Keyword Optimization

An Overview

The fundamental goal of SEO work is to improve the ranking of your site’s pages for relevant terms entered in search queries. We are including in this category not only the selection of popular search phrases or “keywords” that are relevant to your business, but also all of the on-page “optimization” work that goes into reinforcing the use of these selected terms throughout your site’s content.

Ranking Algorithms and Relevancy

Each search engine has its own proprietary set of rules or “ranking algorithm” that it uses to determine which pages to display for a query. The search algorithm is a complex and closely guarded secret and is constantly being tweaked to improve the relevance of results. There are possibly hundreds of factors that are considered by the algorithm, but not all are weighted equally. The use and placement of keywords in the page content is widely accepted as an extremely important ranking factor.

As search bots crawl through the content of your site, they store in their index words that they have associated with your site’s pages. They will use these associated words as a factor in determining whether your page is relevant to a given search.

Helping the Search Engine make the Correct Associations

As we select and optimize your content for specific keywords, our goal is that these terms will be among the words that the search engine associates with your page. As a result, your page will be deemed more relevant to searches using these terms.

Finding the Search Phrases that People are Really Using

Every business has a particular set of products and services that they hope to rank well for in search results. However, there are often multiple ways of describing those products and services, and not every person would refer to them in the exact same way. By using specialized tools, we will determine which phrases people are actually using when they enter related search queries. We will compile a list of many popular search phrases for your industry and then begin to evaluate and narrow down the list to the specific terms we want to target in your site.

Ranking for Popular Terms Brings Traffic

Consumers are way more likely to find you if you are using the same terms in your content that they are using to search. We want to find the search terms that are being used with a good amount of frequency as these can generate significant traffic to your website once you rank well for them.

Making the Right Keyword Selections:

Our initial keyword research will have given us a fairly large list of potential search phrases to target on your site. In order to narrow this list down to our choice selections, we take into consideration the following:

Estimated Daily Searches – How many searches per day are conducted for the specific keyword phrase in all major search engines combined?
Relevancy – How relevant is this phrase to your page’s content?
Competition – How strong is the competition for this search phrase?

Keywords that are both extremely relevant and receive the highest level of daily search traffic are obviously very desirable. However, there is typically a much higher level of competition for these terms. If we select keyword phrases in which the competition is too fierce for your site to compete with, your site will not be able to rank for those terms. As a result you will gain absolutely no search traffic for your efforts.

Strategic Selection

We will take into consideration both your site’s current ranking ability and the improvements that we plan to make during your campaign to select phrases that are within reach for your site to rank for.

Each Page of Content is a Potential Landing Page for Search Visitors:

One thing you must realize is that not all search traffic should enter your site via the home page. A search result is a link to a specific page in your site, and each page of content in your site has the potential to be optimized for a specific topic and keywords. It is preferable to bring search visitors directly to the page in your site that is most relevant to the topic they searched for. This is the goal of the search engine and it should be yours as well.

Improve User Experience and Increase Conversions

Studies show that providing users the specific information they are seeking in the fewest possible clicks will increase conversions and decrease the likelihood of them leaving your site prematurely.

Selecting Specific Pages to Target

While every page on your site does have the potential to be highly keyword optimized, research and optimization can be extremely time consuming tasks. As a result, we must be selective in which pages receive the most attention. Generally we select a handful of very important pages to optimize first, and then move on to building up the popularity of your site. This is very important because in most competitive markets, the keyword optimization by itself will not be enough to rank for terms. We must also move on to other important ranking factors. Later in the campaign we can revisit additional pages to be optimized and the cycle can repeat in this way.

Limiting the Number of Targeted Keywords on a Page

Any given page of content on your site can generally only be effectively optimized for one or two keyword phrases. For this reason, you usually want to dedicate a page to describe any product, service, or topic that you desire to rank well for.

Content is King – More is Better

By gravitating towards more descriptive content and breaking things up into sub categories, you will have more focused pages that have a better chance of ranking.

Avoid Diluting the Effectiveness of your Selected Keywords

You should try to avoid using a selected keyword phrase on a page other than its targeted landing page as it can actually negatively impact the ability of your targeted page to rank well. During an SEO contract, it’s best to leave all page updates to us. However, once your campaign ends you will want to be aware of which pages have been highly optimized, and which keyword phrases are targeted on your site.

Keyword Research Report

Any time we spend time on keyword research, a Keyword Research Report will be provided to you detailing the list of potential terms, and our recommendations. We will explain why we made our selections and wait for your approval before any implementation. You will have every opportunity to provide feedback until you agree that the choices are appropriate for your site.