Using Keywords - A Primer. Part 1: Optimizing Your Current Web Content by Ken McGaffin, 22 July 2007
The first quick win of doing keyword research is to get maximum value from the work you've already done - the web copy that you've published on your site. You need to make sure this is optimized and bringing you traffic before you even think about creating new content.
Key points
- The first quick win in using keywords is to optimize the web content that you've already created. Adding keywords to your existing copy will increase the traffic you attract.
- Planning your overall site structure is important. You need to understand the role of your home page, category pages and specific product pages.
- Review your existing pages by asking six questions.
In the last series, 'Keyword Basics' we looked at how to do in-depth keyword research and quickly build a list of thousands of relevant keywords. In this new basic level series we'll show you how to use these keywords to grow your online business by continually adding more keywords and using them in profitable ways.
The first quick win of doing keyword research is to get maximum value from the work you've already done - the web content that you've published on your site. You need to make sure this is optimized and bringing you traffic before you even think about creating new content.
Perhaps, you didn't write your copy with keywords in mind, or perhaps you meant to optimize their copy later and never quite get round to doing it.
If that's the case, your web pages will not rank well on search engines, you'll not attract enough people interested in your products and worst of all, you'll not attract the sales that are so easily within your grasp.
But now is the time to take action and start using keywords in your website copy. You need to organize your web content and use important keywords in all the right places.
Overall site structure
The home page is your most important page for people doing general research before making a purchase decision. You should optimize your home page for about three important keywords, for example a website might choose the keyword, 'office furniture'. The home page will attract the highest number of inbound links and you will want to pass the power of these along to pages designed to move people along the sales process.
The home page should have keyword rich links to category pages that are designed for people doing more specific research, for example, 'home office furniture'. Everything on the category page should relate to this single topic. These should be optimized again for around three keywords.
The category pages should link to specific product pages, for example, 'portable computer desk'. You should use keyword rich links to point to them. People seeking product pages will be further along the buying process and will be looking for something specific. A product page should be optimized for two keywords.
So do a review of your main pages and make sure you've got a structure that follows the generic to the specific - 'home page' to 'category page' to 'specific product page' as in 'office furniture' to 'home office furniture' to 'portable computer desks'. The next step is to organize your pages and an Excel spreadsheet is very handy for doing this (you can download a template here).
Next let's review your existing pages and how to incorporate keywords into the copy. Here are the questions you need to ask:
(i) Have you got a clear purpose for the page and do you know what you want people to do after reading - or example, 'to help people understand' or 'to close a sale'?
(ii) Have you picked a primary and secondary keyword phrase around which you optimized your content? For the home page and for category pages, you can add a third phrase.
(iii) Does your title tag include your primary keyword phrase? That is an absolute must do. Can you include your secondary phrase in the title tag? That's a nice bonus but not essential. Does you title exceed around 70 characters?
(iv) Does your description tag include all of the keyword phrases for the page? Is it written in good English with a limit of around 200 characters? The description can often double as the summary or first paragraph of your copy.
(v) Have you included keyword rich sub-headings that help people scan your copy and provide keyword information for the spiders?
(vi) Have you included keywords in your body copy and in any links that you use? Don't worry too much about keyword density - if you've followed these steps your page will be well optimized for your chosen keywords. It is much better at this stage to writer persuasively for the human reader.
Optimizing your existing content is the first step in getting a real business return from your investment in keyword research. Many people stop here and don't realize how profitable using keywords in other ways can be.
In this section you've done the basics - next time we'll look at the less common uses of keyword research that can give you real competitive advantage.
About Ken McGaffin
Ken McGaffin is an experienced internet marketing consultant. He has worked for major pharmaceutical companies, advertising agencies, government bodies and non-profit organizations.
15 comments
Can we have the link to download the Excel template please.
I understand the benefit of the having a category page from the home page as far as optimization goes, but doesn’t that violate the rule of minimizing the number of clicks your client makes between homepage and product detail?
Ken, Are there other types of readers besides ‘human’?
Hello, Neo. Search engines like heirarchical structures, so the category pages are important for that reason alone. Keep in mind that most traffic to your site will never come to your home page first. Instead, people will arrive through search engine results pages that link directly to either your category page or product page. The ranking of these pages will depend on many factors. A logical heirarchical structure is one of them.
Eventually a SEO consultant is much like a business coach : they help you have a clear purpose, ask the good questions to go from where you are to where you want to be, set up the best strategy to change the situation and do what it takes to become successful. Finding specific relevant keywords based on your unique selling proposition (USP) is important to get a competitive advantage and attract the prospects you want, and optimizing the existing content of each one of your webpages is indeed a must to achieve a good ranking. But to really get a good return on your investment, you always need to remember to spend less time and money than what you may earn in return.
Hi. Can we have the link to the excel spreadsheet mentioned in this article?
An Excel template was offered in this article but the link was not functional. Several requests have been made for that template and I feel it reflects badly on the author and the website when these issues are not addressed in a timely manner. Even if you respond to each request, not correcting the link in an article which you continue to make available is questionable professionalism. Your call!
Many apologies - that Excel spreadsheet is now live.
Hi Pattieone,
The other type of ‘reader’ I was thinking of was a search engine spider. Some people can write as if the only thing that mattered was the search engine, not the ‘human reader’ who can buy your stuff.
Best wishes,
Very useful advixe, hope to read more from you. I hope you will be talking about the free and/or paid SEO tools on the web. Thanks again
Dear Ken, I was going to ask you about how do put thousands of keywords on my site. But, it seems that I just got the answer in your response to Neo. But now, there is concern over what he also said. Minimizing the number of clicks between the home page and product detail. Does this mean that out of thousands of keywords, only a few, say 100 go to one website? And as for the others, piece them off in 100 keyword chunks for another website, and so on? I may seem like a real novice at this, but its the only way I can get answers.
Ken, your article is fantastic. Do you have others we can read?
Hey Emmett. All Ken's articles are here: http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/authors/ken-mcgaffin
That's a really useful excel template, especially for those of your readers who aren't spreadsheet experts. Also very useful to see the link between keyword categories and web page categories as an optimisation tactic. Thanks - Ewan Kennedy.
Ken, thank you for the excel template. Very helpful.