Live With Ani

SEO 101 - 2 of 13 common SEO Roadblocks (Session IDs)

Session IDs

Even though the search engines can now index parameters, there is one type of parameter they avoid – session IDs. As you may know, the Web is a stateless environment. This means that each and every request for a page from a web site is treated as a new connection to the site. Basic HTTP/HTML has no built-in knowledge of previous items added to shopping carts, previous successful login attempts, etc. Session IDs are one way a site keeps track of the state of a particular connection. By assigning your browser a session ID, the site can remember what was in your shopping cart, or any other information it may want to store.

A session ID looks like this:

http://www.mysite.com/shoppingcart.asp?ID=C1537D0AECA6606406D7D3A

Though the parameter name can change, it generally has "id" in it, e.g., oscid, phpid, etc. The parameter value is dynamically generated and will vary, but generally consists of over ten characters in the range a-z, A-Z and 0-9.

Why Are Session IDs a Problem?

The search engines are now indexing pages with session IDs; but with the problem of duplicate pages, it can be a detriment to themselves and to the site owner.

Session IDs preserve state. Basic HTTP is stateless, meaning there is no connection between the current page requested and the next one you might request. By preserving state, the web site will know what you did previously, such as add something to the shopping cart. If the state contains sensitive data, such as a credit card number associated with your shopping cart, then any visitor using the URL with that session ID will be able to see your credit card details.

Another problem can be sharing state. All visitors from the search engine will share the same state, so when one adds something to a shopping cart, all users using that session ID will see that item in their cart.

Further problems appear for the spiders when they index the same page with different session IDs – they could end up filling their search index with thousands of copies of the same page with different session IDs. Not only is this wasted disk space for the search engines, it also wastes the site owners’ server resources and bandwidth.

Thanks to SEMPO institute for this information.

SEO 101 - 1 of 13 common SEO Roadblocks (Dynamic URLs)

Dynamic URLs

There are two types of URLs: dynamic URLs and static URLs. The difference between the two is the dynamic URLs have parameters passed to them through the web page address that usually cause the page to behave differently depending on the value of the parameters passed.

Dynamic URLs are web page addresses followed by a "?" and then have parameters tacked on the end such as "ProductID=1." Additional parameters can then be added to the web page address by separating with an ampersand. For example:

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=param1&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE

This URL above consist of the following parts:

http: The protocol

search.msn.com: The host you want to access

results.aspx: The script name

?: Separates the script name and host name from the parameters

q=param1: Parameter 1 – q is the request querystring variable and param1 is the value associated with that querystring variable

&: Allows additional parameters to be added

Mkt=en-US:   Parameter 2

&: Another parameter separator

Form=QBRE: Parameter 3

Why Does it Matter?

In the early days of the Internet (circa 1990’s), the search engine spiders had trouble handling parameters. Poor coding or unscrupulous webmasters could provide endless loops for the search engine spiders to be caught in, indexing thousands of near identical pages.

A common problem with dynamic URLs is when the page references itself Incorrectly and adds additional copied parameters. For example, if the original page was:

http://www.mysite.com/search.php?param1=1

Then sometimes poor coding could result in the page referencing itself as:

http://www.mysite.com/search.php?param1=1&param1=1

This is a perfectly valid URL, so the search engines would index it, and then it in turn would reference itself as:

http://www.mysite.com/search.php?param1=1&param1=1&param1=1

And so on. To stop this from filling the search engine index with thousands of duplicate pages, the search engine spiders would ignore URLs containing parameters. This led to most database-driven sites being totally ignored by the search engines.

Today, the search engine spiders have worked out ways to handle parameters on URLs. However, their support is still limited. Google recommends keeping the number of parameters to three or less. The other search engines have similar recommendations. Most practitioners feel uncomfortable when the number of parameters goes to two, and definitely avoid the third parameter unless the workaround is horrendously ugly. In that case, one might accept it and monitor the number of pages indexed.

Thanks to SEMPO institute for this information.

SEO 101: Copywriting basics - How much do you know about LSI?

