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Posts Tagged ‘Keyword analysis’

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SEO: Keyword Research and Analysis (2)

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Here are some tips for implementing your own keyword research and keyword analysis strategy:

• Research and find keywords and key phrases that are relevant to your business. There are some free tools on Internet that can help you get some keyword data.

• Define who are your top competitors, find their keywords.

• See how you and your competitors rank in search engines results for different keywords.

• Find low competition keywords.

• Latent Semantic Indexing is a vital element in search engine optimization for better keyword rankings in search results. Use long-tail keyword terms (multi-word phrases).

• Do not use the same meta keyword tag on every web site page. Your keyword research should be page specific focusing on 2 to 5 keywords per page. It’s more work, but gives each site page a chance for higher ranking on its own.

• Use country specific keyword search terms.

After all these steps it’s time to plug those keyword terms into the search engines to determine:

• Are the chosen keywords and key phrases really the desired ones for the specific web page?

• Are the other sites listed for your keywords truly your competitors?

• Are the sites listed for your keyword even related to your industry, products or services?

Keyword research and analysis are vital for a successful SEO campaign. If you don’t want to build your on-page optimization on wrong keywords, your research and analysis should be performed properly.

Maintaining continuing keyword research is essential for search engine optimization. So you need to keep monitoring your keywords on a consistent basis and change them if necessary.

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SEO: Keyword Research and Analysis (1)

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Keyword research is of the highest importance for search engine optimization. Many new website owners think it is an easy process, as there are some free tools they can use to get instant results. Unfortunately, those free tools only give a rough guide and a quick indication whether a hunch is worth further research or not.

Real keyword research requires both keyword research and keyword analysis. And for that important job you need a professional SEO company. However, if you have decided to do the keyword research on your own, here are some tips to help you.

Search engine keyword research involves seeding and choosing the best keywords in the form of words and phrases and applying them to all pages of your website. When optimizing your online business website for increased traffic and sales, it is essential to know what keywords people search for in the major search engines, and how many people search for any given phrase or term daily. The closer your selected keywords match what the consumer is searching for, the better are your chances to make a sale. The closer is your research to the target in terms of what people are looking for, the more traffic you will get. The better you are at choosing the best search engine keywords and executing keyword research, the better is your return on investment.

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SEO for Yahoo! (1)

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Yahoo! is the second biggest of the three major engines and includes an enormous network of websites. The algorithm is based on Inktomi’s algorithm which Yahoo! purchased back in 2002 as part of their plan to stop serving Google results to search queries. The algorithm itself can raise a problem for some SEO’s as they optimize client website to rank highly on multiple search engines due to the way that it differs from Google and MSN. However, any issue may be addressed provided that the right attention is given to the right details.
To optimize and rank highly on Yahoo!, as with any of the major engines, specific areas need to be addressed.

On Yahoo! the major SEO factors are as follows:

•    Keyword density
•    Site structure
•    Backlinks
•    Aging

It would be unwise to specify a keyword density for you to target on your website. There are two reasons for this. First, if there is a delay between the writing of this article and when you read it specific numbers could send you off in the wrong direction. Second, you should analyze your specific competitors to determine what the best density is in your area and for your type of website. Optimal keyword densities are not a one-size-fits-all calculation any longer. Your site-type and industry will affect the optimal densities and thus, a complete keyword analysis will be necessary.

Additionally, optimal keyword densities change regularly and so you will need to periodically reanalyze your densities and compare them with others in the top 10 to insure that your densities remain within the optimal levels. When using e.g. Total Optimizer Pro for the onsite analysis we normally aim our densities for the upper end of the top 10 results but not aiming to be the top. Generally you will see a range that appears much like a bell curve with a couple sites in the very low range (0.5 to 1.0%) and a couple site in the very high range (5.0 to 8.0%). The rest will generally fall in the middle. Ignore those in the very low and very high range and target towards the upper end though not the highest of the remaining sites and you will be on target.

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SEO: Fixing an Old Broken Website or Creating a New One?

Friday, September 18th, 2009

There is a popular belief that search engine optimization for an old website is easier than for a new site. In this blog we will try to reveal whether this is just a belief or reality.

Because the old website comes with it lot of added advantages, SEOs needn’t work from scratch to build it up and get the bots crawling in. Mostly, a comparatively older website would have more domain references and authority, more incoming links, and a better rapport with the search engines.

However, most of the times the older websites are harder nuts to crack mostly because would be lacking in certain metrics, which is obviously pulling them down the SERPs.

Let us discuss some of the common problems faced by the older websites keeping them off the good books of Google despite the domain age.

  • An obsolete content management system

Mostly they would be built on a CMS that the owner itself wouldn’t have a clue about.

  • Lack of content.

The site would have established a good rapport with the search engines earlier, but with the competition growing, there would have obviously faced a lack of volume in contents on the site resulting in a slow death.

  • A poor link structure.

With bad CMS’s come bad structures, modules, plugs and all that. Forget search engine optimization, some CMS’s doesn’t even have the basics right.

