This tutorial is taken from the site www.selfpromotion.com. SelfPromotion.com is the net's leading resource for do-it-yourself Web Promotion.
Before you submit your pages to the search engines, it is crucial that you make sure they are search-engine friendly. Here are some basic tips on what to do.
For more detailed tips on search engine strategies, I highly recommend Search Engine Watch. It is the best resource on the net for learning about search engines.
Step 1 - Determine your Key Phrases
People get obsessive about their keywords. This is wrong. It is difficult if not impossible to get high rankings based on keywords. Instead, you need to think about keyphrases.
The easiest way to do this is ask yourself "what would someone trying to find me type in when they search?" Make a list of these. Try them out on the search engines -- pretend to be someone looking for your product or service.
If your business is geographically restricted, then your keyphrases should reflect this. For example, if you are a a real-estate broker in Wilmington, North Carolina, then the key phrase "buying real estate" is a waste of time; instead, the more specific phrase "buying real estate in wilmington north carolina" is what you want to be thinking about.
Think about variations on the key phrases and write them down. Continuing with our example:
- real estate in wilmington north carolina
- real estate brokers in wilmington north carolina
- buying real estate in wilmington north carolina
- selling real estate in wilmington north carolina
- renting real estate in wilmington north carolina
- home buying in wilmington north carolina
- house buying in wilmington north carolina
- selling a house in wilmington north carolina
- renting a house in wilmington north carolina
- renting an apartment in wilmington north carolina
- apartment renting in wilmington north carolina
- real estate brokers in wilmington nc
- buying real estate in wilmington nc
- selling real estate in wilmington nc
- renting real estate in wilmington nc
- home buying in wilmington nc
- house buying in wilmington nc
- selling a house in wilmington nc
- renting a house in wilmington nc
- renting an apartment in wilmington nc
- apartment renting in wilmington nc
- real estate brokers in new hanover county
- buying real estate in new hanover county
- selling real estate in new hanover county
- renting real estate in new hanover county
- home buying in new hanover county
- house buying in new hanover county
- selling a house in new hanover county
- renting a house in new hanover county
- renting an apartment in new hanover county
- apartment renting in new hanover county
The above is only a partial list, but you get the idea. You can also get a good idea of what keyphrases and page design techniques work well by looking at other pages that do well in the searches you've tried. Note that this sample list is just a list of possible keyphrases -- we're not going to use all of them because we won't have room.
One of your fellow users, Stephen Sherman, pointed out an interesting subtlety about keyphrase selection. Let's assume you find a keyphrase that you think people will type in a lot. Try it, and look at the results. If the results seem to be "on topic", then people are likely to drill down several pages to find a listing that is just right for them. This kind of keyphrase is one you want to target, but if you don't get on page one, you'll still get traffic. If, on the other hand, the results are mostly irrelevant (or full of spammed listings), then people will rarely look at page 2, or even more than the first few listings. These keyphrases are thus not as valuable. This doesn't automatically mean you shouldn't try to target it -- none of the criteria are absolutes -- but it does mean that it will be more difficult to get a useful listing with that keyphrase.
Two great resources for finding out what keyphrases are the most effective are the Goto.com Search Suggestions Page and WordTracker. On Goto's search suggestion page, you just type in a very general keyphrase (like "real estate") and it tells you all of the more specific keyphrases that relate to that keyphrase and how many hits they got.
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