Building a solid SEO foundation

By Barry Fenning © 2006

Why is it so important?

Effective keyword research is the most important element of any search engine optimization campaign.

How do I do it properly?

If you want to target your customers properly it is important to understand exactly how you would describe your company to them. You save them an earful of all the nitty-gritty services that you provide by saying that you sell electronic equipment. That’s fine in the real world where if you had a list of services the length of your arm you wouldn’t want to scare your prospective customers off by rambling on about everything you do for 20 minutes. However, when it comes to effective Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques you must use numerous keyword phrases to attract as many possible customers.

Never be married to just one phrase.

Taking the example above…

“I sell electronic equipment”

Now ask yourself.

What kind of electronic equipment?

What brands do you sell?

Where is your shop?

Do you offer any other services such as repairs, rental, free delivery, and installation?

Do you sell expensive or cheap products?

By writing down the answers to all of these questions (and preferably more) you will start to create a long list of keywords and keyword phrases that will help you choose what you can offer to your target market.

Using a tool such as the Keyword Discovery Tool or Wordtracker (both of these products are the best on the market, but I would recommend Keyword Discovery because it takes into account fluctuations in seasonal searches) you will get a better idea of how many people are using search engines to look for the terms on your list. You will also be given other suggestions that you may have overlooked.

Optimize each of your website pages based on the terms that are most relevant to what your site offers that have the best traffic results. I would advise you to add separate “landing pages” to your site optimized for the keyword phrase(s) that could bring substantial traffic to your business.

By carefully creating and/or developing a website that is optimised for many different keyword phrases you will be able to drive a large amount of targeted traffic to your site from all of the search engines.