  • Use of tables and not-so-seo friendly elements.

They aren’t that bad, and are only “fixable”, but they would be available in plenty on the site that it would take ages to fix them all.

So, fixing an old broken site takes as much as time and effort as a new website. A typical SEO fixing course of actions for an old website would look something like:

  1. Fixing the site structure.
  2. Getting rid of the broken links.
  3. Identifying the most essential pages on Google and leveraging on them.
  4. Obviously, keyword research and keyword analysis (with a focus on competition)
  5. Stripping off unwanted and obstructive elements from pages.
  6. Optimizing the code.
  7. Creating a sitemap, with a better linking pattern.
  8. Content development with a focus on competition.
  9. All the on-site optimization processes.
  10. Finally the link building and promotion.

Notwithstanding the fact that the SEO processes sound the same, the time and effort that goes into fixing an old site is larger compared to new sites. May be its right to say that the onsite optimization part has to be worked more for the older websites, compared to newer websites, which may have sound on-site metrics, but a weak offsite presence.

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Onsite SEO Factors for MSN (1)

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Unfortunately there’s no one over at MSN Search who calls up weekly and informs what the specifics of their algorithm are. So we have to figure it out for ourselves with thorough research, reading and playing with test sites. From all of this there is only one conclusion can be made: the details matter. Onsite SEO factors for MSN mainly include:

  • the content of the page including keyword density
  • the internal linking structure of the site (how the pages of your site are linked together)
  • the number of pages in your site and the relevancy of those pages to your main topic and phrases
  • the use of titles, heading tags and special formats
  • Page Content

The content of your page must be perfect, that is the content must appeal to both the search engines and the algorithms. In order to write properly for the visitors you must be able to write clearly and in language that is both appealing and understandable to your target market. There is much debate about whether the keyword density of your page is important or not with MSN. In any case, try to use relevant keywords, as algorithms are supposed to take into account the use of the keywords on your page. Unfortunately the optimal keyword density changes to some extent with each algorithm update and also by site type and field. For this reason it would be virtually impossible to tell a density that will work today and forevermore. For this reason you will need a keyword analysis tool which you will want to run on your own site as well as the sites in the top 10 to assess what the optimal density is at this time. You may notice a variation in the densities of the top 10. This is due to the other factors including offsite which may give extra weight to even a poorly optimized site. Get your site to a keyword density close to the higher-end of the top 10, but not excessive. Traditionally this percentage will fall somewhere near 3.5 to 4% for MSN.

  • Internal Linking Structure:

The way your pages link together tells the search engines what the page is about and also allows them to easily (or not-so-easily) work their way to your internal pages. If your site has a script or image-based navigation it is important to also use text links either in your content, in a footer, or both. The text links are easy to follow for a spider and perhaps more importantly, the text links allow you the opportunity to tell the spiders what a specific page is about though the anchor text and, in the case of footers, allows you to add in more instances of the targeted phrases outside of your general content area.

Keep following our blog and very soon we will continue discussing the rest of onsite SEO factors for MSN.

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Why is Keyword Analysis Necessary?

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Often webmasters start their search engine marketing campaign without having done a proper keyword analysis. To have an effective SEM campaign, you got to make sure that you have chosen the right keywords to optimize in the organic listing, or bid for in the paid listing.

Choosing the right keywords is one of the most essential steps in SEO, because it usually determines the effectiveness of a search marketing campaign. For example, if you choose a set of keywords that target to the wrong audience, you will not be able to convert the traffic from this campaign into either leads or sales. On the other hand, if all your keywords do not command high search volumes, you will not be able to drive a substantial amount of traffic to your site to measure conversion.

Therefore, having a detailed keyword analysis before the start of any search engine marketing campaign is so important, if you want to have good results from it. Before you choose the keywords, the first question that you need to ask yourself is what is the campaign’s goal, what you want to achieve from it? Is it to get more opt-in leads or more sales? Or is it to get more people to pick up their phones and call you? Or is it generating more branding awareness for your business? You need to have a clear goal of what you want to achieve from the campaign.

After having determined your goal, the next thing that you need to do is to find out who your target audience is. Are they ready buyers, who are so in need of your products or services that they are willing to splash their cash right away? Or are they people who are just seeking out more information from the Internet? Understanding of their age group, gender, and profession also play a part in getting the right audience to click on your link to visit your website.

Let’s say for example, you found out that your target audience consists of people who love free information first. So what you can do is to design your landing page whereby you will ask for their email and full name, in exchange for a free report or gift from you. In this way, the goal of your SEM campaign will be to generate more opt-in list.

After understanding this, you can now optimize the right pages  by making them SEO-friendly, as well as drive paid listing traffic to the right landing pages.

If your business offers services or products that you need to meet them personally to sell them, do not worry. Once they have given you the permission by opting in to your list, you will be able to email them and arrange for meet-ups to close the deal offline.

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What is the Perfect Keyword Density?