Search engines today have incorporated latent semantic indexing (LSI) into their algorithms. What this means is that they are not only looking for an individual keyword phrase on the page, but they are also looking at the other words on the page to make a determination on what that page is about. They know if “tiger woods” is about a tiger in the woods or about a golfer.

In fact, the search engines have become “intelligent” enough to know that a page is about something even if that exact word has not been used on the page. Of course, it is better to use the word or phrase in question but not always necessary. For instance, perhaps a retail site is targeting “cheap widgets” but they don't really want to say “cheap widgets” on the page. Instead they use words like, “used” or “refurbished.” The search engines will know that these widgets could also be “cheap,” especially if “cheap widget” is used in the title and meta tags.

LSI helps you produce better content in your web pages by not having to focus on one particular keyword phrase over and over. OptiRanker is a tool that searches the top ranked pages for a particular keyword phrase and offers suggestions for other words that should be used on the page. Choose one word from every color group and you should have a document that is pleasing to both humans and search engines.

Let's flesh out and expand on our general guidelines with more specifics.

It is always a good idea to write in 3rd person whenever possible. Writing in 3rd person avoids shifting points of view and confusing the reader, although there are times when it is necessary to write in 1st and 2nd person. That being the case, here are some guidelines:

• Use 1st person to indicate personal experience, evaluation, and/or opinion.
• Use 2nd person to instruct or address the reader.
• Use 3rd person to generalize the experience or situation.

Grammar. Writing for the Web is not much different than writing in general except that one needs to be aware of words that people enter when querying the search engines. Always use good grammar and punctuation when writing and definitely perform a spell check.

Formatting. Remember to guide the eye with headlines and bullets on a page, and use images when necessary to emphasize a point. Eye tracking studies show that human eyes are drawn toward headlines, images, and bullets.

Here is a great example (courtesy of Greg Edwards at Eyetools.com) of how sub- headings in Version 145 attracted the reader's eye. It also showed how a narrower page increased the reading of the paragraphs.

Beginning - Middle - End. Include a beginning, middle, and an end in your writing. Capture the reader with a great headline that makes them want to read on. Use the opening paragraph to set expectations and describe what the page is about, taking into account the goal of your writing. Make sure it is about the customer and the benefit they will derive from what you have to say or offer. Define the end result you want your customer to experience. Do your best to make the content interesting to hold the reader's attention.

Explain the topic in the body, being careful not to sound too dry or boring, and use action-oriented words. Written pages should have personality and will quickly take on the voice of the writer. Write at least a couple of paragraphs about each of the main points using examples when appropriate to demonstrate meaning. Links are also covered in another section of this course, but keep in mind that linking to other pages on the site or other web sites also adds strength to your page by indicating that it does not stand alone, and there are other resources to verify what is being said.

Always end with a paragraph or two summarizing the main points and introducing a new way of saying what readers will achieve by following your recommendations. Refer them back to the introduction when possible, and don't forget to include a call to action guiding the reader to what they should do next.

Sleep On It. Write a page and save it, then come back to it later and reread what you've written. Edit what needs editing and then read it again out loud before sending it off or posting on the Web. It can always be updated and revised, but it's best if others don't find the mistakes for you.

• Does it achieve the objective?
• Does it capture attention and encourage further reading?
• Does it summarize at the end and offer a call to action?
• Is it written for your audience, including keywords and phrases at the same time so the search engines know what the page is about?
• Is it clear and concise to catch the reader’s attention and offer a compelling reason for them to read further?
• Does it use your primary keyword phrase from top to bottom, while at the same time incorporating other related words?
• Does it establish you as an expert at what you do and provide your reader with references that will back up what you are saying?

SEO 101: Copywriting basics and Guidelines for the 3 main search engines

The search engines have guidelines on what can and cannot be used, including, but not limited to, how many characters per line. All engines agree that the ads should represent the site they are directing visitors to and not be misleading in any way, and reserve the right to not accept advertising content at their discretion.

