Finding Keywords: Six Tips for Choosing the Right Keywords to Use

While most online marketers are ready to accept the fact that search engines can bring a large volume of low cost traffic to a website, the surprising reality is that many have little or no clue as to how they should go about doing so. Several different aspects make up search engine marketing; including submission of websites, creating search engine optimized content, interlinking websites and arguably the most important part- choosing keywords.

Keywords or keyword phrases are those terms that a potential customer uses on a search engine to look for a product or service that a website provides. So, for a jewelry manufacturer the word 'jewelry' would be a major keyword. Unfortunately, choosing keywords is not quite as easy as simply naming a product or category. There are many factors that should influence your decision as to what defines the right keyword(s).

It is important to remember that while choosing the right keywords is vital to the success of a marketing campaign, choosing keywords that are inappropriate will target the wrong people making the process of converting eyeballs to sales a nightmare. Here are some tips on choosing keywords that will give you great leads, which can easily be converted into sales.

1. Check out the competition.

Research your competitors and view their Meta tags to see which keywords they are using. This is a great way to quickly list down the most commonly used keywords for your type of business.

2. Make your own list.

Once you have the competitor keywords list, add to it any keywords you feel are important. Include your company name and city as well. Also add plurals and variations of the keywords. Make sure you spell important keywords in American as well as British English. So, in referencing the example used earlier, a jeweler would want to include 'jewelry' and 'jewellery' in his or her list.

3. Ask outsiders for help.

Rarely can you see your own business from an outsider's perspective. To get a layman's opinion, ask customers to send in keywords they relate to your company. You could also ask friends and family to make suggestions. You may be surprised at the keyword suggestions they come up with.

4. Evaluate your keywords using software.

Once you have a list, the process of choosing keywords is ready to move into the next stage of evaluation. Since you cannot possibly optimize your website for all of the keywords on your list, it is best to narrow that list down. Use software like WordTracker to decipher the popularity of each of your keywords and keyword phrases. Retain the most popular or frequently searched terms and discard those that are rarely searched. Google Adwords, Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool and Alta Vista's Prisma are also good tools to use when choosing keywords.

5. Be specific.

Rather than saying 'jewelry manufacturing' try saying 'men's jewelry manufacturing'. While the former may be a more popular search term and could possibly garner more eyeballs, the latter is likely to lead to more sales. People who search for 'jewelry manufacturing' could be looking for bridal jewelry, wedding jewelry or any other kind of jewelry available. If men's jewelry is your area of business, getting a bride to browse your website is a waste of marketing resources. It would be more effective to have 5 users interested in men's jewelry browse you site, rather than 25 that are interested in bridal jewelry.

6. Be flexible.

Always look to update your keywords based on the feedback received from visitors to your site, customers and website logs. Website logs can give exact information on which keywords are successful and which are not and is a great place to find reaffirmation for your keyword selection process.

Choosing keywords is a process that can dramatically affect the performance of your search engine marketing efforts and hence it is one that requires due attention. An important thing to keep in mind is that while getting a high ranking in search engines is important, it is more important to get a high ranking for a relevant keyword.

The main purpose of your efforts is to have customers that are looking for a specific product find YOUR specific product and with the right keywords, you can reach that goal.

Click to learn about Volusion's Marketing Services.

Stacie completed the Texas Creative program, receiving a degree in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin, and is now happily employed with Volusion, Inc, http://Volusion.com

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Is Google For Men And Yahoo For Women?

This question always cross my mind, is Google developed for men and Yahoo for women? I know they both have, basically, the same potential, however, Yahoo is somewhat more user-friendly and perhaps a better place for “novices and women” to locate their content or search results. Not that I am calling women novices, please don’t get me wrong, what I am saying is, compared to Yahoo Google is just a one liner.

To be considered a true “expert” using any appliance or application, people or users who prefer to use and consider the Command Line Interface (CLI) a more effective and direct interaction with applications such as DOS, LINUX CLI, Cisco CLI etc. Looking at the layout of both search engines we could easily say Yahoo is and was built for the “novice” or let’s say the user who wishes to point and click for results.

Google does have categories and directories similar to Yahoo’s but where are they located? New users to the internet, or women on the internet, especially, using search engines find that they get more results or more meaningful results from their query just by using the available or to be more precise “the more visible” options available.

