When talking SEO the primary topic of discussion is that of keywords. Keywords are the first point of contact between a user and a search engine. Understanding what users are looking for and providing them with a relevant product is our job. Making your content get noticed by a search engine is the job of SEO.
When search engines first came out they were much simpler. They would do a search for documents where the keywords that are queried were found. If the internet was a non commercial entity, this algorithm should work just fine. But since people are constantly trying to manipulate the search engine for their own purposes, search engines had to modify their algorithms. The present keyword search system uses a highly sophisticated semantics based algorithm. With a kind of artificial intelligence the search engine predicts what the actual meaning of a query might be. With the help of an extensive language model and using the notion of topical communities search engines estimate what the potential subject matter should look like. Using these parameters results are filtered and displayed. In the long run the system gets better and better at making the right predictions and search result pages will contain only relevant content.
An alternative to SEO is paid placement. A large portion of Google’s revenue is based on their AdWords program. Companies pay for their links and ads to appear when particular keywords are searched for. If this sort of budget is not within your reach, the next half deals with how you can do some assessment on how to use keywords effectively.
Research of keywords is a key part of getting your product recognized. Be it a physical product or just academic data, keyword research can go a long way to increase search engine visibility. The first step should be a good old fashioned brainstorming session. Figure out what your customers might type into a search engine when they are looking for a product your company offers. Come up with as many options as possible, be it with different spellings or synonyms etc. If you have the option of surveying your previous customers it could lead to valuable data as well. Once you have come up with different possible keywords, you can use any one of the keyword research tools available. They give you statistical information about different keywords, and you will get a better picture of which options give you a better chance.
After you arrive at keywords that you look to concentrate on you do not stop there. Do follow up research using analytical tools. Measure how your traffic changed during the period following your keyword change. If they met your goals, great, if not, make more adjustments. It’s a slow process of trial and error but you will get better at it as you go. The big payoff at the end is worth the wait.
WordTracker and Yahoo! Search Marketing are two products that are widely used for keyword research. Getting your target on the right keyword is important. Some metrics have been developed to measure how good your keyword choice is. Conversion rate is used to measure how often a search gets converted to a transaction. Predicted traffic is used to estimate what the expected traffic for a keyword would be. Value per customer is a measure of what the contribution of a new transaction will be. And finally, keyword competition, measures how much competition is present for a given keyword. An overall assessment of all keywords based on these keywords can more accurately predict the outcome of implementing a keyword.
Keep in mind throughout this process to never compromise on your content for sake of keywords. Users will return to your site if what you provide them is a quality product. SEO using keywords is like the icing on the cake, don’t mistake it for the batter.