Google AdWords text ad editorial guidelines can be found on their site. It is a good idea to read through them to understand what you can and cannot do. In a nutshell, here are some character limits to be aware of as you get ready to create your ads:

• Title: 25 characters
• Description (2 lines): 35 characters each
• Display URL: 35 characters
• Destination URL: 1,024 characters
• What is NOT permitted with Google:
• Improper trademark usage
• Non-specific, call-to-action phrases, such as “click here”
• Phrases in the second line of the description continuing into the display URL
• Offensive or inappropriate language
• Pop-ups
• Disabled back button
• Repeated and unnecessary punctuation or symbols
• Exclamation marks in the title
• Excessive capitalization such as “FREE”
• Gimmicky repetition
• Incorrect spelling
• Incorrect grammar and spacing
• Incorrect use of symbols, numbers, or letters (true meaning only allowed)
• Multiple ads for the same business or keywords

What is permitted with Google:

• Only one exclamation mark in the description
• Capitalization of the first letter of each word in the display URL is permitted
• Ad text and keywords must relate directly to the content on the landing page for your ad
• Affiliate advertising although only one ad per display URL is allowed
• Superlatives such as “best” or “#1” if verification by a third party is displayed on your site
• Prices, special discounts, and “free” offer must be clearly and accurately displayed on your site
• Ads categorized as "Non-FamilySafe," or "Adult Sexual Content" may be allowed on a case-by-case basis
• Your site should use a secure server (https://) when collecting personal information from users

Yahoo Search Marketing help can be found on their site.

It is a good idea to read through them to understand what you can and cannot do. In a nutshell, here are some things to be aware of as you get ready to create your ads.

Yahoo!’s character limits are defined on the following page but will sometimes display less depending on the character limits allowed on distribution partners. The new interface allows for both a long and short description.

For best results at Yahoo!, use Google's guidelines for your short ad and the Yahoo! guidelines on the following page for a long ad. Check your ads to see where they appear and how they are appearing.

Yahoo! Long Ads Guidelines (Title: 40 characters, Description: 190 characters)

Avoid superlatives ("best," "biggest," "ultimate," etc.).

• Ads should provide an accurate reflection of what the user will find at the site. A vague description that tries to be "all things to all people" will be ineffective.
• Ads should be at least as specific as the search term, preferably expanding on the search term to provide more details.
• Provide a direct path to the specific content on your site that matches the keyword. All search terms must refer directly to the content on the web site.
• When a geographic location is relevant to the search term, it should be included in the listing.
• URLs may not automatically redirect users to a web site not owned by the advertiser.
• Web sites may not replicate the exact appearance of another site.
• Advertisers with an affiliate site must note the affiliate relationship in the Title or Description.
• The back button in users' browsers must work on the landing page.
• Use of pop-up ads is discouraged.
• The web sites provided in search listing requests must be functional when they are reviewed. If they are not, or take too long to load, the request will be rejected.
• Fragments and phrases are allowed, and titles and descriptions should otherwise be grammatically sound, with correct spelling and punctuation.

Microsoft adCenter editorial guidelines clearly state what they will and will not allow. They are very clear that they will not allow ads for any illegal products, services, or activities. Be sure to bookmark their page for future reference.

Character limits for Microsoft adCenter ads are:

• Title: 25 characters
• Description: 70 characters
• Display URL: 35 characters
• Destination URL: 1,015 characters

What is NOT permitted with Microsoft adCenter:

• Phone numbers are not permitted in the ad Title or Description unless the name of the advertiser incorporates the phone number
• Bidding on trademarked keywords or including trademarked terms within the text of an advertisement
• Exclamation marks in the title
• Unnecessary use of punctuation, symbols, or characters
• Capitalization of entire words unless they are normally written that way
• Gimmicky repetition
• Incorrect spelling
• Incorrect grammar and spacing
• Incorrect use of symbols, numbers, or letters (true meaning only allowed)
• Multiple ads for the same business or keywords
• Improper trademark usage
• Non-specific, call-to-action phrases, such as “click here”
• Phrases in the 2nd line of the description continuing into the display URL
• Offensive or inappropriate language
• Pop-ups
• Disabled back button

What is permitted with Microsoft adCenter:

• Special or “free” offers when the landing page supports the offer.
• Destination URLs may be redirected to a final landing page so long as the final landing page content is relevant to your ad.

