Determining Key Words and Phrases
Determining the key words and phrases that a potential website
visitor might type into a search engine when looking for
something in the category of your website is an important
consideration, since you will want to use these words and
phrases in your text content and descriptions. You should look
for up to 20 key words and phrases for each page.
Google Suggest is a wonderful new tool to use for this research.
Type in terms that may be used, and you will see the popularity
of those terms, as well as which sites come up for each.
Sometimes it is not the wording you would expect that is the
most popular. Popular phrases mean that the website will have
more competition, but ultimately more traffic as well.
Don't overdo keywords and phrases in text copy. Try to keep the
percentage of each keyword and phrase occurrence between 3 and
8% of total words on each page. Using too many keywords can
trigger an alarm in the search engines indicating that you are
purposefully manipulating them. (Which we are, but it must be
skillful!)
Web designers should also ensure that there is keyword rich text
in or near the upper part of each web page. Since search engines
read left to right, top to bottom, and often not into the entire
page, including text here will ensure that they pick up some
content on each web page. Text at the very bottom of each page
is also considered noteworthy by the search engines, so create a
nice, keyword rich byline to place as a footer at the bottom of
each page.
Chad Andrews
Graphics can assist your business in all of these things,
and ensure that you have an attractive, intuitive, and
flawlessly functioning website. Located in Bellingham, WA;
serving businesses throughout the US.