Choosing Keywords and
Descriptions for your web site.
The
importance of determining Keywords and Descriptions for your web site
cannot be overstated.
From the very beginning of web site development, you’ll need to identify several keywords that your site will
target so that during construction we can utilize those words and phrase throughout the site in text. We’ll use the words in META tags,
image ALT tags, page titles, file names and other places that search engines sometimes look while indexing your site.
Descriptions will be used for telling search engine users what your site is
about and why they should visit your site.
Keywords
Basically, what 5 to 10 words do you think people will enter into search engines that you want to end up on your site? So, get a picture of the
typical user for your site - now, imagine them sitting in front of their terminal, looking at a search engine page. What do you think they will
type into that search engine query field?
At this point it's good to get some insight into searchers in general. Browse on over to
Metacrawler Metaspy for
a self updating, live peek into what people are actually searching for on
the MetaCrawler search engine right now. Note: you may see some
X-rated terms and phrases. Next, notice how many words are misspelled. People are also entering complete URLS into search
engines.
Here are some more Search Engine
keyword snoop or report sites:
And a couple keyword ranking web
tools:
OK, now that you've seen some searching first hand, what do you think YOUR audience will type in. That's what we need to know.
You also want to consider taking a peek at your competitors and your industry leaders' keywords. Go to their web page in your browser, then
choose View Source from your View menu. The keyword tag is right up at the top, look for:
<meta name="keywords" content="kolb net works,web site development,internet consulting,north central Pennsylvania,Lycoming
county,Williamsport"> and see what they currently have.
After identifying your top 5 to 10
keywords and phrases that we will target specifically in many places, put them in an email and send them to us
at marketing@kolbweb.com
Next, we need a complete list of ANY WORDS OR PHRASES you think will help people find your site.
Make a text file (in Microsoft Word, Wordpad, Simpletext or even just in your email message) in this format:
Word,word,word,phrase of several words,word,word,phrase of words
See? A word, then a comma, then a phrase. Do not put spaces around the commas, that just wastes space.
If the word is made plural by just adding an "s", then include the plural version. If the singular and the plural versions are ended differently,
list them both.
Include misspellings, brand names, older names or slogans your company has used, names of companies your company has bought
out, old phone numbers, old email addresses - anything that people might use to find you today.
Here’s an excerpt from Web Position Gold – software that we use here at Kolb Net Works for submitting client web pages and then
generating reports on search engine ranking and keyword relevancy:
Target the wrong keywords and all your efforts will be in
vain. Choose the right keywords, and you'll see your
traffic skyrocket. Therefore, think long and hard on what
keywords people are likely to use to find you. Make lists
of keywords and then combine them into two or three
word phrases.
For example, you rarely want to target a single keyword
since with the billions of words indexed on the Web now,
generally one word simply won't cut it. People learn
quickly that if they type in "real estate" or "properties"
that they get listings for real estate from all over the
world! It would be nice if you popped up there on those
extremely broad keywords, however, a better use of
your time is to PAIR the generic keyword with something
more specific. You might get lucky and rank well on just
real estate since it's in your page too, but if not, at least
you'll rank well on "Boston real estate", which will be far
less difficult to achieve a top 10 or top 20 listing for.
These keywords will also bring you far more qualified
prospects.
WebPosition is designed to monitor your rankings on a
broad array of keywords and doorway pages very
quickly. However, we are continually dismayed by people
trying to monitor their positions on keywords that people
are highly unlikely to use. For example, we had a
well-meaning customer send a list of his keywords for
the "cheap airfares" that his company sold. His list went
something like this:
cheap
flights
"cheap flights"
quote
discounted
airfares
The word "cheap" alone does nothing to target their
audience. It has to be paired with other words like
"flights" or "airline reservations" to have any meaning.
It's the same with "quote" and "discounted" -- too broad.
Pair them with one or two other words. Statistically,
most people search for two to three word phrases to
avoid getting back too many unrelated matches.
Don't worry about there not being enough top 10 slots
where you can achieve a high ranking. True, there are
some keywords that are very competitive. And if you find
that no matter what you do, you can't get in that top 10
spot for that word or phrase, just be creative! There are
SO MANY other keywords and keyword combinations
where you can achieve a Top 10 ranking.
For example, if you don't achieve a good ranking on
"cheap airfares," keep trying, but also be creative and
target "inexpensive airfares" too. See, it's all about
thinking like your customer or clientele - and it's really
pretty easy to find a keyword combination that you can
dominate in the search engines. You'll often find that
there are more people searching for these other phrases
than were searching for the first phrase you thought of.
In marketing, this is called carving out your niche.
If you're Microsoft, you can afford to fight over who has
the best "Browser software." But, for the rest of us, we
know we can't always fight the big boys. So instead,
what savvy marketers do is to identify a "niche" that few
others are targeting and go after it.
Descriptions
This is a sentence placed on each web page's internal coding that some search
engines use as the description tag that shows up in search engine listings. Do
this exercise - go to you favorite search engine and look up a topic. See the
descriptive sentence that follows the actual hyperlink to the site? That's
probably a description tag. If you don't specify a description for each page,
most search engines will simply copy the first 20 words or so off the page. This
is usually not the best fit, since some search engines also measure page
descriptions when calculating keyword density. This means it's good to have your
main keyword in the page description. Send us an email with a description for
each page from your site map / Materials Request List.
So, now you've read through our guidelines on choosing your web
site's keywords and descriptions. If you have any questions, just give us a call here at Kolb Net Works - that's what we're here for. Our phone number is
(570) 326-2888.
Further Resources regarding Keywords:
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