Keyword Selection Strategy
Keyword selection is one of the first steps in implementing a search engine optimization strategy. It goes without
saying that if you select and optimize for the wrong keywords, your overall optimization campaign is worthless. In
this article we will cover the keyword selection process, tools available to assist you in selecting the right
keywords, and how best to place keywords throughout your site.
In this article, the term keyword or keywords will be used often. For our purposes, the term keyword or keywords
includes the term "keyword phrase" or "keyword phrases".
This article contains the following sections:
Keyword Selection Process
Tools to Assist in Keyword Selection
Keyword Placement Strategy
Keyword Selection Process
Keyword selection can vary greatly based on the type of Web site the client requires. Static sites (sites that are
simple HTML pages and are not database driven) by definition are limited to a defined number of keywords, whereas,
dynamic sites (sites that are database driven) can be optimized for an unlimited number of keywords. If your static
site is predetermined to contain 5 pages, then the number of keywords is limited to those five pages. I do not
recommend optimizing a single page for more than five or six keywords, unless necessary. With dynamic sites it is
easier to optimize for single or two word keyword phrases as well as plural and singular terms.
If you are creating a new site from ground up, it is wise to select the number of possible keywords you want up
front. Then you can plan the architecture of the site based on your keyword selection criteria. If your client
sells 10 different products, create a 10-page site, plus pages for contact information and other boilerplate
content.
Based on the type of site you decide you want or currently have, you must sit down and write down keywords. The
first step in developing your keyword list is to have a brainstorming session. Anything that comes to mind should
be written down. Keep building this list until you have enough to work with.
After you have built up your keyword list, you will want to prune the list down. There are certain factors one
should keep in mind when pruning the list. (1) Many search engines to not do "word stemming" (word stemming is
adding on to the end of the word, for example the word "keyword" and "keywords"), (2) most people type keywords
into a search engine all in lower case, and (3) it is generally easier to rank well for longer keyword phrases.
That covers the keyword selection process; you should however consult the help of the various tools available on
the Web to help you select keywords.
Tools to Assist in Keyword Selection
Too often we run into a wall and can't go beyond 10 or so keywords for the site. Lucky for us there are plenty of
free and low cost tools available on the Internet to assist in the keyword development stage. We will first discuss
the free tools, and then go over one tool that you need to pay a fee for.
Free tools:
Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
This is an excellent tool for locating new keywords and determining the frequency that Web searchers search for
specific keywords. You simply type in your keyword or keyword phrase into the search box and hit enter. Overture
then looks up all the data it has in its network for the past month and brings back your keyword and the number of
times it was searched on for that month. It also suggests other keywords that might be good alternatives with their
respective frequencies. The only draw back of this tool is that it only has data for the overture network. But that
is a small drawback due to Overture's presence on the Internet.
Google Adwords Keyword Suggestions: https://adwords.google.com/select/tools.html
This tool is provided by Google to help advertisers determine the best keywords for their sites. This tool
functions a lot like Overture's but does not display the frequency of searchers for each keyword. It does however
provide a detailed listing of keyword suggestions based on the keyword you entered. And since Google is the most
popular search engine, its list represents an accurate representation of data.
Search Engine Related Matches:
Many search engines and directories including Yahoo!, AltaVista, MSN, AllTheWeb contain keyword suggestions after
you conduct a search. For example, lets do a search on "design". You will see that Yahoo! has the words "related"
directly under the search box followed by related keywords. AltaVista has a section on the right that says "Refine
your search with AltaVista Prisma", and a listing of similar keywords directly below. MSN Search has a box directly
below the search box that says "narrow your searchÉ" followed by similar keywords. And AllTheWeb has, at the bottom
of the page, "similar queries" section that displays four keywords that are similar to the one you searched on.
This might have changed since this article was published, but most search engines will continue to offer this
service.
For a Fee Tool:
Currently there is only one tool worth mentioning in this section, WordTracker (www.wordtracker.com. WordTracker is
the most comprehensive keyword selection tool available in the market today. They compile a database of terms that
people search for over the major search engines. WordTracker contains a powerful "lateral search" feature to locate
all your related keywords. Just like the Overture tool, WordTracker has a keyword count (frequency) but unlike
Overture, WordTracker's database contains more search engine networks. The application also contains lists of
misspelled words based on your keyword entries. There are many more features contained within this application,
please visit (www.wordtracker.com for more information.
Keyword Placement Strategy
You should now have a list of keywords that you want to rank well for in search engines. The next step is to place
these keywords in the various locations throughout your page's code. Below is a listing in order of importance of
the places to put your keywords.
Title Meta Tags (not more than 60 characters)
Anchor Text (incoming and internal)
Header Tag Content (i..e H1, H2, H3, H4, H5)
Title Tag in Anchor Tags
Bold/Italic Tag Content
Body Text on top, middle and bottom of page
Alt Tags in Pictures that are Links
URL/Filenames
Meta Keyword Description
Alt Tags in Pictures that are not Links
There are experts that might argue with the order of this list, and the order might change in the future. There are
some items missing from this list. I will try to update the list regularly. The concept is to place keywords in
these areas and in order to optimize your site for your keyword list.
Keyword development is a time consuming process. It is a critical component to any SEOs job and has the potential
to make or break a site's revenue. Keyword selection is thus an extremely important part of the overall SEO
process. It is important to select the right keywords and use the right tools in your keyword development stage. It
is then important to place these keywords throughout your site for the search engines to properly rank you based on
their constantly changing algorithms.
Author:
Barry Schwartz
RustyBrick, Inc.
barry@rustybrick.com
www.rustybrick.com
845-369-6869 x201
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Google has been ordered to disclose personal information, including viewing habits and internet addresses to Viacom, in the latest phase of the ongoing legal battle between the two companies. Google must surrender its users' personal information to Viacom (Computing.co.uk)
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