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Learn SEO: Basics in Optimizing Keywords For META Tags
By Kimberly Bock | December 13, 2007
When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, it should be clear that your keyword selection for your META Tags must be relevant to your page’s content to encourage the Search Engines to give you a spot in the forefront of the SERP’s! (Search Engine Results Pages)Let’s say that your page is offering a really great industrial strength pair of toenail clippers. In fact, let’s have some fun and call it, “Clippy The Toenail Slayer”.
Let’s face it, there’s not a whole heckuvalot of people sitting behind their keyboard tapping out “Clippy The Toenail Slayer” into their favorite Search Engine. Unless of course they are me. Too many Me’s and the world becomes a scarier place than it already is.
Keyword Research
I used my nifty free Keyword research tool, Keyword Research Tool and tapped in a base query to find out the number of people, Globally, that are submitting exact queries. This way, I’ll have a better idea which keywords to use in optimizing Clippy’s page.
I queried multiple variations of what may be of interest to my target market. Then, I used these queries in the Google Search Engine to get the number of result pages for my phrases.
Keep in mind that the results vary upon HOW the query is made. There are still plenty of people that don’t realize they can put their query in quotes to get an exact match to their keywords and/or phrases. It eliminates the miscellaneous wording order that frequently happens when not used. Ex: Search for the phrase “Sasquatch sightseeing guru” in Google without quotes and you’ll see 476 results. (/font>uh, yea right?! Now do it with quotes. None, nada, zip, zilch, right? Get my point?
Search Engine Results
Below are the exact number of pages that Google made available to me under each query. When compared to my Keyword tool, each query gave a different number of searches that were made with the same phrases. This is where you will find your organic competitors. It’s a good idea to view their page source (right-click on page or goto toolbar to ‘view’ goto page source) and find their META Keywords tag if they have one. There you will see the Keywords they are targeting. That will give you a better idea of what works and doesn’t work.
“toenail clippers” - 53, 100
“toe nail clippers” - 19, 100
toenail clippers - 26,000
toe nail clippers - 34, 300
now singular:
“toenail clipper” - 48, 500
“toe nail clipper” - 25, 000
toenail clipper - 25, 900
toenail clipper - 33, 600
Fyi, when I searched KW for variations, it actually showed me that 28 people even searched for “trim nail clippers made in USA”
Yes, I Googled that too…
*15, 200 w/out quotes
*1 with quotes
Who Are You Targeting?
You need to be careful choosing keywords to optimize so it is mainly focused on your target market. If you opted for the way-side searchers that are specifically trying to find “baby nail clippers” “dog nail clippers” etc..you are not likely to persuade them to purchase Clippy because he’s a heavy duty toenail slayer that is not baby or pooch friendly.
So, there it is! we have an idea of which queries and variations of queries to establish for the META Keywords Tag for “Clippy’s” page. There’s much more to learn in regards to choosing keywords such as determining your competitors use of Keywords, finding your niche Keywords, Branding, as well as coming up with ideas for Keyword-rich body text for Clippy, which probably won’t be as easy! But, that’s yet another article. Poor Clippy.
Search Engine College
If you think you are going to need more help than what you are finding online for free, take one of the Search Engine College courses that are available. They have been a great inspiration to me, they are reasonably priced, and even offer a free sample lesson. Why not become a professional Search Engine Optimizer! It’s Hot, In demand, and offers long dependable job security. The web will be here forever. So will SEO’s! What are you waiting for? Click below to Save the Clippies of the world now!
Topics: SEO/SEM Training |
January 14th, 2008 at 4:41 am
I assume from this, you are explicitly talking about the keywords meta tag:
I have a different point of view. My experience suggests that the “keywords” meta tag is no longer used, and therefore basically useless:
http://lutrov.com/blog/search-engine-meta-tags-deux/
I may be wrong, but the last time I checked, only Teoma still used them but their market share is so small, it makes them trivial.
January 14th, 2008 at 6:54 am
I am under the assumption that every little bit of traffic or conversion is worth the effort.
After all, adding a META keyword tag takes 30 seconds to implement and is still used by 1 as you say.
I am assuming that you feel traffic from Teoma is not worth your time? Understandable for most.
But for those who can’t walk by a penny without picking it up, then this post was for them.
Note: I searched the word “Boob” in Teoma SE. I received 1, 556, 000 results. If you are promoting a boob product (lets say boob jobs) then it would be nice to boost your position by adding the tag.
One conversion on a boob job looks mighty nice.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I think the “average” curious newbie may be scratching his head at this a little bit but all of the above is true (especially the SEO being hot part!).
I just wanted to add that, for the exact reasons you mentioned above, it’s not unwise to tag team articles when trying to corner a term. By that I mean writting two articles, each with slightly different target keywords, and with the first article linking to the second. A lot of the time you won’t just improve rank on a keyword, you’ll get a wild double entry in the serps.
If one looks good….
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