Advanced Tips on Using Keywords for Search Engine Optimization for a Website in a Competitive Market

Finding and using really good keywords and keyword phrases is critical to driving traffic to your website and blog. Here are some tips for finding and using the perfect keywords and phrases, especially in a very competitive market.

• Go local: Focus on local keywords. Add the name of your city, county, or state to the search term. Be the go-to person in your field in your area.
• Focus on more specialized areas. Use what are known as long tail keywords. For example, don’t just use pest control, use “Myrtle Beach termite specialist.” Don’t be just a real estate agent, be the “Carolina Forest New Home Specialist”. You get the idea.
• Contains misspellings. Are there terms in your industry that are commonly misspelled? Many people spell real estate agent – real estate agent. Take advantage of that. Yellow Pages did a great job on this and created yellowpages.com. Using misspelled keywords is becoming less effective as search engines begin to adjust for misspellings in search requests, but it can still be an effective tool.

You will need to examine the keywords in your keywords meta tag. Here are some things to consider:

• Limit the tag to 10-12 words or sentences. Although you can add many keywords, search engines will often consider this spam when you try to include too many keywords in this tag.
• Separate keywords with a command and a space.
• Make sure your keywords also appear in the body of the page. A general rule of thumb is that 4% or less of your content should be keywords. So the idea is to use keywords and phrases, but don’t overuse them simply to try to boost search rankings.
• Don’t repeat keywords in multiple key phrases. For example, personal injury attorney, personal injury attorney, personal injury advocate, personal injury help. It’s okay to repeat a few times, but move on to other keywords.
• Don’t use the same keyword tag on all your pages. Check out the content on your page and make your keywords relevant to the content.

Here are some other ways to let search engines know that the information on the page is important:

• Use the format with keywords. Make text bold or italic. Use capital letters. Put keywords in bulleted lists.
• Make sure any images you have on the page have a tag that describes the photo and includes your keywords. Remember that search engines cannot read images, they only see text.
• Do you sell a product that is well known? Make sure the product name is included in your keywords. However, make sure you have permission to use the product name in your advertising. There have been several lawsuits where a product or company name was used to drive traffic to a website, however the website owner had no right to use the name.

Use these tools to create a list of good keywords, and then use them in your website’s meta tags and throughout your content. Over time, you will start to be found by your prospects and customers.