Find below Dynamic Web Solution’s easy three-step program to select killer keywords for your website.

1. How to Find the Best Keywords or Search Terms

Firstly, find out what your competitors think are good keywords for your industry class or product type. They may be completely wrong, but it is worth checking and it only takes a few moments. Here’s how…

1. Go to three of your closest competitor’s websites
2. On the homepage go View > Source
3. Look for two lines of code at the top of the page that look like <meta name=”description”… and <meta name=”keywords”…
4. Make a short list of search terms you think are worthwhile

Now, go and test your short list of these keywords on Google Keyword Planning Tool. You will need a Google account to log in. Select the country on the right that is relevant to your website, then supply a single phrase that you want your website to come up under.

For the keyword “real estate”, see how “house for sale” is also searched on thousands of times per month. Who would have guessed?

Recap: looking at your competitor’s web sites and using a keyword planning tool has a single purpose: to get real about what people are actually searching on. NOT what you think they are searching on, but what they are actually searching on. It is a litmus test. You are looking for synonyms to your search phrases.

Tip: the keywords you choose are not in fact words, but phrases. There are too many web pages that conform to a single word so people search using phrases.

 2. How do I Add my Killer Keywords to My Web Site?

Much has been written on this topic, so what follows are broad principles and not specific instructions.

So, you have your shortlist of keyword phrases and you now need to work them into your website – in such a way as to make it 100% clear to search engines what your site is all about.

But not all places on a webpage are equal as the following list explains.

1. The <title> tag is glowing white hot. If you only do one thing, make sure each page of your web site has keywords in the title tag specific to that page. Many webpages are listed as “Untitled” in search engine results. These sites are missing the single biggest opportunity they have to present keywords phrases.
2. The first link on your homepage is also burning hot for search engines. Try to include at least one keyword in it.
3. The first main heading on your page (H1 or H2 tags) is burning hot. Tell those search engines what the page is about.
4. The first para on the page is the one that introduces the subject of the page. It is cooler, but still very important. Add your keywords to it.
5. Likewise, the closing para sums up the page. Put your keywords in it.

Anybody familiar with direct mail marketing (now a thing of the past) will see some parallels between the above hierarchies and writing sales letters.

Recap: What does all this mean? It means that there are some parts of your page that are scrutinised more closely than others. Use this logic to present your keywords to search engines.

Tip:you are looking for 5% (not more) keyword density on your chosen phrase(s). Use https://smallseotools.com/keyword-density-checker/ to calculate your keyword density in relation to your competitor’s sites.
Tip 2: make sure your page is comprised of valid hypertext mark up. Go to http://validator.w3.org to make sure.
Tips 3:if your site is made with frames or Flash, get a web designer to rewrite it with tables or divs and css. Frames and Flash are old and out moded.

3. Evaluation: well, did it work?

To evaluate the success of the work above you need a ranking report. A ranking report takes your web address and chosen keyword phrase(s) and looks for your position or “ranking” on search engines.

There are free tools that do this like www.serps.com/tools/rank_checker but they tend to be blunt and not very helpful. If Dynamic Web Solutions made your web site, it is likely that we are submitting it to search engines and can give you a free emailed report of your search engine ranking on the leading search engines.

Summary:

1. Compile a short list of keyword phrases you are going to target after researching competitor’s sites and using reverse lookup tools like Google’s Keyword Planner
2. Work these keyword phrases into strategic parts of your web pages
3. Review with ranking reports at 12-week intervals. Google Analytics will provide traffic and visitor stats that will show you what your gains are.

If you have done the above, you will be clear about what your objective is and you will have a subjective means of evaluating your progress.

This article was written by Peter Mitchell of Dynamic Web Solutions Pty Ltd