Keyword Selection Tips

Keyword Selection Tips

The goal of keywords is to choose terms that will bring well-targeted traffic to your website. Each page on your site can be targeted for a few different keyword phrases. Typically I like to just do about one to two primary phrases and, at most, two to three secondary phrases.

Overlapping Keyword Phrases

It makes sense to optimize the same page for keyword phrases that share some of the same words. A page that ranks well for search engine marketing should easily be able to rank well for professional search engine marketing or search engine marketing services.

Only Use a Few Keyword Phrases per Page

A note of caution--you cannot optimize a page for 20 different keywords. As you add more keywords to the mix, you lessen the focus of the page. The page can start to sound robot-created if you optimize for too many terms. Remember that converting eyeballs is what matters. People are not likely to link to or buy from a page that reads like rubbish.

Misspelled Keywords

You usually do not want to use misspelled keywords in your body copy or page title on sites you want to do well long term as they will look somewhat unprofessional. But a large volume of search queries are misspelled, and that market is easier to compete in than the core related keywords.

Some sites use “Did you mean…” pages, focusing the page title and heading tag on the misspelled versions of the keyword and then underneath it say “Oftentimes Internet searchers searching for xxx misspell the word as blah or blah. If you are looking for xxx you are in the right place. Learn more about our blah blah blah…”

Search spelling correction will get more sophisticated over time. Search engines want to correct for misspellings in the search results pages before the users get to your site. I spoke with a search engine product manager who stated that misspellings can flag pages for relevancy reviews and usually misspellings for SEO are not recommended for most websites.

If you are using throw-away domains in competitive environments, then misspellings might help you get some targeted traffic without requiring as much effort. Also, if you have a community-driven site, it will naturally include many misspellings from various bad-spelling authors.

About.com includes “common misspellings” in their page copy in a way that does not sound or seem spammy. On definition pages they define a word, give its pronunciation, link to related resources, have a section called “also known as,” and a section titled “common misspellings.”

Many of About.com’s sections are probably more useful to bots than humans, but they help draw in traffic. Their site is established enough and the format is legitimate enough that few people question it.

There is no right or wrong way to play misspellings, just risks versus rewards. Consider your brand strength, your goals, and how legitimate you can make the misspelling usage look.

As an example of a creative way to play with misspellings, if you want your page to look professional but want to get misspellings in the page copy, maybe you can target that keyword on a page with consumer feedback, and leave misspelled consumer feedback yourself.

Plural Keyword Versions

Some search engines use stemming, but usually the search results for singular and plural search phrases are at least slightly different. It is recommended that you optimize for common versions of your popular keywords, while occasionally using other versions of the words throughout your copy.

Capitalized Keywords

Most major search engines are not case sensitive. Cars is typically treated the same way as cars.

Hyphenated Keywords

Most search engines treat hyphens as a space. E-mail is different than email. If a word is split in half by a hyphen then you should check to see which version is used more frequently and optimize for whatever versions are commonly searched upon.

If one version of a term is more commonly searched for but is hyper-competitive, it may make sense to optimize for the less competitive term first.

If a hyphen is sometimes placed between two words, then using either version (with or without a hyphen) will cause your page to rank better for both versions.

Localized Keyword Research

People use different terminology in different countries. In the U.S., we want taxi cabs. In London, they look for a car hire. Make sure that if you are not from the country of your target market, you know what words are commonly used to describe the products or services you are promoting there. It is typically also important that your copy sounds local if you are targeting local markets.