Keywords are the words that people type in to search for information, using a search engine website – such as Google.
If the word is not on the page – Google cannot find it…
There are 3 main types of key-words or key-phrases – also known as search terms:
Specific keywords:
Brainstorm a list including words describing :
- your, or your organisation or company name (e.g. Barn Owl Trust)
- highly relevant niche information ( What to do if you find a fallen owlet )
- specific product descriptions and brand names ( Owl nestboxes )
- the specific services you offer ( Barn owl Conservation )
These words might not get very much traffic but it’s essential that you show up on Google for these – if a client is looking for your company name, for example.
High demand relevant keywords:
Use a free on-line tool to research the statistics of demand (people searching) versus supply (websites offering the term) to find out which keywords are the best to use.
- These may be worth structuring a whole page around – Use the SEO plug-in.
- The best keywords to use are highly relevant and have high demand with low supply.
- Consider framing your information in a more user friendly way. (e.g. ‘coloring pages‘ gets a lot more traffic than ‘art projects for schools‘ – and in this case, American spelling gets more traffic and is just as relevant).
- Pay particular attention to keywords that may result in action – such as clicking on your shop.
Long-tail keywords:
Use as many different relevant nouns /adjectives as possible on the page, to score highly for these. A Thesaurus might help.
- These are long strings of words (5 or more) which describe in detail what the searcher is looking for.
- These are extremely important because lots of traffic is here – possibly the majority.
- Because each long keyword phrase may be used by a single individual they can often be completely invisible in your website statistics.
- What other words might people search for?
Avoid Keyword Stuffing:
Keyword stuffing is the practice of adding lots of words to a page purely to try to increase visitor numbers or Google ranking. Often the words are not relevant or not placed in a natural, readable phrase. Keyword stuffing is seen as spam and may result in a website losing ranking.
- Do not repeat a keyword at more than 4.5% density (about 4 times in a hundred words).
- Add only relevant keywords – avoid very long lists of words.
- After editing, read your page aloud to check that it is readable.
- Google rules are aimed at spammers who are trying to game the system – it’s not likely to penalise a genuine website.
The question to ask, before adding any keyword is: If I typed this word or phrase in to Google – would I be pleased to arrive at this page?
For very useful ideas for product keywords, see: How to create Product Titles.