By now, we all know what keywords are and how vital they can be to the success of our websites. Making the decision to optimize your site with keywords is the first step in creating a highly visible site – one that gets a lot of hits. Figuring out just how many keywords to optimize is the second. This is a difficult question to answer, but not impossible if you sit back and thoroughly think about what your purpose is and how you can achieve your goals. In some cases, four or five keywords may be sufficient. In others, it may be necessary to optimize for many more, even thousands
First, it is important to consider the purpose of your site, as this will have a direct impact on the number of keywords you should have. For instance, if your website sells a ‘general’ product or one that is commonly available, you are likely to need to develop an extensive list of words. Conversely, if you have a very specific service or product, you may only need four or five keywords. So if your website sells home furnishings, you may need to focus on keywords for each major product line you sell. You might consider using home furnishings, living room furnishings, bedroom furnishings, beds, couches and so on. If your website only sells leather ottomans, you may need only to select few keywords to describe your product line.
Once you have made a determination regarding the purpose and size of your website, it’s time to do some brainstorming. It’s a good idea to come up with a list containing each of your major product lines or services and brainstorm each. Come up with as many keywords as you can relating to each category. The more extensive the list is, the better. Using our leather ottoman site again, the list may look may look something like this:
Round Ottomans Square Ottomans
Red round leather ottoman Red square leather ottoman
Blue round leather ottoman Blue square leather ottoman
Top grain leather round ottoman Synthetic leather square ottoman
The list could go on and on.
Now, you must consider your typical surfer. Studies show that most surfers may start with a general search term: leather ottoman. This search is likely to produce millions of hits. Surfers are most likely to click on the top three to five results and one or two of the paid ads. After this search, they will begin refining their query: Round leather ottoman followed by round leather ottoman red. As you can see, finding key words that are relevant and unique has an impact on how many keywords you choose to include in your site.
Once you have done the brainstorming its time to check for relevance and popularity. Utilize web tools like Google’s keyword analyzer to determine the popularity of your keyword sets. This tool will let you know how often a particular keyword was searched for a given period of time and also suggest related keywords; keywords that are highly relevant and searched in volume. Everyone is amazed when they see the results of our keyword research and what it uncovers. That is why keyword research and the tools associated with them are essential to really learning the ultimate quality and quantity of keywords you need to target. Use this information to maximize the potential of your list and to prioritize the list; you cannot and must not target all of the keywords at one time … it defeats the purpose and the integrity of SEO.
In this manner, you will soon have a customized list of keywords. Your list may contain only a few words or it may contain many, but they will all be focused, unique and aimed at increasing your visibility.
Contact us if you need help in the keyword research process. We can help!
How Many Keywords Should My Site Target?
First, it is important to consider the purpose of your site, as this will have a direct impact on the number of keywords you should have. For instance, if your website sells a ‘general’ product or one that is commonly available, you are likely to need to develop an extensive list of words. Conversely, if you have a very specific service or product, you may only need four or five keywords. So if your website sells home furnishings, you may need to focus on keywords for each major product line you sell. You might consider using home furnishings, living room furnishings, bedroom furnishings, beds, couches and so on. If your website only sells leather ottomans, you may need only to select few keywords to describe your product line.
Once you have made a determination regarding the purpose and size of your website, it’s time to do some brainstorming. It’s a good idea to come up with a list containing each of your major product lines or services and brainstorm each. Come up with as many keywords as you can relating to each category. The more extensive the list is, the better. Using our leather ottoman site again, the list may look may look something like this:
Round Ottomans Square Ottomans
Red round leather ottoman Red square leather ottoman
Blue round leather ottoman Blue square leather ottoman
Top grain leather round ottoman Synthetic leather square ottoman
The list could go on and on.
Now, you must consider your typical surfer. Studies show that most surfers may start with a general search term: leather ottoman. This search is likely to produce millions of hits. Surfers are most likely to click on the top three to five results and one or two of the paid ads. After this search, they will begin refining their query: Round leather ottoman followed by round leather ottoman red. As you can see, finding key words that are relevant and unique has an impact on how many keywords you choose to include in your site.
Once you have done the brainstorming its time to check for relevance and popularity. Utilize web tools like Google’s keyword analyzer to determine the popularity of your keyword sets. This tool will let you know how often a particular keyword was searched for a given period of time and also suggest related keywords; keywords that are highly relevant and searched in volume. Everyone is amazed when they see the results of our keyword research and what it uncovers. That is why keyword research and the tools associated with them are essential to really learning the ultimate quality and quantity of keywords you need to target. Use this information to maximize the potential of your list and to prioritize the list; you cannot and must not target all of the keywords at one time … it defeats the purpose and the integrity of SEO.
In this manner, you will soon have a customized list of keywords. Your list may contain only a few words or it may contain many, but they will all be focused, unique and aimed at increasing your visibility.
Contact us if you need help in the keyword research process. We can help!