Target the wrong keywords and all your efforts will be in vain. Choose the right keywords, and you'll see your traffic skyrocket. Therefore, think long and hard on what keywords people are likely to use to find you. Make lists of keywords and then combine them into two or three word phrases.
For example, you rarely want to target a single keyword since the billions of words indexed on the Web today, generally one word simply won't cut it. People learn quickly that if they type in "real estate" or "properties" that they get listings for real estate from all over the world! Now it would be nice if you popped up there on those extremely broad keywords, however, a better use of your time is to PAIR the generic keyword with something more specific. You might get lucky and rank well on just real estate since it's in your page too, but if not, at least you'll rank well on "Boston real estate," which will be far less difficult to achieve a top 10 or top 20 listing for. These keywords will also bring you far more qualified prospects.
We monitor your rankings on a broad array of keywords and doorway pages very quickly. However, we're continually dismayed by people trying to monitor their positions on keywords people are highly unlikely to use. For example, we had a well-meaning customer send a list of his keywords for the "cheap airfares" that his company sold. His list went something like this:
cheap
flights
"cheap flights"
quote
discounted
airfares
The word "cheap" alone does nothing to target their audience. It has to be paired with other words like "flights" or "airline reservations" to have any meaning. It's the same with "quote" and "discounted" -- too broad. Pair them with one or two other words. Statistically, most people search for two to three word phrases to avoid getting back too many unrelated matches. Keep this in mind when you design your pages!
Don't worry about there not being enough top 10 slots where you can achieve a high ranking. True, there are some keywords that are very competitive. And if you find that no matter what you do, you can't get in that top 10 spot for that word or phrase, just be creative! There are SO MANY other keywords and keyword combinations where you can achieve a Top 10 ranking. It's really NOT very difficult at all! Once you tap into some phrases people are searching on to find your type of site, you'll have tapped into a continuous stream of free advertising for your web site which sure beats paying out a $1000 or more a month in banner ads.
For example, if you don't achieve a good ranking on "cheap airfares," keep trying, but also be creative and target "inexpensive airfares" too. It's all about thinking like your customer or clientele - and it's really pretty easy to find a keyword combination that you can dominate in the search engines. You'll often find that there are more people searching for these other phrases than were searching for the first phrase you thought of. In marketing, this is called carving out your niche.
If you're Microsoft, you can afford to fight over who has the best "Browser software." But, for the rest of us, we know we can't always fight the big boys. So instead, what savvy marketers do is to identify a "niche" that few others are targeting and go after it. We've created pages for other web sites where we posted a doorway page that has remained in the Top 10 for six to ten months in a row. Other slots may change more often, but that's why you have us to help you stay on top of your rank under ALL the important keywords and keyword combinations. Good management is the key to achieving a range of good rankings, each of which will bring you scores of new traffic…if you choose the proper keywords that is.
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Picking the best keywords/phrases