During any learning phase it is easier to catch on if you see, then click. I have seen students, teachers, managers, everyday users of computers/internet get lost in the web and the content within these so-called “super-power search engines” simply because they really can’t find what they want or there is too much that they can not process what they see or they have forgotten what they are really looking for.

It is quite easy to get side-tracked in these search engines’ vast databases and to make it even more technical, in most cases the results appear to bring the same pages or websites to the fore front. Getting a return of your query with 1,000,000 pages and the first 50 to 100 pages are basically the same is no fun.

One strong point that I find lacking in Google’s engine, and this is probably why Yahoo is for women or novices is the fact that I can simply click a category right in sight and get content relative to what I am looking for.

Writing this article springs another provocative question, is it that women have pushed Yahoo to make their engine more novice friendly or have they noticed that most internet users, content seekers, and shoppers prefer to use their service? What is the real driving force behind such simplicity but efficiency?

I will be the first to say, Google has tons of information within its database, but lately, it is even more difficult to find or even get listed in Google. Yahoo on the other hand is much easier. For a while now Google has been in the news, web articles, bulletin boards and basically every news or message portal as the most difficult to get listed or ranked in. As the super power of search engines, why can’t Google’s engine have more visible features?

Experts, information seekers, and generally ardent users of the internet all know and praise Google, for what? Yes they have a comprehensive database, but to gather information is extremely difficult at times. In most cases results from page 1 to 20, depending on your preference listing per page, surrounds the same websites. Why is that the case? If Google is so sophisticated and boast all the technological enhancements, why can’t it be easier to use this tool?

Frankly, if you don’t understand how to put your words together for a search string do not use Google, use the “novice” engine Yahoo. I would really like to see Google with a new face, something that portrays the fact that they understand technology and the way majority, not “techies”, perceive and use any software or available tool.

Sometime ago I got a picture depicting the differences between men and women, the image portrayed the males with a one switch, while the females have multiple switches, bells, whistles etc. At first I thought it was crazy and hilarious, however, over time I have noticed that nothing is really wrong with bells and whistles. In fact, in technology bells and whistles are called options.

These possibilities of options are what women have and will always demand to make they results more flowing and interesting. Bottom-line, heads up for Yahoo for clarity and usability and heads up for Google and their “techie” gang. But remember “techies” Google is finding more and more ways to make it more difficult for you to find your content.

Of note, Google has stated many times that they are in the process, and, have implemented many features to make it easier to find information needed in their databases. However, to me it has shown no improvements as I am yet to understand and know exactly what I want and what I am looking for. As a newbie I would be lost in “Google-Land” but thanks to a real “super-power search engine” Yahoo. Yahoo my friend you might not have as many pages and content as your rival Google, but, keep making it simple and the majority which you have will grow immensely.

Article written by: Christopher Nurse, www.globalhostings.net Thursday, August 24, 2006

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The Curse Of The Google Sandbox - How to Break It!

Who haven’t been in the Google Sandbox? As new website owners, we all experience the Google Sandbox dilemma. I can relate to the pain of webmasters and website owners who are currently experiencing being on the Google Sandbox. And I bring good news: there is a guaranteed way to come out of the Google Sandbox! But first, it is important that you know what is meant by Google Sandbox.

The Google Sandbox

Google Sandbox is such a popular term among webmasters, web marketing specialists and new website owners. Google Sandbox refers to the period when a new website appears invisible on the Google search results even after a month or two of search engine optimization. The most probable reason why new websites are placed in the Google Sandbox is that Google doesn’t see yet the importance of these websites.

New websites can be on the Google sandbox for at least three months. This is a test of patience for the website owner and of course the web marketers who have tried their best in promoting the website. It would be understandable to be on the Google sandbox for at least three months. But what about those websites which seem to be locked on the sandbox for many months already?

How To Get Out Of The Google Sandbox?

Who would want to be in the Google Sandbox forever? Of course, every single website owners aim to finally get hold of Google Sandbox freedom. But what can we do? The best and guaranteed way to get out of the Google sandbox is to focus on your website and not on Google. Forget about the Google Sandbox first and concentrate on more important things in web marketing.

