Defining Keywords

[fridayteam]

I would be interested to know how members determine what their keywords will be.

How many keywords do you have?

[Jayne]

I was told to look at the top ranking sites, to see what their's was. Also try to think of what people will type in to look for you, some even put keywords in with spelling mistakes. :D

Jayne

[fridayteam]

I am not the only night owl then?

Thanks Jayne..!

[autolycus]

Roz,

This may help:
http://www.advice4businesses.co.uk/choosing_keywords.shtml

Dave.

[fridayteam]

Dave - thanks.

That is a really interesting tool.

[mattk]

Put yourself in your CUSTOMER'S shoes. What are they likely to be searching for? Don't simply describe what you site does. I'll give you an example. In that article it talks about the term:

buy clothes

Who in God's name searches for "buy clothes"??? That is a description of what a site does, but it's not what people are likely to search for. More likely they're search for:

men's trousers
short sleeve shirts
red strappy high heel shoes

or even more likely will be brand names etc. - are you starting to get the picture?

So, for your site, keywords like:

Nights out in Bristol
Malawi travel guides
Events in Somerset

etc. Are what people are likely to be searching for and in finding your site they'll get the information they are looking for.

As for numbers - about 20 or 30 keywords/phrases in a good start.

Hope that helps!

[DavidHorn]

The real value of keywords is not in placing them in your meta-tags though, since these have been considerably devalued (I'm pretty sure that Google don't even look at them any more - only a few search engines even bother indexing them, and those that do may not use them) over the years.

It's worthwhile identifying your keywords though and sprinkling them sensibly through your content - and using them in your internal links - e.g. link to your page on 'nights out in Bristol' using the words 'nights out in Bristol' rather than linking the words 'click here' in a sentence.

[fridayteam]

Brilliant help, yes, I am beginning to get the picture.

Thank you loads.

[fridayteam]

The real value of keywords is not in placing them in your meta-tags though, since these have been considerably devalued (I'm pretty sure that Google don't even look at them any more - only a few search engines even bother indexing them, and those that do may not use them) over the years.

But you should still have them, right?

[Coding Monkey]

Yes, there is no harm in having relevant keywords in your meta tags.

[Nomisconnections]

If you go to overture, you can type in the keyword that you want to try and the system will let you know how many times the word has been entered in a calendar month.

[Tin]

Easy to see what Matt gets up to in his spare time hey! Nights out in Bristol wearing red strappy high heeled shoes... Mmmm nice :wink:

Here's a site I find useful sometimes for keyword research
http://www.123promotion.co.uk/ppc/index.php

Ray

[Amber]

I tend to look at overture (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/) to get a rough idea of what people are seraching for. I find it's not always a good idea to go for the keywords with the highest number of searches though, but for something less competitive (and therefore easier to rank for!) which will still deliver a decent amount of traffic.

[DavidHorn]

Thanks Tom ... yes, FridayTeam, by all means add them in - they do no harm. But if search engines do look at them, the 'weight' (or importance) they assign them will be considerably less than the weight they give them when those keywords are used in context on the page, or in your title tag, etc.

[mattk]

Easy to see what Matt gets up to in his spare time hey! Nights out in Bristol wearing red strappy high heeled shoes... Mmmm nice :wink:

Ray
Hey! You leave my weekend activities out of this :twisted:

[autolycus]

In that article it talks about the term:

buy clothes

Who in God's name searches for "buy clothes"??? That is a description of what a site does, but it's not what people are likely to search for. More likely they're search for:

men's trousers
short sleeve shirts
red strappy high heel shoes

or even more likely will be brand names etc. - are you starting to get the picture?

That's exactly the point the article is making - target your keywords as tightly and specifically as possible. This means the competition is reduced, and at the same time the searcher is more likely to find your page relevant (and therefore purchase).

[Tin]

oh!... ok then :(

[fridayteam]

I think the most difficult part of this exercise is actually knowing what people will type in to search for what you are doing.

Someone elses search term would be different to your own.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me being extemely complicated?

[Tin]

Hi Roz

Check out the link I posted earlier in this thread, it takes you to a UK site that lets you get a good feel of what your customers are actually typing into engines so that you can better target the keywords you should be aiming for.
Spending a bit of time on it can be quite useful.

Ray