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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

How to Select your Keywords

Online business owners and blog enthusiasts need to know that having a website or a blog is not at all enough. There is a need to invest some time for search engine optimization of the site. And this ideally starts with choosing and incorporating the right keywords into your web contents.

Apparently, it appears that search engine optimization itself is an overwhelming process. This, however, is generally manageable - provided you take it all one step at a time. In fact, you can do the SEO on your own, or if you want it, get an expert to do the task for you.

Take note that having an insight to keywords that are relevant to your site is but the beginning of an entire SEO process. This step is generally referred to as a sanity check that offers site owners a glimpse of how people search for a keyword and how you should expect your product or service to be found. This way, you avoid wasting time and resources trying to focus and optimize your site for search words that online users are actually not using to find your online business.

Let me share with you five simple steps in selecting the ideal keywords for your site.

1. Kick of with your own brand name.
This is supposed to be your first concern: to make sure that your own site comes first when online users start searching for your brand.

In case you don't rank well in your own brand name, try to modify your keywords and see to it that you use terms that are strictly associated with your brand such as brand-specific product names or your management teams' names.

2. Generate keyword suggestions.
Turn to keyword suggestion tools such as those used by business process outsourcing companies for a list of recommended keywords. Select a handful of keywords from the list. Also it is important that you include a range of head terms and long-tail keywords.

3. Identify your competitors.
Identify your competitor's target KWs and incorporate their homepage URL to your keyword suggestion tool.

4. Be specific with your KW list.
You need not include all suggested KWs provided by your suggestion tool. In this case, choose search words according to relevancy to your site, competition, search volume, and current status. As much as possible, pick out at least 10 keywords per search engine optimization campaign.

Remember to include keyword phrases you are already ranking for. This way, you know you are already on your way.

Always consider the global monthly searches and competition of each keyword you choose. Ideally, you should go for those that have low competition and at least 1,000 monthly searches.

5. Run an SEO campaign on your target keywords.
Intensify your quest in making it to the top of the results pages by regularly monitoring keywords and measuring the kind of traffic you are generating from them.