Shift your focus from the Google sandbox to making your website more relevant. You can’t simply get out of the sandbox – you need to impress Google with your website. This way, Google will be able to see your website’s importance and when it does – boom! Out of the Google sandbox you go!

How Earn Google’s Respect

These effective tips in search engine optimization will help your website in its struggle to be free from the Google Sandbox. These are easy steps that are undoubtedly effective.

• Equip your website with the relevant and useful web content. Your website must have a unique content.

• Submit your website to high quality and relevant web directories.

• Create relevant articles that provide useful information about your website’s theme and submit them to article directories. This a good way of generating quality one way links.

• Blogs, forums and other interactive stuffs can add to your website’s relevance.

Why let your website remain on the Google Sandbox when you can let it come out in no time? Don’t be contented being on the shadows of other websites. Instead create your website’s own shadow! Come out of the Google Sandbox now – it’s easy, just follow these tips and soon your website is free!

This article is written by nPresence, an online web marketing agency that specializes in Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click advertising, Content Management Systems, Web Design, Conversion Tracking and Analysis. For all your web marketing needs, please visit Internet Marketing Company Ireland.

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Are You Sure You Are Not Spamming The Search Engines? Here's How To Tell

Webmaster who lack sufficient knowledge about search engine optimization and search engine spamming may already be utilizing spamming techniques without even knowing it. It is important that webmasters and search engine optimizers realize what search engine spamming is to be able to avoid it. Remember that search engine spamming – intentional or not – still causes a number if penalties from the search engines.

The fact is that there are really webmasters who use search engine spamming intentionally. They utilize search engine spamming techniques to boost their website’s ranking on the search results. What they are doing is technically tricking the search engines. This action indeed deserves penalty. But how about those who use search engine spamming unintentionally? The penalty remains the same! So the best thing to do is to be familiar with the search engine spamming techniques and avoid them at all times.

Search Engine Spamming

Technically, search engine spamming is the trick other webmasters use to secure a higher site ranking position on search results. Webmasters who use the search engine spamming technique create irrelevant web content that appears on a highly visible position of the search results. However, search engine spamming does not adhere to the rules set by the search engines so it normally results to penalty and worst – site banning.

Commonly Used Search Engine Spamming Techniques

Here are the three commonly used search engine spamming techniques today. Avoid them at all times if you don’t want your website to get penalized or worst – banned!

• Hidden Text

If you use texts of the same color to the background of the web page, you are spamming the search engines. In the first place, why will you use the same color on the text and the background if you don’t have any other motive than providing your site visitors with relevant information? The reason behind hidden text is keyword stuffing. Webmasters place keywords on the page through hidden text.

• Doorway Pages

This search engine spamming technique works by optimizing a particular page to rank well on the search results. This page, also called the doorway page, contains loads of keywords (which is another spamming technique – keyword stuffing). And the doorway page leads to a completely different website when clicked.

• Link Spamming

Avoid joining link farms for they will do more harm than good to your website. It is true that the search engines value links but they value only relevant links! Link farms offer nothing but irrelevant links.

Knowing these things about search engine spamming, let me ask you again, are you spamming the search engines or not? Beware because these search engine spamming techniques are off to pull your websites down!

This article is written by nPresence, an online web marketing agency that specializes in Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click advertising, Content Management Systems, Web Design, Conversion Tracking and Analysis. For all your web marketing needs, please visit SEO Company Ireland.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Monica_Corral-lorica

Better Keywords More Sales - Three Steps to Better Search Engine Keyword Selection

Are you among the Web masters in search of the search engine ranking Holy Grail? If so, sooner or later you have to accept the fact that search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your Web sites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination your Web site and then find their way within the Web site, you need to provide them with specific and effective signs. This can be done by creating carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the “Open Sesame”! of the Internet for the search engines and your customers. Find the exact right words or phrases, and presto! Hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are vague or over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it to your site or you seeing any real profits from the visitors reduces drastically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. Aggressive marketing campaign without precise selection of keywords is just a very expensive exercise in wasting time and resources. The right people may never get the chance to find out about your products and services. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. In the middle of the business battlefield it's hard to be objective. This is why you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of possible search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers' understanding is significantly different.