References

Google Quality Score 

Google AdWords Text Ad Editorial Guidelines

Yahoo! Search Marketing Guidelines

Microsoft adCenter Editorial Guidelines

Copywriting with Google Dynamic Keyword Insertion Tool by Karon Thackston

SEO 101: Copywriting basics - knowing your audience is key

Power of the People

Although content is very important for the search engines, when writing web copy you are really writing for the human reader.

Write for Your Audience. First and foremost, always write for your audience and make it interesting. Once the target audience is determined, give them a persona and write to that persona as if writing to one person. To give your subject life, use passion and words that will evoke emotion in the reader and incite them to action.

Write to Achieve a Goal. Decide why you are writing and write to achieve that goal. People generally read to learn about something, so give them what they came for. At the same time, make sure the search engines understand what you are writing about as well. Remember that the search engines are not going to buy products or services – people are.

• Focus on the benefits the reader will get from what you are writing about and the conversions will follow.
• Write as if you were you were talking to a friend.

Specially for SEO

When Words Become More Than Just Words. Like most things in life, content on a web page also needs a foundation to build on.

Theme. The theme or subject of the page is part of the equation. The words that describe that theme are the other part and, more importantly, they should be keyword phrases that human visitors are actually using in the search engines when they search.

Phrases. No matter how well written a page is or how many words it has on it, if the words are not being used in search queries, that page will not be served up in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Since people today search for more than one word at a time – typically two- and three-word phrases – pages should also be targeting keyword phrases rather than just single keywords.

Incorporating Keywords.

• Choose one primary keyword phrase for each page and develop the content around it.
• Use that particular phrase a few times throughout the copy beginning with the first paragraph, but also break it up and use the words in the phrase separately.
• Use the keywords in the headline of the content. There is a whole section in this training on optimizing pages that will explain the importance of that. In the Advanced SEO course, there is another lesson expanding on the “how to” of optimization.  
• Keep remembering that in writing for the Web (search engines and people), you need to constantly balance between creative copy and use of keywords. 

Keyword Density. Keyword density is also one of those topics of many discussions. What it really boils down to is being better than the competition and keeping in mind that keyword density on pages is just one of many factors taken into consideration where ranking is concerned.

• Write so that it is easy to read and try not worry too much about using the phrase multiple times; you want it to appear throughout the content.
• You can also break up the phrase into its word components and use them separately.
• Try not to go overboard though by repeating them to the point that they distract your readers.

Ultimately, you are writing for your human audience; just don't forget to use your keywords and keyword phrases throughout your copy. To find out what words are on a page and easily see what the density is, try looking at The Analyzer or Ranks.NL's Keyword Density and Prominence. Both tools will give you a fair idea of the density of the keywords on a page.

SEO 101: Copywriting basics - Why content matters for good SEO

Rule number one, Content is "King". I know I have a comment from Neerav saying:

"Sorry Ani but I have to disagree with "Just build content .... and they will link to you magically!"

I used to write really long, well researched and helpful articles on the basis of "build it and they will come" ... but hardly anyone read them

Now I've learnt from people like Darren Rowse who say: "Build it and they will come doesn't apply to blogging - you need to think about where your potential readers are already gathering and go interact with them there"

Case in point: The only reason I got backlinks and lots of traffic from Dannys searchengineland site, Rands seomoz site and lots of other Aussie SEO sites was because I emailed them all and told them about by Day1 and Day2 SMX Sydney recap articles

If I'd just written them and told no one, then no one would have read the articles and no one would have linked to them"

I still think if the content is not good, no one will link to you, no matter who you know. So I do agree with Neerav and I think content is King.

To provide good SERP, the search engines' first tasks are to find pages to index for appropriate keywords and keyword phrases. One important way they do that is by following links. Content is important to the search engines so they know what web pages are all about and can make determinations on what pages to serve up to search queries. Links are important so they can find more content to index. So really, content truly is “king” on the Web when it comes to the search engines.

Since search engines cannot see images, the subject of a web page must be written in such a way that images are not needed. Of course, you might still want to use pictures since pictures are still “worth a thousand words” to someone who can see them, but to the search engines the pictures are just code they need to get through to get to the good stuff – the textual content.

