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* Plural Form of Keywords When a user performs a search, it's unlikely that they will enter a search term that exactly matches
keywords you selected for your site. In some cases, user will enter singular form of a keyword and in others, they may enter plural form. It's essential to capture both forms of a keyword to maximize your exposure!
* Repeat Important Keywords In days of old, we could repeat a keyword numerous times to increase relevancy of a site in a search engine. This repetition allowed sites to be placed higher in search engine's list so that user would see that site first. Today, search engines filter out those sites that over-repeat keywords. It's best to repeat most important keywords no more than twice to increase your relevancy without being eliminated.
* Diversify Keyword Meanings Assume that every user has a different vocabulary--some users say "book" while others may say "publication" or "document." Each word refers to same thing, however, unless your keywords are properly selected, you may only get one-third of your potential hits! When devising your keyword scheme, take into account different forms of a given keyword. Create keywords important to your site in such a way that, regardless of search terms used by a user, your site will appear in results list.
* Keyword Variations Consider fact that users will not enter keywords into a search engine same way every time. For instance, some users may enter "real time software" while others may enter "real-time software" or "realtime software." Think about keyword variations to ensure capture of as many users as possible. Also, consider common misspellings of keywords. I know many intelligent individuals who tend to misspell certain words because of phonetic spelling of word---consider "eves" and "eaves." If a user consistently misspells such a word and you happen to sell plant hangers for under eaves, you might lose potential clients.
* Keyword Combinations and Phrases Some search engines will only take first 255 characters of a keyword list, while others accept a nearly unlimited list of keywords. The problem is that you must target 255-character limitation to be accepted by as many search engines as possible. One method to accommodate keyword list limitation is to use phrases that best describe page. For instance, I could use "ebook marketing" as a phrase that could be found with several combinations of search topics in a search engine. Another method is to ensure that most relevant keywords are located at front of keyword list---even with a 255-character limitation, most important keywords are accepted.
--- Keyword Selection ---
Your objective is to attract as many relevant visits to your site as possible. With that in mind, you will have to select keywords that are commonly used by users and that are relevant to your site.
You can easily attract users by entering such keywords as "naked women, adult, sex, ..." into your keyword list. Since these are some of most searched-for keywords, I can guarantee that your site will get hits. Do you think that someone searching for pornography is going to spend very much time on your page? The problem here is that you will be attracting people who won't provide a relevant hit to your site. This tactic wastes bandwidth, time, and money.
--- Developing Keyword Lists ---
Using information we've reviewed, let's look at creating a keyword list for a page. This is actually a more difficult task then creating page itself since you must determine best keywords that describe your page. To begin this task, let's ask ourselves: "how would people begin to search for a site like mine?"
Immediately, you could come up with about three-dozen keywords to place in a keyword list, however, many of keywords that you think are relevant may turn out to be useless. Think about how you perform searches for certain information and apply that experience to selection of keywords for your page. You'll find that time taken to create a good keyword list will be most beneficial.
The best way to weed out useless keywords is to use steps outlined in following list. These steps are proven and have worked on several sites I've marketed.
* Create an exhaustive list of words that describe your site. * Review and eliminate words that are least descriptive or redundant. * Create plural versions of words without altering their form. * Consider and note misspelling variations. * Combine words into phases. * Eliminate duplicate phrases. * Eliminate phrases with words duplicated in other phrases. * Check for other words or phrases that can diversify list. * Create a comma-delimited list of all phrases and remaining words. * Move and order most relevant words to front of list. * Duplicate four more important words and phrases twice. * Ask an associate to review words and phrases. * Ask an associate to edit list based on their search preferences. * Clean up and limit list to 255 characters. * Perform searches using your keywords to locate other relevant sites. * Go to these sites to see how they created their keyword list.
Edward B. Toupin is a freelance consultant, writer, and published author living in Las Vegas. With 10 years of experience, Edward provides quality Web site design, development, and marketing as well as writing, document design and planning, and e-book publishing services. You can visit his Web site at http://www.toupin.com or contact him at etoupin@toupin.com.