Your customers are an invaluable resource. The words you gather from talking with them may not have been considered from deep inside the trenches of your business. Only after you have gathered as many keyword phrases from outside resources should you add your own keywords to the list. With this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation. Consider the first step brain storming in which you just gather ideas without bias.

Evaluation step is where you narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your Web site. By quality visitors I mean visitors who are most likely to buy rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, consider three elements: Demand, specificity, and motivation.

Demand is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more demand your keyword has, the more likely the chances are that the visitors use it while searching for your products on the Internet. Demand is sometimes called popularity as well.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Some software will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. Higher demand for keyword means more potential traffic for you.

The only problem with high demand keyword is the intense competition which makes it difficult for your site to show up at the top of the search engine search results. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you. Most search engine optimizing firms emphasize the fact that if your Web site is not on the first three pages, you will likely not see a significant traffic.

In your search for the right keyword, popularity isn't enough. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. Specific keywords that are usually a combination of three or four words indicate that the consumer is really looking to buy something. At least one search engine optimizing guru shared that his data shows most people who type in one or two words in looking for a product or service are doing research and those who type in three or four words are looking to buy.

There is another consideration. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "gift shop." However, your company specializes in wedding anniversary gifts only. The keyword "wedding anniversary gift" would rank lower on the demand scale than "gift shop," but it would bring you the right customers. Instead of getting a bunch of people interested in baby shower gifts and graduation gifts, with the right keyword phrase, you will get only those consumers with pending need to find an anniversary gift quick.

In short, consumers ready to buy your product or take advantage of your services are the ones who will find you. Also, the more specific a keyword is the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. You always need to put yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivates them to look for a service or product. If you owned a talent agency, which one of the following two headings would appeal to your customers? "New York Job Listings" or "New York Talent Agency." The second one, of course! By using the second keyword combination you target people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are looking for a talent agent services. These are just the kind of clients who are motivated to talk to you.

After choosing the right keyword you must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines and the change in search engine algorithms. Your log files are not enough since they only show you a brief traffic analysis but they do not indicate how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

The most important connection you can make after the visitors enter your site is the connection between the keyword they used to get to your site and the sales you made after they entered your site.

For this, you need to rely on tools that track the visitors’ behavior after they enter your site. There are many programs that accomplish this task and in the next article we will review them and how they work.

Just remember that more traffic is a good thing only if you can convert casual visitors to paying customers. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. Keep the final profitability goal in mind as you search for those illusive profitable keywords.

Vishy Dadsetan writes articles that can actually help your clients. Articles that entertain. Articles just like this one. Additional information is available at: search engine submission, internet marketing strategy, and ppc search engine

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How To Dramatically Increase Your Profit Using Search Engine

Most people will quickly run away or surrender without even trying in getting to the top of search engine. For them, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is really not for them. But did you know that once you have conquered the search engine, you have no problem whatsoever to make money online? In fact, your online business will keep on growing without you don't have to do anything.

So what if it takes a long time to do, is that mean you just want to throw away your potential income that really can change your life? If you have the desire to make money online more than anyone, you should consider doing this.

One method to increase your ranking in the search engine is by using community forums to build one-way links to your site.

Create accounts on community forums that are specifically related to your given niche. Once you have contributed significantly to the forum by posting useful information and helping newbies, you can then consider adding a signature that links to your site. This will create a one-way permanent link. It is also best to use a targeted keyword for your URL.

When it comes to search engine optimization, most things change. Only two things remain important: the amount and quality of "text" content and the amount of one-way incoming links you have. Reciprocal linking, over-optimized content, and black hat methods of increasing rankings will all vary in effectiveness with algorithm changes.

Each search engine has its own algorithm, but Google always leads with algorithm changes. If you spend enough time working on search engine optimization, tune your site to Google's changes. Forget the rest. In 2-3 years from now, they will be doing what Google did yesterday.

While Google is the most important search engine, it is important to make sure that your site also gets indexed by Yahoo and MSN – both of which have easy-to-access submission forms. These search engines have less competition, which means it will be somewhat easier for you to dominate your niche and pick up whatever extra traffic is available.

If you feel lost, re-read the section above about search engine optimization. It is hard for you to digest at first, but everything will get easier in time. Once you have done that, we will move on to Page Rank (PR).