Much discussion has ensued regarding how many words to write: should it be more or should it be less? Some say to try and write no less than 200 words and no more than 1000 words. Others say just write what you need to get your point across. In other words, write for the reader, and if you can do that in 400-600 words, great. If not, do what you can, and if it turns out not to be enough, revise it and write more. The search engines will only index a certain amount of text so it’s best not to get too carried away. A long page can always be split into multiple pages, if necessary, and the additional pages provide opportunities for more pages to be ranked for targeted keywords.

Can you find Tech Ed 2008?

for those of you who have been following my blog, you have seen my post several posts about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and what I have learned so far. I think the best way to learn something is to apply it and so I tried applying what I  have learned thus far on finding the Tech Ed 2008 website.

What is Tech Ed 2008?

Tech Ed is Microsoft's biggest conference of each year for professions Developers and IT Professionals. This is the 16th year Tech Ed is running, and for the first time ever it is split into two weeks, week one for Developers and week two for IT Professionals. Read more about Tech Ed 2008 US. I have been attending Tech Ed since 2005 and love all the great information I have learned, the people I have met and the cool things that Microsoft and partners showcase during the week long conference (this was the case for the last 15 years, this year it's 2 weeks long).

Is the Tech Ed 2008 website search Engine optimized since roughly 80% of traffic comes from Search Engines?

To find the Tech Ed website has always been a struggle and this year, I wanted to look more into why and post what I think might be some solutions to help the Tech Ed team, so that people can find their website easier. This is my most favorite conference by far, and it's a shame that it's not easy to find.

Let's take a look at Google's result's then Live Search and then find out what he HTML code tells us:

For Google.com you can see the search result looks fine, and we were able to find our link, both in the paid section and the organic section as you can see below:

Let's analyze this in steps:

1. Notice we searched for the keyword: "teched 2008." The title came back fine.

2. The body below the title reads: "In either case, you need to be a part of the Microsoft Tech·Ed North America 2008 experience. For the first time, Tech·Ed has expanded from a one-week ..." which has nothing to do with what TechEd is. The second and third links are the same with not very helpful content.

3. The paid link (i.e. sponsored link) has the right information.

4. By the way the same is true if we changed our keyword to: "tech ed 2008."

Now let's take the same keywords and search on Live Search, you can see the picture below:

 

Let's analyze this in steps:

1. Notice we searched for the keyword: "teched 2008" same as on Google.com.  The paid link (i.e. Sponsored link came back fine). But the first result is not event Tech Ed 2008. That's sad :(

2. The body below the title reads: "Technology in Education International Conference & Technology Exposition"  this is not the Tech Ed 2008 website. The second link is not Microsoft Tech Ed either. The third link is. bummer :(

3. The paid link (i.e. sponsored link) has the right information.

4. Now you wonder what happens if you search for: "tech ed 2008." (notice the space between the word tech and ed).

Let's analyze this in steps:

1. Notice we searched for the keyword: "tech ed 2008" same as on Google.com.  The paid link (i.e. Sponsored link came back fine). But the first result is not event Tech Ed 2008 US. And we are searching on Live.com not a localized search on live.co.za. That's sad :(

2. The body below the title reads very well and describes the conference in Africa, but doesn't mention our US conference.

3. The paid link (i.e. sponsored link) has the right information.

Recommendations on how to make the Tech Ed 2008 website Search Engine optimized

Once I found the Tech Ed 2008 US website and I went there, the next thing I did is use the right click and view source option inside IE 7 and below is what I saw:

1. I found a <Title> tag: <title>Microsoft Tech·Ed North America 2008</title> which was great, so now we know where the title comes from. So Great job Tech Ed 2008 website developer!
2. I didn't find a <H1> tag which could have been like: <H1>Microsoft Tech·Ed US 2008</H1>, which is what most people would search for. Tech Ed 2008 website developer, you could have included a <H1> tag.
3. Then I looked for a description tag (i.e.<meta> tag) and I found: <meta name="description" content="Microsoft Tech·Ed 2008 Developers">. Tech Ed 2008 website developer, the description in your<meat> is too short, please add more content here like:

   <meta name="description" content="Be a part of the experience! Microsoft Tech·Ed North America 2008 is the best way to stay current on today's Microsoft technologies. Featuring plenty of sessions on the latest and forthcoming versions of Microsoft's key products – you will be able to see products in action and stay ahead of the curve. " /> (this is the <meta> tag the African Tech Ed 2008 team used, and that's why you see them come up first when you search for "tech ed 2008" on live search.

