Your Keywords Can Determine The Fate Of Your Website!

The right keywords are necessary for a successful online marketing campaign. Targeting the wrong keywords may get a lot of traffic but no sales, or you may get no traffic because no one is searching those words! Either alternative is disastrous for your e-business.

Phrases are extremely effective because studies prove that most people use two or more words in a search. Always use phrases of at least two words. Single keywords will get you lost in the crowd. If you are selling Electronic Greeting Cards it is not likely that someone is going to search for just "Electronic", "Greeting", or "Cards". Can you imagine all the sites that would come up?

Instead, target "electronic greeting cards" as a three word phrase, because the consumer who finds you with that exact phrase is more likely to buy. Specifically targeted words are like magnets to money!

Remember, single words cannot be promoted effectively.  Always use two or more words. Click Keyword Phrases to learn why.

Keyword competition is fierce, so avoid the most "popular" keyword phrases - you'll be competing with millions of other pages for a search engine's attention. A new website can't rank number one on a popular phrase like “Free Software” because older, more established companies will have the big advantage of link popularity and click popularity.

Keyword phrases that are common enough so the "typical" searcher will use them, but unique enough so they don't return millions of matches are ideal.Your chances of getting excellent positions are much better with focused and targeted keyword phrases. Very specific keywords generate highly qualified, targeted traffic.

The first step in choosing the right keywords is to make them very specific.

Put yourself in the place of the person doing the search. What are they likely to type in as their search? The keywords chosen must be specific and narrow in their meaning. For example, if you sell music, you would be best off picking phrases like these:

• rare collectable records
• early Gregorian Chant
• American Jazz Greats

Be very careful in choosing your keyword phrases. This may be the most critical decision you will make in determining the success or failure of your site. You must identify the most specific phrases that searchers are likely to use to find what you sell. The more targeted your campaign is, the more likely you will increase your sales. To learn more, read Keyword Marketing.

The Overture Keyword Suggestions Tool is a free resource to help you choose the best possible keywords. Enter a keyword or phrase and it will give you lots of suggestions.

"WordTracker" at http://www.wordtracker.com is your best bet among available commercial products. It shows you exactly the best keywords based on real searches.

IMPORTANT!

WordTracker's "KEI" provides this information. Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) refers to the number of times a keyword is searched as a ratio to the number of web pages competing for it.

The higher the KEI, the more popular your keyword phrases are, and the less competition they have. This means you have a better chance of getting to the top. According to Wordtracker, a "good" phrase to target is one that has a KEI of at least 30, but an "excellent" phrase to target has a KEI over 300.

Keywords in your domain name

Keywords in the domain name are a factor in search engine ranking algorithms, so this can give you a competitive edge in the search engines. Include two or three of your most important keywords in your domain name, keeping it under 48 characters.

As an example, let's pretend your three most important keyword phrases are:

• advertising agency
• business advertising
• business advertising agency

In this example, one possible keyword-targeted domain name would be:

"BusinessAdvertisingAgency.com".

This may improve your ranking on all three of your most important keyword phrases.

Please Note: Having keywords in your domain name is only one factor in site ranking, so you needn't be obsessive about it. If you want your domain name to be short and easy to remember, just choose one that works best for your branding requirements.

The first step to getting a Domain Name is to find out if it is available. You will find that a lot of the good ones are already taken, but people are coming up with new ones all of the time! Again, don't give up! As soon as you think of a great idea that has not already been registered, Grab It! - Even if you don't intend to use it immediately, register it before someone else discovers it.