Category: SEO

In the “first part of this post”:http://www.onedegree.ca/2006/10/10/keyword-strategy-seos-most-critical-element-part-1, I outlined several places that you can find good keywords for your website. In this post I will provide some keyword selection tips and outline how to group your keywords and position them on your site.
*Keyword Selection Tips*
When selecting keywords for your site, it is best to look for phrases that describe your products/services in the most clear and logical way possible. Below, I have outlined a number of selection tips for you to consider.
*_Evaluate the market for your keywords_*
In order to select the best keywords for your site, you have to be able to evaluate how competitive the market is for each term and determine whether you have sufficient resources to compete.
You can gauge the level of competition and projected traffic for your keywords/keyword phrases by using some of the keyword suggestion tools that I outlined in my previous post. However, I highly recommend that you try out the “Keyword Difficulty Tool”:http://www.seomoz.org/tools/kwtool.php developed by SEOmoz. This tool will provide you with detailed information about the top ranking sites for a search phrase and give you good idea about what you will have to do with your site in order to compete. You can use this tool to compare terms that you are interested in and determine which ones are the most suitable for your keyword efforts.
*_Keywords vs. keyword phrases_*
It is often said that shorter keyword searches represent shoppers and longer keyword searches represent buyers. Single keywords (or short phrases) are not highly targeted and are much more difficult to rank well for. Longer, more targeted keyword phrases can generally be associated with greater purchase intent and will typically yield much higher conversion rates.
The goal of your keyword strategy is to drive qualified traffic to your website. Avoid using too many overly generic terms. Try to select *2 to 5 word phrases* that are specific to the contents of the page that you are optimizing.

I was recently asked what I feel is the most important element of a search engine optimization campaign. Without hesitation, I said “keyword strategy”. Link building may be regarded as the “holy grail of SEO”, but what do you think fills the cup? Keywords are the fuel for all search engine optimization campaigns.
Far too often, companies choose to target the wrong keywords and end up losing a lot of traffic and money because of it. Many clients want to focus their efforts on achieving top rankings for only a few very generic terms. In doing this, they typically end up spending a lot of time and money to rank well for terms that do not generate qualified traffic and end up having a very low conversion rate.