   If your <meat> tag content is too short, the search engine skips to the longer description area and in your case it's the <p> tag and gets the description from there (in your case the bold section below):

   <p>Are you an IT professional looking to increase productivity? Are you a developer seeking the latest tools? In either case, you need to be a part of the Microsoft Tech·Ed North America 2008 experience. For the first time, Tech·Ed has expanded from a one-week conference into two separate conferences held back-to-back in Orlando, Florida. <br><br></p>

4. Across the board for all Tech Ed website I was not able to find a sitemap. Sitemap's are very important, they tell the search engine crawler where to crawl and if you update the sitemap the crawlers most search engines offer a ping service where they can come back and crawl your site again to pick up new content. Think of inviting everyone to a party and not giving them directions, they will be excited to come, but will not be able to find you. There are many tools out there that can help you generate a sitemap as well as you can create your own. If you have a robots.txt file you can use that as well. At the very leas, I wish the Tech Ed 2008 website developer, would go to http://webmaster.live.com site and open an account and upload the sitemap for the Tech Ed 2008 website, so the Live Search engine crawler can go out and crawl the Tech Ed 2008 website.

These are just my ideas and I wish I would be able to find the Tech Ed 2008 web developer to help him see by making these small changes he will increase the chances of more people attending the best conference ever (I think so anyway).

SEO 101 - tools for collecting and building keywords

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Google’s Keyword Tool has a number of features that will help you learn more about keywords. If you type in a keyword, you will get multiple keywords that are related. In addition, you can get a general sense of search volume; but this tool will not show you actual number of searches. You can also get a general sense of how competitive the keywords are.

Another feature of Google’s Keyword Tool is rudimentary average search volume and search volume trends. This provides important clues as to when people might be searching most for a specific keyword.

Finally, if you want to check a web site for its keyword usage, you can type the URL of the web site into this tool and it will extrapolate many of the keywords that are common on the site. For instance, type in your competitor’s site URL and you will get a good idea of what keywords they are using. This is a valuable tool for discovering new keywords. Google AdWords Keyword Tool is free.  

Microsoft adCenter

Microsoft adCenter powers Live Search. You are able to compose your ad, provide the links (URLs) for your ad, and customize your ad so you can dynamically insert text. Tools are available to research keywords to help a campaign and to upload keywords in bulk if you already have campaigns on other search engines. Microsoft adCenter allows you to choose how much you want to spend on your campaign.  Also, check out my last blog post about:  Where to get adCenter addin (beta) for Excel 2007 By the way to use the the Excel adCenter addin tool, you must have a adCenter account, which is a simple process and a $5 charge on the Microsoft's adCenter Website to sign up for a membership with adCenter, then you can use the Excel 2007 tool FREE!

Yahoo! Keyword Selector Tool (formerly Overture Suggest Tool)  

Yahoo!’s Keyword Selector Tool is a good general tool for discovery and evaluating keywords. It is also free! You can type in a keyword and see how many searches for that keyword occurred during the previous month. This is a good tool for discovering additional keywords similar to your keyword. You can type in general keywords like dog and get many variations like dog breeders, dog training and dog house. This is especially good when you are just brainstorming new words. It may give you ideas that you hadn't thought of yet.  

Wordtracker

Wordtracker is a subscription-based tool that provides suggestions based on over 300 million keywords and phrases that people have used over the previous 90 days from various search engines. Google and Yahoo!’s tools only show results from their search engines. Wordtracker takes a look at searching behavior from several search engines. If you find out which ones, let me know. Wordtracker offers subscriptions for one day, one week, one month or one year. This is nice if you are only interested in using the tool for a short period of time.

