Web Write 101

So, you’ve done your research: asked potential readers how they would search for the things you are writing about, consulted a thesaurus for synonyms, looked at competitors’ websites, checked out your hunches with Google’s Keyword Tool. You’ve now got a long list of words and phrases to use on your web pages.

But which keywords are best?

There are 3 factors to consider when selecting key phrases and keywords:

• Relevance:
  Give each keyword a relevance score from low to high. Is this keyword right for your content? Test it with an actual search. One word may not pass the test but a phrase may be more relevant – combine keywords.
• Competition level:
  Very low to very high. Do some searches to assess your competition.
• Popularity:
  How often is that keyword actually searched for? Also known as ‘search volume’. Google’s Keyword Tool can help you out here.

And which are the most useful for you?

Usually those that strike a balance between popularity, relevance and competition:

• high popularity/ high competition/high relevance:
  If drawn into a fight the words should be extremely relevant. There’s no point putting your entire SEO efforts into trying to rank for ‘spanish villas’ unless you have a six figure sum to spend and this is extremely relevant for your page.
• high popularity/ low competition/ high relevance:
  The ideal candidates for your shortlist. Hard to come by. WordTracker calls the popularity vs competition ratio ‘KEI’ (Keyword Effectiveness Index). This is a score that can help you see quickly which phrases are searched for frequently but have little competition.
• low popularity/ low competition/ high relevance:
  Not many searches for this, but if people do search, your page may come up first. These will add up. Known as ‘the long tail’ of search or ‘niche’ keywords.

‘Long tail’ tips:

• Compare your niche markets and target readers – some may have more future potential or be more ‘you’ than others
• Use web analytics to keep an eye on how people are finding your site
• Include niche terms in your web copy.

For local niches:

• Know your geography and all the local place names, plus what local people call them
• Make sure you note landmarks and places of interest – include these in your copy
• Find local business directories and review sites – they’re invaluable for getting your pages noticed.

Match to web pages

Then match each phrase or keyword to a page on your site. This page shouldn’t usually be your home page. It should be relevant to your keywords, but doesn’t need to contain them now. Don’t make one page work too hard. Do you need to create new pages for particularly useful keyphrses?

Thanks to Stephanie for suggesting the topic of this article.

Tags: keywords, SEO

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