Keywords for SEO

Search Engine Optimization:

Keywords are an integral part of SEO scoring for each and every search engine - actually they are what search strings are matched with. It is very important that you optimize your site for the right keywords. This seems easy at first but once you start, you realize the complexity of trying to determine the right keywords you may become overwhelmed.

Choosing the Right Keywords for Search Engine Optimization:

It seems that the time when you could easily top the results for a one-word search string is centuries ago! Now, when the Web is so densely populated with sites, it is next to impossible to achieve constant top ratings for a one-word search string. Achieving constant top ratings for two-word or three-word search strings is a more realistic goal.

If you closely examine the dynamics of search results for popular one-word keywords, you might notice that it is so easy one week to be in the first ten results and the next week to have fallen out of the first 30 results. This is because the competition for popular one-word keywords is so fierce, and other sites have replaced you.

Of course, you can include one-word strings in your keywords list, but if they are not backed up by more expressions, do not dream of high ratings. For instance, if you have a site about cats, "cat" is a mandatory keyword, but if you do not optimize for more words, like "cat owners", "cat breeds", "cat food", or even "canine", success is unlikely - especially for such a popular keyword. The examples given here are by no means the ultimate truth about how to optimize a cat site, but they are good enough to show that it’s wise to think broad when choosing the keywords.

The first thing to consider when beginning your optimization is what the keywords are that describe the content of your site. Second is which words are most likely to be used by internet users to find you. Ideally, you know your users well and can guess correctly what search strings they are likely to use to search for you.

One issue to consider is synonyms. Users will frequently use a different word for the same thing. For instance, in the example with the cat site, "canine" is a synonym and it is for sure that there will be users who will use it, so it does not hurt to include it now and then on your pages. But do not rush to optimize for every synonym you can think of - search engines themselves have algorithms that include synonyms in the keyword match, especially for languages like English.

When choosing the keywords to optimize for, it is very important to consider not only their relevancy to your site, and the expected monthly number of searches for these particular keywords. Very often, narrow searches are more valuable because the users that come to your site are those that are really interested in your product.

Using the cat example, you might discover that the "adopt a cat" key-phrase brings you more visitors because you have a special section on your site where you give advice on what to look for when adopting a cat. This page has less interest to current cat owners, and more interest to potential cat owners, who might be less in number but are your target audience.

The overall effect of attracting this niche can be better than attracting everybody who is interested in cats in general. So, when you look at the numbers of search hits per month, consider the unique hits that fit into the theme of your site.

The Search Process:

When a search request is made, the search engine processes it - i.e. it compares the search string in the search request with the indexed pages in the database. Since it is likely that more than one page (more than likely it’s thousands of pages) contains the search string, the search engine starts calculating the relevancy of each of the pages in its index to the search string.

There are various algorithms to calculate relevancy. Each of these algorithms has different relative weights for common factors like keyword density, links, or metatags. That is why different search engines give different search results pages for the same search string.

It is a well known fact that all major search engines, like Yahoo!, Google, MSN, Bing, etc. periodically change their algorithms and if you want to keep your website at the top, it is critical to adapt your pages to the latest changes.

This is one reason (the other is your competitors) to devote permanent efforts to SEO, if you'd like to be at the top.