There are many methods of gaining more traffic for your website. One of the easiest ways to do this is using keywords correctly in your text. Keywords are the words and phrases that people search for in search engines in order to find the information they seek. The better your choice of keyword phrase, the more likely it is that your website will be at the top of the search engines. Of course where your website ranks will also depend on other factors, such as how much competition there is for a keyword phrase and how popular your site is in terms of link popularity.
There are several ways to find effective keywords for your website. I find that the easiest is to use a keyword suggestion tool. The two keyword tools that I would recommend are Google AdWords Keyword Tool and WordTracker. Here is a brief summary of each one detailing how to use these keyword suggestion tools:
Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a very useful tool that displays the keyword phrases that you search for with the results for number of monthly searches. The keyword tool at Google AdWords is completely free to use. To use it type in the topic that you wish to find keywords or keyword phrases about. Make sure, when using this free keyword suggestion tool, that you have selected 'Descriptive words or phrases' under 'How would you like to generate keyword ideas?' This way you are searching for keywords used in search engines and not just at a specific website. You can have more than one idea for keyword searches at the same time, simply by entering different phrases on separate lines. Before you hit the 'get keyword ideas' button you will need to enter the verification code provided, to demonstrate that you are not a 'bot'.
Many results for keywords will then be listed below. The Google AdWords Tool gives the amount of monthly searches as well as the 'advertiser competition'. Remember the more competition there is the harder it is to get your page near the top of the search engine results. Keyword phrases containing more than three words are often good choices because they usually have less competition and the search is more specific, so more targeted towards your website's purpose.
Once you have chosen your keywords based on reasonable number of monthly searches with not too much competition, copy and paste them onto a word document, ready to include in your web page for maximum effect.
WordTracker
WordTracker is the other keyword suggestion tool that I would recommend. This keyword suggestion tool works slightly different to the AdWords tool in that it gives results for daily searches. Again you type in the keyword idea, and press the 'Hit Me' button, and results are displayed. There is also a drop down menu that gives you the option to remove offensive or dubious results.
With the free version of WordTracker only the top 100 keyword results are shown, as you have to pay to see the rest. The results that WordTracker give are searches per day, so if you are comparing the results from the two keyword suggestion tools that I have mentioned, remember to take into account that one displays monthly searches and the other daily. Also you need to be aware of the fact that WordTracker draws on a different database from the AdWords tool, so the results are difficult to correlate.
Again make a note of the keywords you wish to use in your web page.
How to use Keywords in your web page
Choose a main keyword phrase and a secondary keyword phrase to use in your page. In some paragraphs you will want to use variations of these rather than the exact phrase.
The title
The most important place to include keywords is in the title of your page. You should place your best keyword at the beginning of the title. Let's look at an example. If you are making a page about cake decorating, then below are the keywords you might want to consider:
682 cake decorating ideas
540 cake decorating
375 cake decorating supplies
155 cake decorating techniques
106 cake decorating tips
20 cake decorating designs
8 easy cake decorating
(results for daily searches)
Usually you would concentrate on a single keyword phrase in the title so your page title could be, for example, 'Cake Decorating Tips On The Use of Frosting'
The content of your page
When including keywords in your content, you should aim to have about one keyword per paragraph, at the most. If you include keywords madly, then Google may ban your site. Including excessive numbers of keywords is called 'keyword stuffing'. Google has a way to locate sites that do this, and this may result in all of your web pages being banned. Paragraphs lower down your page do not need your keyword phrase at all, but it is a good idea to include it in your last paragraph. Your secondary keyword phrase should be used more sparingly still.
When keywords are used effectively they can be the key to gaining more traffic, so give it a try next time you write a new web page!
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