Your keyword selection is where you place your bets. It's the most important decision because most of the optimization work that follows depends on their appropriateness. A good choice means rank improvement and sales. All of your content creation will focus on the keyword sets that you target early in this process. The more valuable a keyword set, the more content you will need to gain rank in the search results.

Keyword Sets

While it is true that content is king, you must create that content around wise keyword choices if you expect to see rank improvements that produce sales. Your keyword choices can make or break your optimization effort. You need words that people actually search for, as well as describe your product, for which you are willing to compete. Some keywords are easy, some impossible.

Identifying Your Best Keyword Sets

This is the most important decision, so don't cut corners.

Play with selection tools of Overture, AdWords, etc until you understand that keyword sets have measurable values, like how many searches get done for a particular set. High numbers are obviously good, because there are a lot of searchers, but there is also going to be a lot of competition for those high demand words.

Research competitors by reading their meta tags and running the tools on those words. If a site is high on the returns page, it is there for good reason.

Make sure your words define your product and service accurately. Ask objective bystanders what words they would use for your product, and run all the possibilities through the tools.

Some 2 word sets have relatives that are 3 word sets. Kids books = books for kids

Many many tips here including symbols, spaces, case significance


Bob Sakayama, SEO

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