At last it’s time to get our hands dirty! By that, I
mean we now begin the process of actually doing search engine
optimization. The first step to optimizing your web site for
search engines is the selection of keyphrases.
What are keyphrases?
It is important to optimize your web site for key phrases,
as opposed to key words. Focusing on one particular word
will achieve very little success. Focusing on keyphrases,
or combinations of keywords, which accurately describe your
web site’s content will make your search optimization
effort a success. The hard part is deciding on which keyphrases
to use.
Targeted keyphrases vs. broad keyphrases
The rule of thumb is to select keyphrases that are as narrow
and targeted to your specific business as possible. Utilization
of overly-broad keyphrases can undermine your efforts to
attract the most valuable traffic and can dilute the effectiveness
of your search optimization project.
As an example, let us take a look at a small business located
in Barnesville, Georgia. The proprietor runs a specialty
Rolex repair shop. She is an authorized Rolex technician
and only services Rolex watches. The selection of keyphrases
here could make or break this business. One could optimize
the web site for the keyword “watches”. This
however, would be disastrous. Not only would this business
be competing for visibility with every other watch repair
shop in the world, it would also be competing for valuable
search engine real estate with businesses such as the watch
manufacturers and dealers. The chances of this web site achieving
a top ten ranking for the term “watches” is virtually
nonexistent.
To achieve better results, we narrow the keyphrase a bit
to “watch repair”. This still is overly broad,
as our facility located in the small town of Barnesville
has no need or desire to compete for ranking space with the
tens of thousands, if not millions, of watch repair facilities
in the world. Our chances of being listed in the top ten
improve, but are still immeasurably small, by narrowing it
further to “Rolex repair”.
We narrow further. “Georgia Rolex repair” is
getting us warmer. However, there is no point in this proprietor
competing with Rolex repair shops in Atlanta and other parts
of the state. In order to reap the maximum benefit, we need
to be very specific.
The best keyphrase in this situation would be “Barnesville
Rolex repair”. It is narrow, accurately describes the
content of our web site, and targets our desired audience,
namely, those living in Barnesville.
You can see, now, how narrowing the focus of your keyphrase
is immensely beneficial, both in terms of accuracy and in
terms of attracting the target market. By trying to find
a niche market, you are effectively eliminating the competition
and focusing on the most important search term for your business.
The example above is intended to be illustrative of the concept
of narrowing keyphrases, but does not contemplate every possible
scenario.
About the Author: Matt Foster is the President of ArteWorks
Business Class and is an expert in search engine optimization.
Mr. Foster has been active in the industry since 1995. For
further information, please visit http://www.arteworks.biz or http://www.search-bully.com
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