web design
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web design | Improving Search Engine Rank |
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Pick Your BattlesI'll never be number one for the keyword phrase "search engine optimization". I came into the game too late. I just need to face it -- the other SEO gurus got here first, and they've got more links to their sites and a longer history with Google. Oh, I could try to compete, but the fact is, I'll always be a few steps behind for the best keyword phrases. But I don't need the best keyword phrases. Let's say there are 10,000 searches each month for "search engine optimization". It's probably a safe bet that there are other keyword phrases with less traffic. And because they have less traffic, the competition isn't as stiff. Say I notice that I keep misspelling "search" as "serach". Or maybe the Brits spell optimization "optimisation", or maybe the lay person doesn't know the phrase at all, and rather looks for "webpage advertising". Hmmmmm... maybe I could snag the pole position for less common phrases like those. But how can I know if people are searching with the terms or spellings I come up with? I almost don't want to say, but the fact is, plenty of other SEO guys have already spilled the beans, so here's a fantastic tip for website optimization: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ That wee link right there will become your best friend in short order. Just type in a word you think folks might be searching on, and see how many searches were done with it last month. (Roughly -- Overture doesn't have a foothold on Google's searches, and Google still provides no such tool to monitor keywords, but it can give you a fair idea.) For instance, for my website for LDS singles, I wondered if many Latter-day Saints were searching for "Mormon singles" or "Latter-day Saint singles" rather than the much easier "LDS singles". I found that hardly anybody did -- which didn't surprise me, since we "Mormons" generally call ourselves "LDS" or "Latter-day Saints". ("Mormon" is an appellation that non-Mormons came up with a hundred years ago or so, because of our companion-to-the-Bible scriptures called The Book of Mormon -- so named after the prophet who wrote most of it. Like how Genesis is called the First Book of Moses, for example. Anyways, "Mormon" stuck with us, but it's the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. End of history lesson.) But, as I worked on a site for Hawaiian scrapbook paper, I found that lots of folks searched for "scrapbooking paper" rather than just "scrapbook paper", and that while many folks sought "tropical" or "Hawaiian" paper, nobody was looking for "beach" or "island" scrapbook paper. So, pick fights you can win. And as you amass victories in the smaller battles, you may gain the strength needed to win the best keyword phrases. |