Keyword Strategies for SEO

Keywords, although they oftentimes receive too much emphasis by so-called "experts", are still an integral part of your overall search engine optimization strategy. Today, we will look at defining the proper keywords for your site and then we will look at putting them into use.

Identifying the Keywords You Will Use
The first step is to identify the keywords you will use. Obviously, these will relate in some fashion to your website's overall purpose. You must be careful, however, not to be too broad in the keywords you choose to use.

As an illustration in this article, let's say that you run an e-commerce shop that offers novel, up-scale pet supplies and toys. The following keywords would make good choices for your site:

• "pet toys"
• "pet supplies"
• "expensive pet toys"
• "up-scale pet toys"
• "expensive pet supplies"
• "upscale pet supplies"

The following keywords/phrases would not make good choices for your site:

• "expensive novel up-scale pet toys and supplies"
• "online shopping pet supplies toys expensive up-scale upscale"

There is one simple, basic strategy to use when choosing keywords, and here it is: Choose the shortest amount of words in each keyword and keyword phrase that convey what your website does, while using natural, grammatically correct language. Remember that although someone using Google may use the search string "online shopping pet supplies toys expensive up-scale upscale", you should not use this on your site, as it is not grammatically correct, and would not be understood be real, live people visiting your site.

So the first step is to sit down and identify no more than five to ten (at the most) simple keywords and short keyword phrases that identify the subject matter of your website.

Putting the Keywords into Use
The next step is applying the keywords and keyword phrases you have developed by using them on your site.

Again, there is one big rule here, and it is closely related to the strategy used in developing your keywords: Ensure that your keywords are arranged intelligently on your site so that they are readable by your website visitors and are grammatically correct. As was touched on in the preceding section, this is what the real, live visitors to your website will see, so you want to make sure that they can understand what they are seeing.

For each keyword you have developed, it is recommended that you use it at least five times on each page of your site. Find blocks of text on each page in your site where it makes sense to insert your keywords and keyword phrases. The more, the merrier! (As long as they follow the rules outlined in this article - https://www.hostreview.com/.../searchengineoptimization.html - no blending in with the background, etc.

Finally, one might wish to use search engine optimization tools, such as these, that help you nail down your SEO strategy and are especially good for narrowing your keyword focus.

As you can see, the concept of keywords is pretty simple. It is the implementation of your keyword strategy that can make the difference!