The 10 Biggest Search Engine Optimization Mistakes: #1: Wrong Keywords
 by: David Bain

The vast majority of websites haven’t got a clue about keywords. If you don’t know what words your potential customers are using in search engines to try and find a business like yours, then it’s hardly worth while having a website.

The Meta Keywords Myth

Most people setting up a website guess at which words or phrases their potential customers might associate with their business. These words and phrases are then thrown into the Meta Keywords Tag, with the belief that before long website visitors will start rolling in. Nothing could be further than the truth.

The reality is that the right keywords have to be placed strategically in many areas of website coding before they can have an opportunity to positively impact an increase in right kind of visitors from search engines.

However, before the correct placing of your keywords can be considered, you have to make sure that you’re using the right ones for your website.

Making sure you choose the right keywords

There are many websites that let you search for how many times a particular keyword or phrase was searched for on the Internet over the past month. Once of the best and most popular is the Overture Keyword Selector Tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

This free-to-use research tool should be experimented with to determine the single best keyword phrase for the most efficient optimization of your home page.

It’s extremely tempting to research the most commonly searched for word in your industry, and then optimize your website for that word in an attempt to attract as many website visitors as possible. An important factor to bear in mind though is that thousands if not millions of websites in your industry will be competing for those single keywords. The trick is to aim for your website to be on the top page of search results for Google, Yahoo and MSN search results for a keyword phrase that is moderately popular for your industry.

How to choose the right keyword phrase

Your chance of appearing in the top page of search engine results is greatly enhanced if you focus your website optimisation efforts on two or three-word phrases instead of single words. But how do you choose the right keyword phrase?

Start by typing what you think your most popular industry keyword would be into the Overture Keyword Selector. You will then be shown other phrases that contain your chosen word, and the amount of times that word has been searched for on Internet search engines over the past month.

An example of a good keyword phrase to aim for

For my website, http://www.DavidBain.biz I initially considered the word ‘Internet’, because I advise businesses on how most effectively to use that medium. Although it’s searched for on average over 600,000 time for each month, the reality is that I have no chance whatsoever of ever featuring in a top page of search results for that word.

I then briefly considered the phrase ‘Internet Marketing’. This is still too popular as well though, as it is searched for over 200,000 times a month

I finally opted for the keyword phrase ‘Internet Marketing Consultant’ which is searched for around 4000 times a month. I’m confident that although my website doesn’t appear on top pages in search engines for that phrase now, it will in the future. And even if 10% of those 4000 searches convert into visitors to my website, it’s well worth it. Why see if you can use the Overture Keyword Selector Tool to improve your chosen keywords now?

About The Author

David Bain is an Internet Marketing Consultant based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His key skills include Search Engine Optimisation analysis of existing websites and Internet Marketing Consultancy. David can be contacted either via his website http://www.DavidBain.biz or by telephoning 0131 2 080808.