Keyword Discovery 

Keyword Discovery is another subscription- based tool that provides a lot of features that can help you with both finding new keywords and also analyzing them. Keyword Discovery compiles search statistics from over 180 search engines worldwide. Some of the features included with this tool are keyword research, industry keywords, seasonal search trends, and related keywords, to name a few. This is a subscription based service and I believe it starts at about $39.95 per month.

Additional Free Tools Google Traffic Estimator 

Generate Local Keywords 

Keyword Mapper

Object Graph – Suggest Tool

Yahoo! Keyword Bids

Collection of SEO Tools

Object Graph Suggest Tool

Yahoo! Keyword Bids

Collection of SEO Tools

SEO 101- Building keywords

Building a large list of keywords can be a big task. There are many places you can go to find keywords to build your list.

The following are some good examples:

Information Within Your Company

Many of the keywords you are brainstorming can be found within your company web site, print materials, press releases, etc. Since we are just brainstorming, it is okay to add any company jargon you might be using, but keep in mind these words might not be the best overall. On the other hand, they may turn out to perform well, so we don't want to discount them yet.

Log Files

Wherever your web site is being hosted, the web server is logging all of the site activity into a log file. These log files can reveal “exact phrases” people type into search engines that brought them to your site. Getting this information might require some technical assistance. Typically, your webmaster will have access to your site's log files. The information from these log files can be valuable, not to mention informative, because it will also show which search engines were used.

Site Search Engine

Do you have a search engine on your web site? Your log files capture the exact phrases that people enter when they are trying to find something on your site. This is also a great source for finding keywords that are on your visitor's mind. 

Print and Online Magazines and Trade Journals

There are various trade journals available, whether online or offline, that can provide some valuable deposits of keywords that you might use. These are especially useful keyword resources if they are written by people who understand and are talking to the end user – not the least because they are also written in the language of the end user which, as we discussed earlier, is important to know.

Competition

Look at what keywords your competitors are using. You can go to your competitors' web sites and look at the content on their sites to see what keywords they are using to describe their products and services. Usually they have spent a good deal of time developing their content, and reading through their site will give you some great ideas. Plus, it is never a bad thing to better understand your competition. Another place to look within your competitors' web sites is their meta keywords. Meta keywords are keywords that they are using to help them with search engine optimization.  

Meta Keywords

To find these meta keywords, you need to look at the top-level navigation of your browser under the View menu item and look for an item called “View Source” or “Page Source.” This gives you a view of the HTML behind the page you are currently viewing.

For a web site that sells cars, you might find this text string:

<meta name="keywords" content="cars, new cars, used cars, dealerships, car information, car parts">

You can tell that this page is targeting the keywords cars, new cars, used cars, dealerships, car information, and car parts. The site owners are hoping that search engines will take note. For us, we can just look to see if any of these keywords are relevant and if we can add them to our own master list.

Thesaurus

Once you have a handful of keywords, try looking them up in a thesaurus to see other related words that are presented. You may find several new keywords that you didn't think of. Or it may inspire you to look at a whole new set of related keywords.

Focus Groups / Surveys

Focus groups are a good way to find new keywords, especially if the focus group is made up of your target audience. Invite your focus group participants to share with you what they think about when they think of your product or service. You may give them an assignment to go and search for items that you sell and observe what they type in to a search engine. If you can ask them to think out loud as they search, you might be able to capture a few good nuggets – this is valuable in better understanding your target audience.

Surveys are another form of focus group and can be just as effective in mining new and targeted keywords. You can email surveys or invite participants to complete an online survey. We do this with facebook all the time anyway. A good tool is the online survey monkey.

Blogs / Discussion Boards / Forums

One form of focus group is an online forum or discussion board. This is where people all over the Internet meet to discuss related topics. There are usually some interesting words they may use to talk about products and services that you offer. They are usually candid and speak their mind, which is exactly what you are looking for.

Variations of Your Keywords

Once you have your master list of keywords, you will need to look at each word to see if there are variations you can form to help expand your list further.  

Misspellings and Typos

If you have products that are hard to spell or can be spelled in different ways, you should add these to your list of keywords. It is surprising how many people misspell words that you would think are easy. We, as a society, have become dependent on “spell checkers” to spell for us. Even some search engines will suggest other spellings just to make sure we are looking for the right thing.

