Search Engine Optimized Keywords

Keywords. For those who have been involved in search engine optimization and internet marketing for a while, there really is no mystery. But for those who are just beginning, creating the right keywords truly can be a challenge. That is because there is more to choosing keywords than just using popular phrases. Leave it to humans to make things complicated!

Keywords Must Target Searchers

If you are trying to get visitors in order to make money, you must keep the visitors' interests in mind. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, not everyone gets that. It is possible to be too wrapped up in targeting visitors and lose touch with what it is to target customers.

When you choose keywords for your site, you want to be sure you target them to those who are looking for what you have to offer. Getting traffic that ends up on your site unexpectedly will do little to help you in terms of sales.

Keyword Density and Placement

While you want to have enough phrases on your page to grab the attention of search engines, you need to keep in mind that there really can be too much. If the quality of your web content suffers because of too many repeated phrases, you are doing your business more harm than good. Visitors will leave such pages quickly and there go the sales....

One to two percent keyword density is enough. If you can get to the top of results with one percent, then do not worry about using more of the same phrase. If you find that you are a little behind other sites who use the same phrase, try adding your keyword into your content a few more times -- where it fits naturally.

Placement:

A good rule of thumb is to use your primary keyword phrase in the title of your article, once at the beginning of the first paragraph, 3 to 5 times in the body (depending on the length of your piece), and once the end of the last paragraph. Extraordinarily long articles should contain more keywords in the body. Placing one or two keyword phrases in subheadings is also a good idea.

Secondary Keywords

Use a couple of other phrases that relate to your content as well. In this case, your primary phrase may be used 5 to 7 times while a secondary keyword phrase would be used three or more times when it can be used naturally.

What does LSI have to do with search engine optimization?

LSI or "latent semantic indexing" refers to the ability of search engines like Google to relate your content to phrases that are synonymous with your original keyword phrase. Using a few synonyms of your keyword phrases and words within your content will help the search engines along.

For example, if I were to use "search engine optimization" as a keyword phrase, I may want to use "seo", "keywords" "search marketing" and "organic" on the same page.

Use the Google AdWords keyword tool to find keywords. The process is extremely easy and you will be delighted to find that it is free! This keyword tool will show you variations of phrases you choose and let you know how many people are actually searching those variations. You may be tempted to use the keywords that appear to be searched by thousands of visitors, but unless you are prepared to pay a pretty penny to overbid thousands of other sites, these phrases will do you little good.

Go for the phrases that shout, "We want to buy your product!" How do you do that? Long tail keywords and synonyms. For example, if you are selling shoes and have a particular pair you would like to push, rather than using "women’s shoes" as your primary keyword, try using "women’s high-heeled red shoes". Maybe only ten people will search that phrase in a month, but those ten people already want to see what you are offering! Your conversion rates will go higher by using such keyword methods.

It is better to use ten different phrases that pull in a little targeted traffic than it is to use a couple of popular phrases that do not get noticed at the bottom of the 10th or 100th page in search engine results. Trust me.

If you use a keyword that is often misspelled or spelled differently, use a common misspelling of your primary keyword phrase in your meta description tags if you can.

Above all, remember that quality is more important than quantity. Make sure the content on your site is interesting and informative. Don't just stuff it with keywords or use phrases that having nothing to do with what you are selling. Have a glance at my recommended links to learn more about keywords. Optimize for search engines by learning everything you can about using the right keywords.

Not so long ago, people abused the keyword meta tags by repeating the same phrase or using keywords that had nothing to do with the content of their site. Google put an end to this misuse of keywords by making the keyword meta tags obsolete. Most search engines do not rely on keyword meta tags anymore. Google relies on title, description, and site content when it comes to indexing and displaying search results.

Place the description tag between the head tags and just under the title:

<meta name="description" content="Description of content here." />