Choosing and Researching Keywords, concluded
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You've brainstormed a ton of keywords for your website, and you've started using some online tools to help determine which ones to use. What factors do you use for making the "final" selection of keywords to use? And once you have selected them, how do you use them in your website? This article will help you answer these questions.
Before I dive into this subject, let me recap from my previous article about choosing and researching keywords for your website. You learned that keywords are important because they are what searchers put into search engines to find the information they want. If you choose your keywords wisely, you will show up high in the search engine results pages (SERPs); if you do not, you'll show up buried on one of the later pages that searchers never check.
Next, I mentioned four steps involved in choosing good keywords for your website: collecting initial keyword ideas; checking keyword research tools; selecting your keywords; and performing analytics. I explained each one very briefly, then went into greater detail about brainstorming your initial choice of keywords. I also began discussing the use of keyword research tools, mentioning Google's Keyword Sandbox, Overture, and WordTracker.
In this article, I will continue talking about tools to use for keyword selection. In particular, I will cover some of the caveats to keep in mind when using these tools. I will also cover, to some degree, ways to calculate the potential performance of your keywords. Finally, I'll approach the issue of analytics, or tracking your performance on your chosen keywords.
Additionally, in an area that really belongs right in between making that selection of keywords to use for your website and checking their performance, I'll discuss what to do with all those lovely keywords once you have chosen them. Please keep in mind, when you read that part of this article, that those are only suggestions. Search engine algorithms change, usually in an attempt to keep ahead of "spammers" who will stop at nothing to get their website a top spot in the SERPs. Practices that may have been fine and/or widely used a few years ago can send you to the bottom of the SERPs (or even get your site banned) today. The pace of change has been accelerating, and I highly recommend that you regularly check a forum such as SEO Chat, where other SEO professionals discuss their efforts and what results they obtain. Such forums are very educational; you might save yourself a lot a pain.
Next: Online Tools: Some Caveats >>
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