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Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of designing the pages of your Web site to rank higher in search engine results. Any search on a search engine, such as Google, starts with a user typing in a keyword. A keyword is usually a phrase with multiple words such as “Grass Valley real estate”.
Although Web pages can be made up of many elements such as words, images and video, search engines decide how to rank results largely based on how the text appears on the page. The way you use keywords in the text of your page is the main way you can achieve better ranking and therefore more Web site visits.
The first and most important decision in the SEO process is deciding which keywords to target. In general, each page on your Web site should be optimized for a set of 5 to 10 related keyword phrases. These keywords should be tightly focused and ideally share individual words, called tokens.
For example, the home page of my Web site, batteries4less.com, is focused on these keyword phrases: cell phone batteries, phone batteries, cell phone battery, phone battery, cellphone battery. You will notice that these are very similar phrases with shared tokens but for the sake of the search engine each one is a unique keyword target.
Before you start making changes to the text on your Web pages, use a keyword tool to find out how people search. Keyword research will show you which keywords are searched for more than others and help you focus the content of your pages. I highly recommend the Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) because it is free, easy to use, and provides results based on how people use Google — the grand Poobah of search engines.
Let's start with an example from my business. Go to the Google Keyword Tool. In the first box, enter (without quotes) “cell phone batteries” on the first line and “cellphone batteries” on the next. Make sure the Use Synonyms box is checked so you can see related keywords. Before you can see the results you must copy the strange characters into a text box. This tool, called a captcha, verifies that you are a person and not a computer program. Click on Get keyword ideas to view keywords and how often they are searched.
Once the list of keywords is displayed, sort the results by search volume by clicking on the column header Local Search Volume: June. The results you see are broad results so I recommend selecting “Exact” from the Match Type pull down menu on the top right of results. I can now see exactly how people type keywords into Google to best pick the targets for my Web site. For example, I see that the keyword “cell phone batteries” is searched for over 20 times more than “cellphone batteries”. When writing the text of my Web page, the slight difference between “cell phone” and “cellphone” could mean a big difference in traffic.
Spend some time experimenting with different keywords and variations and you can get a better idea of how people are searching for your business. I recommend creating a spreadsheet with keyword targets for each page of your site to provide guidance once you are ready to write your copy. Because some keywords are not searched for very often some creativity may be required to define your targets.
For example, instead of searching for “painting contractor grass valley” vs. “painter grass valley”, I would recommend removing grass valley from the search. You can extrapolate local search trends from the results you get for more popular searches.
Coryon Redd is the president and owner of batteries4less.com, a local online business selling cell phone batteries and accessories. For more information please visit coryon.com or e-mail coryon@gmail.com.
Although Web pages can be made up of many elements such as words, images and video, search engines decide how to rank results largely based on how the text appears on the page. The way you use keywords in the text of your page is the main way you can achieve better ranking and therefore more Web site visits.
The first and most important decision in the SEO process is deciding which keywords to target. In general, each page on your Web site should be optimized for a set of 5 to 10 related keyword phrases. These keywords should be tightly focused and ideally share individual words, called tokens.
For example, the home page of my Web site, batteries4less.com, is focused on these keyword phrases: cell phone batteries, phone batteries, cell phone battery, phone battery, cellphone battery. You will notice that these are very similar phrases with shared tokens but for the sake of the search engine each one is a unique keyword target.
Before you start making changes to the text on your Web pages, use a keyword tool to find out how people search. Keyword research will show you which keywords are searched for more than others and help you focus the content of your pages. I highly recommend the Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) because it is free, easy to use, and provides results based on how people use Google — the grand Poobah of search engines.
Let's start with an example from my business. Go to the Google Keyword Tool. In the first box, enter (without quotes) “cell phone batteries” on the first line and “cellphone batteries” on the next. Make sure the Use Synonyms box is checked so you can see related keywords. Before you can see the results you must copy the strange characters into a text box. This tool, called a captcha, verifies that you are a person and not a computer program. Click on Get keyword ideas to view keywords and how often they are searched.
Once the list of keywords is displayed, sort the results by search volume by clicking on the column header Local Search Volume: June. The results you see are broad results so I recommend selecting “Exact” from the Match Type pull down menu on the top right of results. I can now see exactly how people type keywords into Google to best pick the targets for my Web site. For example, I see that the keyword “cell phone batteries” is searched for over 20 times more than “cellphone batteries”. When writing the text of my Web page, the slight difference between “cell phone” and “cellphone” could mean a big difference in traffic.
Spend some time experimenting with different keywords and variations and you can get a better idea of how people are searching for your business. I recommend creating a spreadsheet with keyword targets for each page of your site to provide guidance once you are ready to write your copy. Because some keywords are not searched for very often some creativity may be required to define your targets.
For example, instead of searching for “painting contractor grass valley” vs. “painter grass valley”, I would recommend removing grass valley from the search. You can extrapolate local search trends from the results you get for more popular searches.
Coryon Redd is the president and owner of batteries4less.com, a local online business selling cell phone batteries and accessories. For more information please visit coryon.com or e-mail coryon@gmail.com.