Monday, June 29th, 2009

One of the more frequent mistakes for a writer who is just beginning to learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques is to get a little carried away with keywords. While nailing down the perfect keyword or keyword phrase is an essential part of landing higher rank on search engine results and driving traffic to your content, using those keywords too many times in an article is a great way to get moved right down the scoreboard. This is because search engines avoid sites that try to game the system with keyword abuse by ignoring content with an unnaturally high keyword density. Hence, figuring out the range of ideal keyword density can be critical to an article getting noticed.

The context of an article is not understood by bots that index web content or searching for keywords. Instead, bots scan the content for the particular pattern of letters contained in the keyword search. The search engine will count how many times a keyword appears within the content and take that into consideration when assigning a page rank. In view of the fact that designers are conscious that people have abused this system by simply using the keyword as much as possible, any content containing a percentage of the keyword in the text compared to the rest of the content, or keyword density that is above a certain threshold may end up being largely ignored.

Although there is much controversy regarding ideal keyword density, a good range for a SEO optimized article is between 1 to 5%. That may sound low to some, but the leading search engines like Google, start making the cut at 2%. In most search engine optimization specialists opinion keyword stuffing cuts into the quality of the content at right about 2 to 3% anyway. That’s already 8 to 12 times in a 400 word article. So you need make a detailed keyword analysis for optimizing your website.

However, due to the overuse of keywords, sites such as Google may not look upon them as well as they once did. This may make the use of keywords not nearly as effective as they used to be. In order to get the most use from your keywords that you possibly can, you need to be certain that there are relevant to you articles or whatever you are putting them in. You must have keywords that are a part of what you are offering to be effective.

If you do not use appropriate keywords in your content, it may easily mislead people to come to your site and although this may seem ideal, it is not. When you have people come click on your site and then leave immediately, this is tracked and can cause you more problems.

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Posted in Keyword Analysis, SEO | 2 Comments »

Essential SEO Tips & Techniques (2)

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

In this blog we will continue representing you SEO techniques and tips.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.

9.Do keyword analysis at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.

10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Yahoo’s Search Marketing or Google’s AdWords or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like our “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

11. Use a relevant and unique title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page search engine optimization factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing.

12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everybody, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword analysis you did earlier to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away.

14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.

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SEO Mistakes

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

Targeting the wrong keywords This is a mistake that even experienced SEO experts make. This occurs because people are inclined to choose keywords that they think are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. Choosing keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can’t think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good for your site.

Ignoring the Title tag Leaving the <title> tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most essential  places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your <title> tag shows in the search results as your page title.

A Flash website without an html alternative You should provide an html version of your site if you want search engines to love it. Search engines don’t like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can’t read Flash content and therefore can’t index it.

JavaScript Menus Using JavaScript for navigation is not very bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus and you can’t do without them, you should consider building a sitemap so that all your links will be crawlable.

Lack of consistency and maintenance Site optimization should be permanent. It is very important for its success. You also need to keep an eye on the competition and  changes in the search engines ranking algorithms.

Concentrating too much on meta tags A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your keywords and descriptions but don’t expect to rank well only because of this.

Using only Images for Headings Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image makes your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake.

Ignoring URLs Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and URLs with no keywords in  them  are more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. The weight of keywords in URLs is high for MSN, Yahoo! and even Google, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.

Backlink spamming It is a common delusion that more backlinks are always better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, link building works when your backlinks are qualitative.

Lack of keywords in the content Carry out a careful keyword analysis, focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them.

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How to Identify Competitor Keywords?

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

It is important to understand the search terms and keywords used on competitors’ sites. To help in this keyword analysis effort we offer advice and tools to research the competition and query history information available through several sources.

It is worth mentioning that sometimes your competition becomes misleading which makes keyword analysis significantly difficult.  Cloaking is a server technique designed for hiding keywords and actually deceiving search engines into granting rankings that the sites do not deserve. These stealth technique was designed to offer content to the search engine that is exceptionally keyword-loaded in an attempt to bias the spider into giving the page a higher ranking position. Some people submit pages that present the spiders with content that differs from what browsers will see. The use of this type of technique is strongly discouraged — that is spam.

It is important that you do not take the HTML source from a competitor’s page. Not only is it a copyright violation, but it will result in duplicate content and will cause search engine optimization difficulties. All that you need are sample keywords used for search engine ranking. Use brainstorming techniques and recombine the words to make a complete list. Do not target trademarked words as that could lead to legal action against you. Copyrights on a website protect contiguous character strings and include displayed and hidden text, so you cannot take a large portion of a site’s content and use it to compete against the site. Even if there is no copyright, the content is considered intellectual property, and there may be a severe negative effect from taking it.

The use of registered or trademarked names is illegal without appropriate statements in the page. If you plan to use a word or phrase that legally belongs to a competitor, you must follow accepted fair use publication and legal credit guidelines.

As an additional note, make a careful keyword analysis, use different keyword patterns and titles for all of the major pages in your site, and submit each individual URL to get all of the different keywords and titles added to the search engine.

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