Abbreviations and Slang

Some searchers out there are savvy enough to know the abbreviation or slang terms that they will try, using them to see what results are displayed. Consider looking at your list of keywords and see if there are abbreviations or slang for keywords in your list.

Plural and Singular

Are the keywords in your list plural or singular? Whatever they are, consider adding new keywords with the plural or singular form. Especially with paid search, search engines are particular about the plural and singular forms of keywords. Make sure you are covered.

Keyword Evaluation

Now that we have a huge list of keywords, we need to start narrowing them down into keywords that are going to provide the best value. It is important to get these keywords prioritized and sorted to help you pick your top performing keywords. Here are some methods to help you do this. You can rank your keywords based on the following criteria and then sort them with an overall score.

Relevance: How closely the search term matches the site’s products, services, and content. Generally, how relevant is the keyword to your business?

Specificity: How broad or specific a term is.

Popularity: How often the search term is searched for on major search engines. Being popular isn't the most important thing because it is usually more competitive and less specific.

Competitiveness: How many companies are pursuing the keyword? You can look at PPC bids to see how much is being spent on the keyword to see how competitive it is.

SEO 101 - What are keywords?

Keywords are the fundamental building blocks of any search engine optimization (SEO) or Paid Search campaign. Most often people spend a lot of time and $$ optimizing for keywords that are very competitive and doesn't target their market. It's hard to get high rankings this way.

This reminds me of a funny cartoon I once saw, titled: Tire Swing Cartoon - Project Management 

If you pick the wrong keywords, you may not reach the right audience and you may attract visitors to your site that will not convert into customers. The right keywords, can bring targeted visitors that will successfully interact with your site to purchase, download, or fill out something you want from them. The term used in the industry for this is Conversion, so they have converted from just visitors to customers. 

Goals about Keywords

To manage expectations you have to have goals, you hear this everywhere, the same is true for keywords.

1. What do you want to accomplish with each keyword?
2. As you go through the keyword discovery process, look for details that will support your goals.
3. Pick keywords that can provide you the best value. Depending on your business or market segment, you may or may not be able to get the number top position with every keyword you pursue.
4. Some keywords are very competitive or they may be so broad that it is silly to think you will get the high ranking you seek. Pick keywords that can get the rankings you want within:
   1. A reasonable amount of time
   2. reasonable amount of $$ money
5. It is important that you constantly measure your performance over time. 

How do you pick the right keywords?

1. Understand your target audience and think like they do. They might refer to your products or services differently than you do. You are probably knowledgeable in your industry and you have to understand the terminology people use about your industry.
   1. For example: some people might use the terms auto or car, when the industry correct word is vehicle. This is the key to picking the right keywords.
   2. So when is Rome, speak as the Roman's speak: so you may also increase the success of your web site by speaking the customer’s language rather than your own.
2. Keyword Discovery - explore all possible keywords that relate to your products and services.  In this phase you are just interested in coming up with as many keywords as possible. You will brainstorm and identify all of the various types of keywords that the end user might type into a search engine to find your website. You'll narrow this down later.
   1. One thing to consider is to think in terms of Keyword Phrases.
      1. Most single keywords are too general and will bring general and not targeted traffic to your site. As a rule, a keyword phrase that is more specific will bring more qualified traffic.
      2. A more general or broad keyword will bring less targeted traffic.
      3. An example of this is, when searching for a car, a lot of car's come in in SERP (Search Result Page). Where as we can add the"make" and year and we will get a more closer result to what we want, such as searching for "Toyota 2008 car." And finally adding the location so that you have: "Toyota 2008 car Seattle, WA" will bring the location of Toyota dealers who might have 2008 models in the Seattle area I can go look at.

Keyword Evaluation  - analyze and sort your keywords by various filters that will help isolate keywords that will provide the best value.

Picking the wrong keywords can bring lots of traffic to your site but the visitors may not actively pursue what you are offering. You need to think how an end user might think of your product or service, so that you won't end up needing a tire swing and getting a sofa swing on a tree. (Some might say it's still a tree :) )