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I dont know if i have a learning disability when it comes to keywords but i just dont understand the concept.
I will look up in google for example "buy fine widgets" and when i loook in the source of the persons website that "buy fine widgets" isnt even in the keywords. actually when i try their keywords in the search i cant even find them anywhere.
I see the word in their title or description. So what is the point of keywords, everyone talks about this. So is it all in the description and title and do the meta keywords mean diddly?
Lastly I have no idea how to find the keywords i want for my site. for example if i sell art how am i to know what keywords I should be using or fighting for. obviously there about a thousand keywords i can use for art so im confused!
[edited by: mona at 4:04 am (utc) on Dec. 11, 2005]
[edit reason] no specific KW phrases - thx! [/edit]
I will look up in google for example "buy fine art" and when i loook in the source of the persons website that "buy fine art" isnt even in the keywords.
I think you are talking about the meta name="keywords" tag, which means nothing. The page that comes up when I search for "buy fine art" is on target and those keywords are throughout the page. The best way to find keywords is to create a variety of pages and see what happens. Keywords are best found digging through server logs.
The keyword meta-tag was spammed into disuse several years ago. That said, I still use it, but judiciously.
Think of each page as standing on its own. Your site is like a reference book where the user (or search engine) can open it up to the article of their choice without regard to the rest of the book.
WBF
I also highly recommend reading this - Search Engine Theme Pyramids [searchengineworld.com]. Brett does a great job of explaining how to use keywords in your site effectively. There are hundreds if not thousands of keyword combinations that people are searching for. You want to theme your pages and site to specific phrases, but always keep in mind that you'll be found more often by keywords you never thought of. It's preached a lot around here with good reason - Content is King. Good luck!
Others have already alluded to this, but one thing to keep in mind when you choose keywords is that you need to start by thinking like a searcher, and NOT like a webmaster.
The keyword tools and your log files will help you do that.
Then you need to try to intergrate searcher thinking into your webmaster thinking. If you can do that, you'll have a good start.
In my mind i and thinking how to be sneaky and get people to my site "in a white hat way!" so im thinking let me pic the very niched keywords instead of widget i will look for "buy fine widgets online" while if you look in a keyword tracker it might say only 5 people a day look that up. Well what if I concentrate purely on the niched keywords rather then having to battle with the monster websites for the broad keywords like widget (personally i would say dream on unless your site is already made it mark on google). Already I feel defeated since my site is fairly young and instinctively think that my idea is better. But is it? Is my theory flawed?
Even if i go after the more niched like my example above it still would have the broad keyword "widget" in it. so is it a win win situation for me?
OHHH lastly i have a web designer who manages my site, so in regards to content how should i ask him or what should i ask him to do in the back end to allow me to add content. wow I think i just asked a rather complicated question because to me dont you ahve to spread content properly in a pyramid with the appropriate keywords, the right url and also cross linked to the appropriate page. omannn so does this mean it will be too complicated for my webdesigner to create a dynamic html "creating" page for me in my backend? sooo many questions hehe (if this is not the best time to ask this, what forum is the best place for me to post a question like this?)
...im thinking let me pic the very niched keywords instead of widget i will look for "buy fine widgets online"
It seems to me that you're on a good productive track with that line of thinking.
while if you look in a keyword tracker it might say only 5 people a day look that up. Well what if I concentrate purely on the niched keywords rather then having to battle with the monster websites for the broad keywords like widget
Individually those searches don't generate a ton of traffic. It's when you add them up that you really see the benefit. They can add up to a pretty decent traffic level.
Is my theory flawed?
Your theory is fine, it takes time, but it works fine.
Even if i go after the more niched like my example above it still would have the broad keyword "widget" in it. so is it a win win situation for me?
I think it is a win/win deal. Starting out by focusing on the less competitive searches does exactly what you said. You still end up with the more competitive elements on your pages if you plan carefully. Eventually you'll move up in the serps for those terms, it might seem slow, but it does happen if your site is attractive to visitors.
...dont you ahve to spread content properly in a pyramid with the appropriate keywords, the right url and also cross linked to the appropriate page.
Paying attention to a pyramid structure can help a lot. But don't box yourself in too tightly. Leave room to grow in directions you might not think of right now.
As far as adding content and dynamic sites, I can't really comment on that because my site is all static html pages.
But I can tell you that even with a static html page site adding content is not a real time consuming deal. Writing the content takes longer than actually updating the site.
In the summer, my busy season, I might update 10 pages a day. Those are mostly existing pages I'm adding content to.
I use template pages for new pages with new content, so it's just a matter of dumping the content into the template and manually updating a few links. Researching, and writing the content can take far longer.
I might add a only a page or two of new content a week, but updating existing pages has been a real benefit for me.
Just for reference, my site is about 1,500 pages and gets over 1,000,000 human page views a month at this time. The site is five years old however. I haven't seen any compelling cost effective reason to convert to a dynamic site yet.
I do this all myself, but if I had a webmaster managing the site, I'd want to be very sure that they were building pages with a basic design that was real user and search engine friendly.
Another place to look for potentially good keyords is in the emails you get from visitors. Visitors often see a site very differently than the webmaster does, and they'll tell you what they are looking for, listen to them very carefully. Then do your best to accomodate them.