Find ways to get links to your site from high-PR authority sites. You may be able to do this with article submission services, press release services, and joint ventures. Getting links on high-PR sites will not only confer some PR to you, but it will also increase your rankings, and get you spidered by search engines more frequently.

Even though meta tags have no relevance to search engine ranking anymore, using them can sometimes help clarify the purpose of your website through a number of different ways. The first way is by helping a spider figure out the purpose of confusing pages. The second way is by providing a description for search engines to use when they pull up your site.

Take action immediately to optimize your website. You might now see results overnight, but slowly your website will be notice by the search engine. Take 2 to 3 hours per day for optimizing your website. Sooner or later, you will be surprise to see your website on Top 3 pages of the search engine.

Izrul Fizal has made a living with selling just one remarkable tool and earn himself a residual income every month. Visit his website Make Money Online and How To Start An Internet Business to find out how.

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The Power Of Social Marketing And Self Promotion: Life Beyond Search Engine Optimisation

The recent report by Hitwise, which showed that MySpace has overtaken MSN search in driving retail traffic, should make all those involved in website marketing sit up and take note. Firstly, it underlines the value of social marketing as a way of reaching your customer base but secondly, the figures also show that the total amount of retail traffic generated by the top three search engines amounts to only 21.95%. Why is this important? Well what strikes me right away is that over 78% of retail traffic is not delivered through the top three search engines. I would thus argue then that there is a hell of a lot traffic that is conceivably up for grabs. The point is do we spend too much time worrying about search engine optimisation and not enough effort worrying about other forms of traffic generation.

Social networking is a good example of one of the other options available. The effect that social networking sites can have can be seen in an analysis of online photo sharing. In the UK figures from Hitwise show, that MySpace is responsible for an astonishing 22% of all Photobucket’s UK traffic. MySpace itself though is only the twelfth most visited site in the UK where as in the US it is the number one site, which suggests that the amount of traffic for US Photobucket is exponentially even greater.

You might ask how this affects me as my product or service is unsuited to social networking? I would argue that there is always way to utilise any channel that has the potential to drive traffic. Admittedly, some products or services are more suited to the medium but any business can make use of video opportunities presented by these or video specific sites such as YouTube. If you can make a short promotional film good, funny or trendy enough then the viral potential is phenomenal.

Social networking or video sites need not be the only distribution platforms. Self promotion should also include regular press releases. Again, there are existing means of distribution through highly regarded sites such as PRWeb and PRNewswire. The key is to make them sharp and relevant and covering something that people are likely to want to read, maybe local success stories or things you or your business have achieved and not just sales pitches. The idea is to drive traffic to your site, which is the place for the pitch. A similar strategy would be to utilise successful EZines in your field by submitting articles of interest that will be picked up upon by readers.

Sometimes old fashioned tradition mediums od delivery can get overlooked. People still read paper newspapers and shop on a high street. Simple line adverts, or handing out leaflets can actually be effective and the forgotten Guerrilla tactics that symbolised some early web marketing such as stickers and stunts can still work well, although they tend to be more effective with trendy brands.

All these methods are on the edges of traditional marketing strategies and individually may only have a marginal effect. If however they are joined together as a suite of ideas then the cumulative result is likely to be much greater than the parts. The common thread of all the above is to get noticed and thus hopefully drive traffic. As the statistics show There is a huge amount of traffic that can be driven to your site that does not necessarily involve search engines and the quid pro quo is that if you can generate a buzz then you may actually see yourself climb the SERP’s anyway as people link to you funky, funny or poignant video or podcast. If you do in fact have a marketing budget then these methods are still (if not more) relevant as the use of professional marketing and PR agencies could substantially improve the response.

I am not suggesting you look to ditch traditional SEO but that you open your eyes to the possibilities that exist beyond. I have deliberately avoided talking about PPC, Blogging or RSS feeds as it is likely that you are probably employing these methods already. Even though these will take up a fair proportion of that 78% on non search driven traffic the point is that by not utilising some of these alternative marketing strategies you are not tapping in to the other potential sources of available traffic. Ultimately, there are probably millions of people who would be happy to view your site, it just you have to let them know you are there and these are extra ways you can do so.

News, information and advice for website marketers. www.bluenyellow.com

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