Keywords are the life blood of writing for the web. The first thing you should do is research and know your keywords. Try not to dominate every keyword in your niche, be selective. Here are a few suggestions about keywords:
- Target a set of keywords in every post, but avoid over using them too many times. I recommend that you use the keywords no more than three or four times on a page. If you use the same keywords over and over, Google can tell that your article isn’t that useful and lacks authority.
- Use a wide variety of words that pertain to your topic. For example, if your blog is about healthy eating, you want to include keywords like – Low Fat, Less Fat and Low Calories. These words are common industry terms, but are very competitive. This is just an example.
- Use synonyms of your keywords in addition to the keywords.
- Don’t stick to a standard keyword density for every article or post. You want your words to flow naturally, and overuse of keywords makes your copy sound forced. It’s important to target keywords relative to the article and not site wide keywords.
- If you’re not sure what keywords to use, try WordTracker. They have a keyword suggestion tool that works well. What I like most about this tool is it provides an estimate of how many searches are performed for each keyword. See screen shot below.
By providing the search engines with good keywords and a variety of them, you’ll start to see good results coming from search.
People spend a lot of time focusing on unrealistic keywords or worse…. the wrong keywords.
Thanks Frank for pointing out such a great tool! Maybe now people will shoot for the correct keywords.
.-= BadEvan´s last blog ..Help GLBT Teens in Iran =-.
Evan,
Thanks for the kudos. You are right when you say people target the wrong keywords or too many of them.
Although, I’m sure I have a few of these types of tools in my bookmark folders .. I rarely use them. This one is easy so, I have placed this at the top of my list! Like BadEvan suggested – enough with using keywords that I think are useful .. let me start using the ones that people are actually searching for! (I tried it for “arcade” and a few others and it surprised me)
Thanks.
Hart,
I have a few tools also and like this one a little bit more.
I also like SEO Book Keyword Tool. It gives results from several sources with links. Results are daily, not monthly, and they are not inflated. See it here:
http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
.-= Jonathan – Advanced Life Skills´s last blog ..Using Applied Focus Sessions to Boost Productivity =-.
Jonathan,
I am sure we could find a few more good keyword tools and they all can do the same. I know I have a few bookmarked myself.
Keyword research is one of my favorite parts of SEO. Mostly because its easy to find the keywords that will work best for my blog posts. Keyword research for PPC on the other hand, I am having some problems with.
.-= Deneil Merritt´s last blog ..How To Sell Direct Ads And Find Advertisers =-.
Nice suggestion. If only I saw this earlier. I have been doing some SEO descriptions and using adwords for research. Good to have another handy option. Thanks, Frank. You’re been a great help!
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
.-= Ching Ya´s last blog ..12 Ways To Reveal Suspicious Shortened URLs! =-.
Ching,
It’s never too late! I test keywords every week to see how they perform and so far I have 5 that really drive search traffic.
Great suggestions ! Thanks Frank
.-= BunnygotBlog´s last blog ..Eleanor Roosevelt: Speaking Volumes, Part 2 =-.
Bunny,
You are very welcome and I am always glad to help!
Nice tips. I’ll try to follow your tips. Thanks :)
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Jacob,
Thank you and welcome to TechJaws!
If the goal is to effect, influence and help as many people as you are able then it seems to me keyword research is an essential tool to accomplish that task. Just knowing what people want to know is a pretty neat thing especially when you have the answer or know how to research it sufficiently to provide a good one.
.-= A. Zuck´s last blog ..Concept for Movie Poster: Can you feel the Fear? =-.
Keywords are golden if you use them wisely to increase search traffic.
I have been using Word Tracker since some time now and really it’s an amazing piece of tool. The advantage of it is that it gives the long tail keywords too which has less competition but are searched for.
.-= Kurt Avish´s last blog ..Google Hot Trends for other Countries =-.
Kurt,
You are correct in saying “long tail keywords has less competition”. I am glad you like the toll as well.
Thanks for the help Frank. I just wrote my first keyword friendly post, let’s see how it turns out. I looked at my Google Analytics and saw how people were finding my site and used one of the keyword phrases. Let’s see what happens, I just posted it.
Teasa,
Rock on! Let me know if you see a difference.
I think I still need to tweak the process. The first couple of days I saw my Adsense earnings go up for the keywords ‘money opportunity, money business opportunity, making money and business opportunity.’ However, after the first couple of days, the traffic went south. I must have done something wrong.
.-= Teasastips´s last blog ..A Make Money Business Opportunity =-.