keyword phrases

[EZ-E]

Ok, So I'm reworking my site completely due to the poor rankings I'm receiving. I have several meta tag phrases I would like to rank on. Do I include the keywords as seperate words in the meta tag or do I just place the phrase? For example, lets say I'm creating a site about stereo's. Would it be better to have meta tags such as this:

kenwood stereo, pioneer stereo, sony stereo

or

kenwood, stereo, pioneer, sony, etc.

Does it really matter? I'm trying to focus on 8-10 key words.

Thanks

[Brett_Tabke]

Tell you the truth, I'd do both for different pages. If you have the content, diversity is still key even when you are trying to focus on narrow keywords. Although the first style is still the best, and metas don't carry much weight; just becareful not to duplicate any word (with stemming) more than 3 times.

[engine]

Yes, absolutely. I also found that keyphrases give more focused traffic. Often, single keywords deliver the wrong visitors. For example: a hifi site with the word stereo as a keyword may be ranked well for stereo, but, stereo could also deliver visitors involved in optical instruments - "stereoscope." They would soon leave.
As surfers become more sophisticated they will learn to use phrases - rather than single keywords and, for the hifi site to be ranked well for "stereo audio equipment" may deliver better qualified visitors.
The best way to decide - think about your visitors. Will they want a specific manufacturer? Will they want any manufacturer? Do they know the names of the manufacturers? What would you look for? Obviously, if you only represent a few manaufacturers, you would not want to put other firms names on your site.
Try to decide upon a top keyword and phrase and go for that one in the first instance. When you're satisfied with that one, move down your further eight or ten to review each of them.
Hope this helps.

[scott]

So what do you do when you focus on that first 2-word phrase. Your density is better than the top 10 of any given engine, your frequency is better, you have just as many pages on your site that deal with that phrase, you've included the phrase in page names......your relevance is just great.......but you still can't crack the top 200! Sure, you get a 5 or 6 ranking on some of the SEs for some wild 3 word or 4 word phrases, but the 5 to 10 hits a day you get from that, and a quarter will get you one phone call. The real market is in that 2-word pahrase you are focusing on. Let's say you make and sell "Clay Urns." That phrase, in a nutshell, should be your bread and butter....your holy grail. You might do well in "hand made clay urns" or something similar, but how do you crack the top 50 for "clay urns"? Especially when you seem to be doing everything right?

[engine]

There is no reason why you should not do well with "clay urns" or whatever. There are some sectors that are heavily weighted with spam, et al. These are the tough ones. Are you in that sector?

Focus on that phrase, focus the phrase on your page, then submit and wait. Remember, you need more than just the two word phrase to do well.

When you've seen that improve, choose another phrase and focus, focus, focus, each time. Remember to relevant links (internal and external), etc.

Waiting is a major point. I've waited about 6-months for pages to filter through, and even then, I do not know where they will show.

Edited by: engine

[Brett_Tabke]

It really is a question of hitting it scott. I think you are on the right track. While you are waiting for the se's to catch up. Go for the big content expansion on your site and then submit those. It becomes a question of making due with what you got while the se's ignore you. This way you can generate some traffic, maybe the right person will stumble along, and you make your site better in the process.

I can't explain all what happens, but there will come a magic point where things do line up. I've seen it happen on site after site. Focus on the content and eventually the rest will follow.

Part of what goes on during content expansions is:

- traffic breeds traffic. One friend tells another friend, who quotes you in a forum, who tells another friend who quotes you in a newsletter...
- proxy caches take a shine to your url. Magic things happen when your url starts to make it up the ladder on someones proxy cache hit list. That data gets rerolled by people after people.
- go for the big links expansion in context. Not so much for se rankings, but just to get on someones list. When new directories go to raid links, they go to those link lists first. win-win-win.
- Yahoo...ya. I don't like it, but there is that yahoo thing - do it.
- Look to some minor se's and topic specific directories.
- Content, content, content. Create one new page per day. In a year that is 365 new pages. The se's will love you.

You do some of those things, and sooner or later, the se's will perk up and take notice.

Yesterday was the largest day ever for search engine world? Why? 5 pages I wrote about google in the spring of 98. They have ranked well forever but only generated 4-10 referrals a day. Yesterday they layed a golden egg. What goes around, comes around.

[BK]

Toally in agreement with Brett here. Every page is another chance for high placement, another doorway to traffic. As the total number of pages goes up (along with the internal links to reach them all) so will your ranking on engines using themes, link pop or both.

Sometimes SEO is like a lottery, and evey page is another ticket for the draw. :)

Another thing is that there are millions of people out there, each with their individual interests and tastes. Not everyone is ever going to bookmark a single page, but if you build a wider range of pages and content you'll see a coresponding increase in both incoming links and people coming from bookmarks and e-mail recommendations.

That is why I still say content is king. The SEs can be fooled, but people like content. People bookmark and recommend pages that have great and meaningful information. Not only is content king in that respect, but he's a popular monarch that many visitors come to visit or recommend others to see.

BK