nature. You will visibly see an increase in your search engine traffic.

Related Articles:

1. Building My Website Concept: Keywords

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