Selecting Keywords in your Niche Market

The process of selecting keywords should begin with an evaluation of what your site and the specific page is about. Remember, you want to define the site and page - not define your most hoped for audience. If you ask most people what your site is about, they will probably give you a one or two word answer.

You are more likely to be found in the top 20 if you position keywords next to each other to form phrases. This is known as keyword proximity. Sites with the word(s) in the exact order as searched for tend to pull before sites that just contain the words.

What Are Filter Words?

Some search engines filter out extremely common words in order to save space or to speed up searches. These are also known as "stop words” because it won’t stop to look for them. Examples include words like "a, the, and, or." These are ignored to save disc space on the search engine server.

If you own a brand new web site which has little to no credibility with any of the major search engines or directories, consider less competitive keywords/keyword phrases for your initial marketing campaign.

Location of Keyword Phrases

Search engines determine the relevancy of your page/site based on several factors, one of the most important factors are the use of keywords/keyword phrases, relevant to the page content. Things to consider are the keyword density, where the keywords appear, how they are used, and where they are positioned.

Sites can be penalised for excessive keyword repetition. Aim for a fair and reasonable keyword arrangement. Let's consider some places where keywords could possibly be placed:

URL (address)	Site Title	Description meta tag	Keyword meta tag	Page Copy
Headers <H1-H4>	Bold Text & Links	Graphic ALT tags	Named Anchors	Comments

Do the spiders read a keyword every time you put one in one of these places? No one really knows other than the search engines. When you discover what keywords to use, use them sparingly and in a natural way and you'll have nothing to be concerned about.

Watch our video and learn how to use the Google Keyword Suggestion Tool. The Google Keyword Suggestion Tool is a free service for keyword research. This page will open in a new window, leaving the tutorial open in this browser window for you to return to later.

Search engine optimisation tutorial - keyword rich page copy