How do I find good keywords for my site?

Keywords are simply those words which people are likely to Google (search for) to find your site. They will depend on what you are selling on your site and the common expressions that people use to describe what you are selling.

How do I find good keywords for my site? Well you probably know how you describe your company: In our case Added value applications produce software for temp staffing agencies, temping agencies or temping agency software. Added value applications also produce software for internal staff banks.

However you probably know some of your main competitors and it would be nice to know what words they use.

This is surprisingly easier than you think: Google want you to succeed in finding the right common words - it helps their business. At the very least it will help to drive up the value of their auction on those words if you participate in pay per click. However the entire process outlined here is entirely free, that is until you actually buy some advertising (aka ad words)

The first thing to do (if you have not got one) is to get a Google email account. This can be done at https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin

Just fill in the details. I think everyone knows this is free, but if you don't: it's entirely free.

Once you have signed up for your Google mail (aka Gmail) account you can start the process of getting your (informed) keywords that you need to incorporate in your site.

Go to

https://adwords.google.com

Use your (new?) Gmail account to sign in. You will see a web page like this:

Just enter your competitor's web site.

You may find they have what you consider naff key words: no matter. Your site will then be better! If you are a local business, then try out of area competitors web sites.

Ok so we now have a list of keywords that we believe our customers will search with (to find our site). What do we do with them?

What do we do with keywords?

We could of course pay for them in Google's auction. However we can put ourselves in a better position.

If your web site is between one to five pages, you have probably bought it from a local web designer. There are some very good ones. You may have downloaded a free template design. If you are a bit more ambitious (and to succeed here, frankly you need to be), you have or are considering having a web content management system: There is a link to Wikipedia at the end which explains a bit more about these systems. There are a number of reasons for having a web content management system (Or C.M.S. for short)

• Consistent looking pages - makes your site have a company style and gives a professional feel.
• Easy to add new pages and they can be added by anyone you allow. This promotes your site growing quickly.
• Good C.M.S. systems are search engine friendly, maximising the return on the effort you are putting into all those web pages.

There are some disadvantages to using C.M.S:

• They will take setting up. This means decisions and effort once you get them out of the box.
• You will need an internet service provider who support the C.M.S. system you choose - you may need to change ISP and the hosting will almost certainly be more expensive (not necessarily hugely expensive though: a single sale will probably cover it).
• You will have to learn how to setup and then use the C.M.S system or pay someone to do it for you.

A link to a good list of the various C.M.S systems is at the end of this article.

A discussion of the pros and cons of the various CMS systems is beyond the scope of this article. We use Umbraco and there are many good things about it. You do need to know what you are doing to set it up though.... not for the faint hearted.

Let us say you are serious about this. Let us say you have a bedroom/computer bound spotty teenager who (you feel) should do something helpful with that computer and broadband connection you pay for. Let us say he has a modicum of ability when it comes to maths or computers. Let us say that you are willing to deprive him of food until he agrees to play ball.... maybe not..!

What do I need to incorporate in my web pages to make them search friendly?

• The actual page name (URL) should be relevant: in this case:   your CMS system should not produce a page (URL) like www.ava.co.uk/page? = 257. In other words if you are making a page which you want to be found in searches 'find good keywords' the page should be called: How-do-I-find-good-keywords-for-my-site
• Every web page can (and should) have a heading, this uses things called 'tags' which are hidden from the person browsing the web page. The tags for a heading are expressed as so: < h 1 >Heading caption< / h 1>. The heading caption should be (in this case) < h 1 >How do I find good keywords for my site? < / h 1>
• Every web page can (and should) have a description. The description should be (in this case)  How to find good keywords for my web site (or something very similar)
• Every web page can (and should) have keywords. The keywords should be (in this case) "find good keywords", "find keywords", "good keywords", "site keywords", "site adwords", "find good adwords", "find adwords", "good adwords" ", "site ad words", "find good ad words", "find ad words", "good ad words". You notice here we have not repeated the same words, but used their combinations and added synonyms. If you want to easily find a synonym, (similar meaning, different word) then highlight it in MS Word and press <shift + F7> (hold down the shift key and press the F7 key)
• The first paragraph should contain the search phrase (in this case) How do I find good keywords for my site?
• The search phrase may be repeated (not to the point where the reader gets fed up) through the article if it is a long one.
• If there are images or videos on any page they should have search related names and tags.

A good C.M.S system can be set up to ensure web pages are not published until all these search friendly elements are complete.

You may say: but I've got the phrase once- surely that is enough for Google to find it? Well yes Google will find it. But that is not the name of the game. The game is telling the Google "robot" that walks around the web finding pages that is an important page for the phrase "How do I find good keywords"

What are the no-nos for web pages and search?

• Do not copy a page from someone else's site. Google has already been there and will know it was published first. It will down-rate your site.
• Do not copy a page from your own site. Google has already been there and will split the ranking 50:50.
• Do not link to adult sites (unless yours is an adult site). Google know which is which and frowns upon mixing them up.
• Do not publish a page which is just links - both Google and your human page reader will not find it interesting. Google will know your human reader was not interested.

What are goodies for web pages and search?

• Do publish something which is interesting, helpful and make your pages take a couple of minutes to read through.
• Do put links to other relevant sites (average one link every couple or three paragraphs).
• Do use pictures, but give them names relevant to the web page search.
• Do use video (embedded from YouTube) on your site and ensure that the "tags" are your key search words.
• Do put things in your own words - it makes them unique which Google likes.
• Do put links to your own site at the bottom of the page encouraging people to spend more time on your site.
• Do publish a new page every week to fortnight: Google likes sites that are updated regularly and steadily drops the ranking of those that are not.

Still to come:

An example of how small changes in S.E.O. terms can give different results.

Links:

• Should I have video (or pictures) on on my site?
• A simple way to put video on a web site from start to finish

What is a web content management system?

What C.M.S. (content management systems) are available?

Umbraco: the C.M.S. system we use.

What are web robots and web spiders?