Key Words
Summary
- Always use your primary keywords in the description tag area at least one or more times.
- Try to place your primary keywords at the start of the tag.
- Try to repeat the keyword near the end of each paragraph in the body and near the end of the body area itself. Some search engines such as Lycos are claiming that they look for themes on a page and will rank pages higher that use the keyword throughout the page, rather than only at the top of the page.
- Avoid listing the same word multiple times in a row since some engines may penalize for this. Instead, use the keyword multiple times, but separate them by other words in your text.
- Use the longer form and the plural form of a keyword when possible. For example, if you use marketing in your Title tag, a search on marketing or market will yield a match on most engines. However, words like companies will not always yield a match on company since company is not an exact "substring" of companies. In these cases you'll want to try and use both forms of the word.
Keyword Tips - Very Important!
There are several things to consider when choosing keywords and phrases. The most important is to put yourself in the shoes of the type of visitor you want to attract. Make a list of what kind of keywords or phrases they are likely to search on. This requires you to separate yourself from your product, service or web site and think like the average person who might want to find you, but knows nothing about your site. It's a good idea to ask friends or co-workers what they might type in to find your site, or even have them go to a search engine and tell them to try and find information on the topic your site happens to cover. Watch what words and phrases they use.
For example, say you have a page devoted to stamp collecting. Anytime someone types "stamp collecting," you want your page to be in the top ten results. Then those are your target keywords for that page.
Each page in your web site will have different target keywords that reflect the page's content. For example, say you have another page about the history of stamps. Then "stamp history" might be your keywords for that page.
Your target keywords should always be at least two or more words long. Usually, too many sites will be relevant for a single word, such as "stamps." This "competition" means your odds of success are lower. Don't waste your time fighting the odds. Pick phrases of two or more words, and you'll have a better shot at success.