I was worried. "With a hundred million web sites competing, how on earth can I get anyone to my site?
"Search engines," said my friend Dave.
"But what must I do?"
"Go for top positioning," said Dave. "Search engines are powerful. They'll drive heavy, interest-focused traffic to your site."
"But," I spluttered, "with so many sites competing, how do I get top positioning?
Select your keywords carefully
That night I learned fast. And it boils down to this secret: your keywords.
In fact, your keywords can make or break you. So it is absolutely critical to select your keywords carefully.
Here are 8 tips to help you
1. First, brainstorm with pen and paper. Ask yourself what words your potential customers will type into the search engines. What keywords best describe what you're offering?
2. Ask your associates, family or friends what words they would use to find your product or service.
3. Write down all the word variations you can think of. Suppose you were selling cats. You could use all these keywords: cat, cats, kitten, kittens, kitty, kitties, siamese cats, siamese kittens, pets, and so on. If you're into "exercise", don't forget variations like "exercises" or "exercising".
4. List the common misspellings of your keywords and you can pick up extra traffic that many site owners neglect.
5. And remember to include the long and short forms of words. For example, "pup" could be "pups" or "puppies".
6. Even the words "Pup" and "pup" should be treated as separate keywords, because some search engines are case sensitive regarding keywords.
7. Include your region, if that is applicable. If you sell accommodation in Nashville, then one of your keywords should be Nashville.
8. For greater power, combine words. Keyword phrases work much better than single keywords. They identify your product better. For example, "house" and "buying" are great keywords. But putting them together can be ten times more relevant to a search engine.
So where do you place these keywords to attract traffic?
Before you submit your site to the search engines, you should ensure that keywords are in your Meta Tags, Title Tags and links.
However, it is best to separate your keywords with spaces, not commas. Spaces enable the search engines to combine keywords into phrases (to catch potential customers who may be searching phrases). Commas don't.
Keywords should also be in your headlines, and right through the body of your text. It's good to aim for short web pages with lots of keywords on the page.
The search engines will use your keywords not only to rank your site, but to categorize it.
There are free trials of software programs that can help you find the best keywords. They will automate all the hard stuff for you. For example, you could go to http://www.keywordcount.com
http://wordtracker.com
The right keywords can boost your ranking in the search engines. And skyrocket your traffic!
Follow these rules. And watch your traffic grow!