To get your FREE copy of the Special Report:
"The 7 Biggest Internet Marketing Mistakes"
To get your FREE copy of the Special Report:
"The 7 Biggest Internet Marketing Mistakes"
When it comes to driving targeted traffic to your website, a key element in your strategy should be that of using the right keywords. You'd be surprised how many experienced online marketers don't spend a sufficient amount of time doing keyword research.
Here are a few important things to know when it comes to doing keyword research for your website marketing plan.
Targeted Traffic
You hear this word all the time and may not stop and give a lot of thought to what it means. In order to be successful at sales, the product or service you offer has to be "targeted" to the right market. For example, it is doubtful you will sell cat food and cat accessories to someone who does not own a cat.
You can have 100's or even 1000's of visitors to your website every day, but if they have no interest in what you are selling, it is all for naught. You do want traffic and lots of it, but it needs to be "targeted" traffic. This is where keyword research comes in. You need to research to find the keywords that will attract prospects actually searching for what you sell.
Competitor Comparison
One good place to start your keyword research is by looking at your competition. Find the companies that rank highest in the search engines for what you sell. What keywords are they using? This is a great basis for further research; here's why.
Many of the high ranking businesses pay a great deal of money to hold those top search engine spots. Trying to rank for a very common keyword phrase can be not only difficult but costly. Starting with those short and generic keyword phrases, find long tail versions of them that get a good number of searches each month but are not so heavily competitive.
The Google keyword tool is a great place to start with this deeper level research. You can view how many searches keywords get each month along with an idea of the competition for those words/phrases.
Website Optimization
Your website needs content, and lots of it. New content should be added on a regular basis and contain the keywords you are targeting. The search engines are adapting all the time and the days of writing senseless content using the same keyword over and over will soon be a thing of the past. The engines favor meaningful content without overuse or abuse of keywords.
Offsite Linking
In addition to adding new content to your website, it is important to build links to your website from other sources. These sources can include article directories, blogs, and forums just to name a few. The source of the link does carry some weight. For example, linking to or from a link farm is a good way to have your Page Rank lowered by the search engines.
Take notice of the Page Rank of a website before you link to or from it. Try to stick with higher value sites in your linking strategy. Keep in mind that a website may be new and not have had time to earn a Page Rank yet. You just have to use your best judgment when it comes to choosing your link building sources.
Use keywords as your link text and link to relevant website pages for the best results. Also, don't always link to the same page of your website. It is important to link to different pages instead of the main or same page every time.