Back in October 2004 I launched a series of articles outlining the ten crucial steps to a well optimized website. The steps were:
- Keyword Selection
- Content Creation
- Site Structure
- Optimization
- Internal Linking
- Human Testing
- Submissions
- Link Building
- Monitoring
- The Extras (all those things that didn't fit in the first 9 steps)
Well in case you've been asleep for the last few years on in case you've just recently joined us in the SEO-realm, I - along with some of my good friends in the web marketing world - have decided to re-write the series with new information and new perspectives.
The New SeriesIn our updated series we'll be dropping some of the articles and adding others to account for changes in the industry. Another major change in this series is that we're going to compliment it with a weekly segment on
- The raw data
- Studying those who've gone before
- Understanding your choices The Raw Data
The raw data is the raw estimated searches/day that you can expect a phrase to get on the major search engines. There are a number of tools you can use to compile this information. Here are some of the more commonly used:
Keyword Discovery
This tool is very similar to WordTracker in the advantages/disadvantages category. Better specification of keywords, lower pool of data to base them on. I personally prefer Keyword Discovery simply for some of the features and the ability to export data for clients to view easily. Of course, that could well be due to my increased experience with it.They have a free trial as well and it sells for $69/mth.
Once we have attained top 3 rankings for both I started looking through my stats and setting up filters for conversion (forms filled out and visits to our contact page). People who entered "search engine positioning" were sure interested in our blog and articles but only those who added the word "services" contacted us. And so the big phrase was abandoned as a target and we began focusing on what I refer to as "buy phrases". So bigger isn't better if the people you want are searching using phrases with a lower search volume.
There's another time when bigger isn't better. Which of those two phrases do you suppose we ranked for first? If you guessed the services phrase then you're right. When you launch a new website (which we had) you're likely up against sites that have been around for a while, have some solid backlinks and a good number of pages. You're not going to want to go up against them for the top phrases out of the gate. Choosing to go with phrases that are lower in search volume and lower in competition will almost always result in higher rankings faster, put some money back in your pocket and ready you to go for the bigger phrases.
It's here that the model we followed works well. When you're selecting your short term and long term targets it's wise to choose phrases with the same root keywords ("search engine positioning" and "search engine positioning services" for example). This basically enables you to work towards your long term goals during link building for your short term targets. And who doesn't like to kill two birds with one stone? Or perhaps you have all the time in the world and you're one of those people who likes nothing more than working on developing incoming links.
Which brings us to ...
Studying Those Who've Gone BeforeImitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Let's just hang onto that thought while we research what those who are successful in your industry are targeting in order to glean some insight into what works.
I've recently discovered (much to my pleasure) a very cool tool that, while a bit pricey for some, simplified MANY of the processes of keyword research, tracking and competitor keyword dissection. A company called AdGooroo has created what I've now discovered to be an awesome WebPosition Gold (again, has a free trail).
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