Today's Marketing Tip: Effective Keyword Research

To succeed in the game of search engine optimization you must focus on effective keyword research. By choosing the right keywords you can succeed at the SEO game. I have personally worked with hundreds of clients seeking number one rankings but who have given little if any focus on keyword research. This is incredibly important when your site is competing against well ranked sites that have been in the top ranking for some time.

The first step is finding a keyword that isn't all that competitive. Once you do, the next step is to make sure that the keyword you've selected gets enough traffic. Don't overlook this important aspect of keyword research. I worked with a company that was proud of their number one rankings. When I did some research to discover the type of traffic they could expect, I found less than one hundred searches per month on the keyword they selected. Even with top rankings, they would never see the traffic they expected.

After finding a keyword or keyword phrase that is not competitive but receives an sufficient amount of traffic, you should spend time researching your competition for that keyword. An effective technique is to visit each of the top ranked sites, competing for the chosen keyword, and analyze them. Pay particular attention to the Google Page Rank of competing sites and number of inbound links. If sites are well established and have been online for a long time, it may be difficult to outrank them.

After you have selected the keywords you want to compete for, it's time to enhance your web pages using the chosen keywords. Begin by enhancing your meta tags, page titles, and copy, including your keywords where appropriate. By including your keywords in this manner, you're indicating to search engines what your web site is about. This allows search engines to rank your site for appropriate keywords. In addition to the on page factors, Google takes into consideration a variety of off page factors to determine web site ranking. Off page optimization involves generating links from third party websites. Focus your efforts on link building through article directories, web site directories, blogs, social bookmarking sites, and other sites.

When focusing on link building, you should plan to implement link building strategies on a regular basis. Focus on attracting links from sites within your given niche. You should also be focused on sites that have an established age, Google PR, and other authority attributes. When attracting in bound links, do so in a manner that is slow and steady. Building links too quickly can have a negative impact on your web site as search engines may believe you are arbitrarily building links. Once you have determined the right keywords and have taken care of your on-page optimization strategies it's time to focus on off page strategies to improve rankings.

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