Use Keyword Suggestion Tools Part 2
How to Use Keyword Suggestion Tools, Part 2
By Mjad
(Read Keyword Suggestion Tools Part 1 here.)
Using Keywords in the Name of Your Page, Title and Content
You need a strong title with a reasonably-scoring keyword phrase forming part of it to get the best results in the search engines. Say for instance that you want to write a page on looking after pet guinea pigs. Firstly you need to research keywords and keyword phrases, so you type ‘guinea pigs’ into the search box in the Google Adwords keywords tool, and the following suggestions may come up:
(example)
guinea pig monthly searches – 1,000,000
guinea pigs monthly searches – 550,000
pet guinea pigs monthly searches – 22,200
guinea pig care monthly searches – 6,600
caring for guinea pigs monthly searches – 1,300
Because you want your article to be about guinea pig care (and because it will be easier to rank for than “guinea pigs”), the title needs to be a phrase with the keyword phrase ‘guinea pig care’ at the beginning. An example could be ‘Guinea Pig Care for Beginners’. This way you are including the keyword phrase at the start of the title, and so are maximising your chances of gaining as much traffic as possible though search engine ranking. Other possible titles could be ‘Guinea Pig Care: Ten Things You Need to Know’ or ‘Guinea Pig Care Basics’.
Note that there is the title of your piece of writing as the reader sees it on the page, but there is also the meta tags title, which should be the same wording, usually. (Go to Edit > View > Source, in your browser, to see the meta tags in use in a page). There is also the name of the page which forms part of its web address, or URL. For example www.yoursite.com/guinea-pig-care-basics.htm. Use your chosen keyword phrase in some form in all of these.
Now you have the title you can begin to write the content.
You’ll need to include your keyword phrase about once in every paragraph at the most. You could start your first paragraph with something like ‘Caring for guinea pigs is a relatively easy thing’: in this way you are including the keyword phrase. Paragraphs in the second half of the page do not necessarily need the keyword phrase, though related phrases or variations of the original phrase should also be used here and there. But it must all flow naturally, as part of natural writing patterns. Usually a keyword optimized page uses one main keyword phrase and a secondary phrase (which could use synonyms, for example).
Do not overuse keywords and keyword phrases. The practice of doing so is called ‘keyword stuffing’ and won’t get your page to the top of the search engines. It will most likely make you lose your website rankings, or your account for submitting articles at an article directory. Google is always on the lookout for this kind of thing and will demote or even ban pages (and whole sites!) that use keyword stuffing. Remember, the text should still read fluently with the keyword phrases in.
By using keywords suggestion tools you are more likely to be using the keyword phrases that people are actually using to search the web with, and because of this, if they are used properly in your content they are likely to get more traffic to your website.
Copyright (c) Mjad
© 2009, Lawre. All rights reserved.
Traffic Folder is about helping you to increase traffic to your website, especially if you are on a limited budget or looking for no-cost techniques.
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Great article thank you.
The first post in this mini-series about keyword suggestion tools is: using keyword suggestion tools for article marketing and websites at http://trafficfolder.com/2009/07/keyword-suggestion-tools/
Although your articles helped clarify some things for me about using keywords in meta-tags, the problem I usually have is that new articles & reviews for my sites are written BEFORE any thought can be given to SEO keywords. As editor, I can’t always re-write contributions to optimise a page with the most useful keywords. So, apart from the obvious (title of book or film, creators of the work, etc) how do I go about picking the best keywords out of an already finished text for use in meta-tags? Does it even matter..?
Tony, it certainly matters if you want the page to rank better in Google and so get greater exposure.
If you can’t (or it would be against good practice) to alter the text of contributions you are going to publish (perfectly understandable of course) then my suggestions are:
1) Look for potentially good keyword phrases in a contribution then run these through a keyword tool and Google (to see the number of competing sites for the phrase). Then use the best one in your page title. The contributing author’s title might then become a sub-title if it is very different.
2) Add a little intro to the contribution, placing it between your page title and the author’s title (now a sub-title). Of course use the keyword phrase you chose in step 1 above in your intro.
Hope this helps!
First let me say thanks so much for the article. I am brand new at this stuff and this website helps so very much.
The article mentions keyword stuffing. When I write an article I try to use several variations of a key phrase or key words. I would imagine that there is no magical number, but could you please give me an idea of what would be considered stuffing?
My articles that constitute a new page on my site are generally around 300 words.
Thanks.
Martin, aim to use the keyword phrase (or its variation) only once per paragraph, maybe twice in the first paragraph (but it must read naturally). Make sure that your keyword phrase appears in the anchor text of links (at your site and elsewhere) that go to the page concerned. Get lots of links to your pages — see http://trafficfolder.com/category/website-linking-techniques/ . Also remember that probably your most important page is your index (home) page, so make sure that it is properly optimized at least. Hope this helps!
I think that it helps. I will need to reduce the amount of keywords to only about 2 or so per 300 word page. I don’t know what you mean by “anchor text of links” but I understand about getting inbound links.
Thank again.
There are no rules, but 2 per 300 word page sounds too few to me — sorry, I could have been clearer about this. Aim to use your main keyword phrase (including one or two variations of it) once per paragraph — but it must read naturally. So, if your page has six paragraphs (as a 300 word online article might) your main keyword phrase could appear 6 times. I’m now offering a service to help with this, if you’re interested — see: http://trafficfolder.com/website-seo-consultant-service/
On anchor text I’ve written a new post to help you and others like you, Martin. It’s at: http://trafficfolder.com/2009/09/anchor-text-in-links/
Feel free to ask more questions.
@ Lawre:
Thank you very much!
great article thank you.