Getting exposure on search engines

Getting exposure on search engines

Adapted from The Freelance Designer’s Self-Marketing Handbook. Wouldn’t it be great if new clients contacted you? In the following article I’ll show you how to conquer the search engines so prospective clients can find you online. We’ll look at four core areas: Choosing your keywords, Making the content of your website Googlable, Fulfilling the needs of browsers, and Getting other sites to link to you.

1. How to choose your keywords

By far the best tool for researching keywords is Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com). You can pay for access per day ($8), per week ($26), per month ($52), or per year ($260). It’s worth taking as much time as you can afford.

Amongst other things, Wordtracker allows you to type in words and presents you with an extensive list of connected keyword phrases with ratings. Ratings are based on the popularity of the keywords compared to the number of other websites competing for them. You’ll find that keyword phrases have better ratings than single keywords.

There are three obvious groups you could focus your keyword searches on:

* your specialist area (graphic design, web-design, animated web design, etc)
* the sector you work in (marketing & advertising,"

Blog Tip #9: Bold your keywords

This one is a very short easy one that seems to hold some weight. While you have sprinkled your keyword judiciously through out your blog, both heading and body, make sure the keyword is also in bold.

This is fairly obvious from the way I have bolded the keyword in this post huh?

Blog Tip #4: Use your keywords in the anchor text of links

Use your primary and secondary keywords in the anchor text of links when linking to other blog posts or to other pages of your blog.

Keyword in links have more importance than simple text. This is major to the search engines, ANCHOR TEXT IS VITAL!

For example if you want to rank using the keyword diving then make sure all the links to the site use the word diving like this: diving

Don't just put in the code http://www.diving.blogspot.com, use the link button in the posting WYSIWYG editor and highlight the keyword, like this: diving

Blog Tip #3: Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post

If you want to get listed for secondary keywords (which most of everyone does), use them infrequently in the body of your post.

The theory is that the more times a keyword appears within a blog's web page, the more relevant the page is likely to be for someone searching those keywords.

But do not overdo this by repeating the same keywords over and over again. Google bots can find out if a keyword is too frequent on a page and might just remove your site from their index.

As outlined below, checking a keyword density using software is a smart idea. See the post on WebCEO in April 2007.

Blog Tip #2: Use your primary keyphrase in the title of your posts

If your primary key phrase is diving help make sure that the word diving and help appear in your blog headers such as H1 and H2 tags as well as the title of each of your posts.


So make sure you have a usable keyword!

Blog Tip #1: Use your main keyword in your blog domain

The first thing to do is to ensure that your blogs URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for. Using the targeted keyword in sub-domains also helps.

For example, if you want to start a blog site about diving then the primary keyword you want your URL to contain is diving. So choose a URL like www.divingblog.com.

You can also use the keyword in subdomains like www.fiji-resort.com/diving

The Importance of Keywords

The Importance of Keywords: "The Importance of Keywords

The basis of all search engine rankings is keywords. Yes, search engines employ all kinds of technology that is beyond the average person's comprehension...but it all comes down to words.

Search engine users enter keyword phrases into a search engine to find the information they need. You need to find yourself on top for those keywords. Do you know which keywords people are entering and how to choose the most appropriate ones for your website?

Whether you are optimizing your website for natural rankings or looking to start a pay-per-click campaign, these articles will help:"

Keywords Strategy : The Keyword Auction

Most advertising is charged according to rate cards, based on the audience that sees the ads.

Print magazines and newspapers charge from $5 to $100 (USD) per thousand subscribers depending on the readership — general consumer pubs are at the bottom end while specialty pubs that appeal to wealthy and select audiences such as business owners, gourmet food enthusiasts, or Porsche buyers get to charge more.

Radio and television charge a lot less per thousand, but reach a much broader audience — national television programs in the U.S. can cost a dollar or less per thousand viewers — which can add up to a large dollar amount, but your "reach" or the size of the audience seeing your message can be greater than in any other medium: A hugely popular U.S. TV program can attract 20 million viewers at once.

Web sites are like a mirror of the rest of the publishing world: There are specialized sites, such as AllBusiness.com, which are able to charge a high advertising rate per thousand pageviews, while broader sites like the main page of Yahoo!, which charges a lot less for a less targeted but much larger audience.

A lot of negotiation goes on in ad contracts, but they start from a fixed pricing sheet. This has a disadvantage for search engine results pages, which can't be managed the same way as relatively fixed editorial site pages. Google originally tried charging a flat rate for ads on its results pages — they got way too many advertisers trying to get onto certain highly desirable pages, and nobody on millions of other pages.

Then some genius came up with the ad auction that is now the norm in search keyword marketing. Instead of picking from a fixed price list, you bid in competition with everyone else and pay based on demand for that keyword and its value to you.

So some people are paying a nickel a click on a keyword that's not in much demand, while others are willing to pay fifty bucks a click. So almost every keyword has a price — and a value. It's a great way to sell as much of your inventory as possible at the best price. Clever!

Choosing Keywords with the Google Keyword Sandbox & Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool

Choosing Keywords with the Google Keyword Sandbox & Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool

Keywords are the words and especially phrases used by people when they search for web pages. For example, if I am looking for a vacation in Fiji, I would type something like 'Fiji vacation' into a search engine. Those are keywords.

Maximizing Keywords: 2 Methods

Obviously, you should choose words and phrases that people actually enter into search engines. There are couple of methods you can use...one is free and the other is not (although it has a free trial). Both methods can produce good results, but the paid version is certain to save you a lot of time.

Just remember, when choosing your keywords, pick the ones that will drive the right kind of visitors to your website. You want people who want to actually purchase and buy your product/vacation. Check your website stats to see what keywords are bringing you traffic, but don't choose keywords just for traffic's sake (use Google Analytics for this, see other blog entry).

The 2 methods are:

Free: Using Google Keyword Sandbox & Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool

Paid: WordTracker

Inadequate Keyword Research - MAJOR PROBLEM

It pays to spend extra time to focus on the keyword and phrases that catch the most traffic, and more to the point most relevant traffic.

Do research in detail to find the target keywords and phrases. Use the 'view source' feature of IE to check out the keyword Meta tag of each top-ranking site. Select the site that lists lots of keywords. Repeat this exercise with at least 10 top listing sites. Search in Google and Overture will yield more keyword ideas. You will soon have a long list of possible keywords and keyword phrases.

Enhance the keyword kitty by a search on http://www.promoteindia.com/keywordtool-beta.htm.

Access WordTracker to compile results. Then, sort out the strongest keywords by KEI.

To improve your KEI search, use the spreadsheet available at http://www.seo-works.com/seo-resources/keyword-effectiveness-rank.html.

Once you have sorted out the desired keywords, highlight the most profitable ones.

Develop at least 30 pages of content, by taking top 10 on the list and creating content. Repeat the similar process with in batches of 10 top keywords/phrases every time.