Friday, September 26, 2008

Proper Planning for Internet Search Engine Optimization

By Kenneth E. Knorr


When Starting an Search Optimization campaign it's often very attractive to skip right to fixing meta tags, title tags and modifying the body text. However you must devise an intelligent Search Campaign Plan FIRST. By identifying your target searchers and the most effective ways to reach out to them before you begin executing the nuts and bolts work you will be significantly more likely to achieve your objectives. Similar to conventional advertising efforts planning ahead involves careful research of the target buyer, Internet Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaigns are simply not as successful without careful and thorough selection of primary keyword terms and search phrases.

Careful Planning - Means Success

If you go the wrong way from the very start targeting keywords that no one searches for, you will end up with great but useless rankings for artificial search phrases. The only way you can ensure the success of your Internet Search Engine Optimization campaign is by doing preliminary keyword research.

When starting a company, owners typically take the time to test their market and do some research to determine demand. Why should your efforts with SEO be any different. You need to carefully consider all possible search phrases that are likely to be used by your potential clients. Further you should look at your competition to learn what key words they rank for. The next part is important, Compile a SHORT list of search terms related to your products and services that would represent your company best.

You've got the Short list of Keywords Now what?

After you've collected your preliminary list of keyword Phrases you can begin a methodical approach to expand it. At this stage you need to determine which of the phrases you've collected are most often used by the searchers of the major search engines. While Google won't give you numeric values for their search phrase counts, they will give you visual indicators of the search phrases. There are a number of useful tools available and professional services that you can select from. For example the Google AdWords Keyword Tool can be a simple solution (Search for the Google Keyword Sandbox). However for more complex and competitive search terms you may want to engage a professional SEO firm for this type of report. However when utilizing the free tools all you have to do is type the search terms into the suggestion box and you will have them rated according to their strength and search volume. You can even use the Google tool to estimate the number of clicks per day you might receive if using their pay per click advertising (this should be about 30% of the organic volume potential)

Research the competition!

For the next step of your Internet Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign you should research the level of competition for your keywords in order to determine just how hard (or easy) it will be to win top rankings for them. Although it can be very attractive to target only the most popular search terms, the reality is that your initial success with the top search terms may be very limited. So you need to establish incremental goals. The competitiveness for the most desirable keywords can be overwhelming that targeting them may be unrealistic. Competitive intelligence reports from professional providers can often take the guess work out of this type of research.

After you've investigate, and thoroughly researched your potential keywords, it will be much simpler to reduce the list to the core search phrases that your SEO Campaign will target. A successful Internet Search Engine Optimization campaign should always begin with research not just optimization. Bear in mind that you shouldn't attempt to target every phrase on the home page of your website. While the main page has the biggest potential of winning top positions it should be used for the most competitive phrases. Select no more than 5 - 6 of your most important search phrases for use on the home page.

A good start means good results

If you thoroughly prepare for Internet Search Engine Optimization this investment is sure to pay off saving you a lot of time and money afterwards.

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