Location, Location, Location on the Web
What is the single most important factor for business success on the Web? Location, location, location in the cyberspace of words — namely
keywords, keywords, keywords
Just as customers find a store by walking or driving past it, online customers find websites by typing a word or phrase into a search engine. When you know what keywords your customers are searching for, you can place your website smack dab on top of that piece of cyberspace real estate.
Finding keywords
Brainstorming with a thesaurus is your first step to identifying the full range of keywords your customers are likely to use. Next comes market research — either with a professional firm or using WordTracker to learn the frequency of actual phrases used by searchers. This allows you to pinpoint the most vital keywords for your website’s success.
Using keywords
The best way to use keywords is early and often. Use them in your domain name, the filenames of your pages, in <title> and <meta> tags — and especially on the page itself.
Which is a better headline: Wyn’s Website Services or Successful Website Services? That depends on whether your brand name is so well known that people will search for it (Coca-Cola) — or whether your best bet is focusing on the result they want to achieve.
Less is more
Finally, keep text short and loaded with keywords. Search engines will then believe that your page is indeed about the words used in the <title> and <meta> tags. In other words, to achieve a high placement for searches on “Hawaii,” one’s best strategy is to have just one word on the page itself. You guessed it: Hawaii!
Of course, a single word won’t engage your viewers, so you need to strike a balance between eloquence for your marketing message and brevity for the search engines.
Build on keywords for website success!
Just as location is the cornerstone of business success, keywords are the foundation of an effective website. Know what keywords your customers are using, and use those keywords to bring them to your doorstep.
—June 2004, Wyn Snow.
