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Keyword Optimization…Overlooked Keyword Research and Processes!

Keyword optimization, better known as Keyword Research, is the researching, the analyzing, then the choosing of the most suitable keyword phrases for your content. Keyword research and optimization done right will create a funnel of qualified and targéted traffic back to your site from the search engine results pages (SERP’s).

Proper keyword optimization is the finding of those targeted and profitable keywords and keyword phrases that your potential visitors will enter into the search engine’s Search box, which will bring up the most relevant sites to a particular subject.

This process will play a large role in determining where you will land in the Search Engine Results Pages… it could mean the difference between not being found anywhere on the Web, or being the first site that users click on when performing a search.

This keyword optimization procedure is NOT a onetime thing… this is something that needs to be done each and every time you decide you want to bless the World with your brilliance of the written word.

Choosing the proper keywords for your site is absolutely critical for SEO… finding yourself within the search engine results pages (SERP’s) for keyword phrases that you are targeting isn’t too shabby either. However, proper keyword research and optimization is probably one of the most common areas overlooked by online marketers.

Overlooked Keyword Optimization & Research that Search Engines Use!

The whole purpose of the list below is to familiarize yourself with crucial optimization elements that are often overlooked by the average blogging professional, yet the search engines look for while crawling your site.

Best SEO Keyword Research Practices!

Let’s Start with the Long Tailed Keyword Phrase: Long tail keywords are a way of expanding on a core, generic word to be made into a more specific targeted keyword term. Example: A Generic Broad Keyword – “Knives”; a more targeted, Long Tail Keywords Phrase – “Handmade Damascus Knives.” What you have done here is narrowed down the visitors search by giving the specific information that you are offering for “Knives.”

Since the Google Panda Update was developed “to give people the most relevant answers to their queries,” it might be in your best interest to target keywords that are related specifically to your content. You might consider this your best method to find your main targeted keyword phrase suitable to your article topic.

You can use the Free Online SEO tools like the Google External Keyword Research tool to find the keywords that potential visitors will associate with the information you are offering.

Keyword Variations: This is just another way of saying that not each Internet searcher uses the same words to find information… you need to think like your visitors and create some different variations of your targeted keyword phrase adding words at the beginning, the end, the middle, etc.

Example of keyword variants from the above long tailed keyword phrase: “Custom Damascus Knives,” “Damascus Hunting Knives.” These types of keyword phrases you can put within your written content where it sounds right and makes sense.

Keyword Synonyms: Fairly self-explanatory… these are words that have similar meanings and the search engines are looking for word association within your content.

Keyword Stemming: This is the growth of one keyword phrase that is related to your website article by using suffixes, prefixes, or adding pluralization. This is another way of making one keyword phrase into many additional new keywords that you can use in your article.

Example: blog, blogs, blogger, blogger’s, blogging, weblog, weblogs… you get the idea!

Semantically Related or Relevant Keyword Phrases: The use of these relevant keyword phrases in your content will allow the search engines to determine relevancy by the subject matter, rather than keyword density. In the world of organic or the natural search, semantically related content refers to words that are connected thematically to a specific search query.

For example: Canon Cameras, Nikon Lenses, SLR, Zoom Lenses, Tripods, etc., can all be synonymous with the word Camera. Creating sentences and paragraphs using semantic keyword variations in your article can improve its relevancy score in the search engines’ ranking algorithms.

Best SEO On-Page Keyword Optimization Practices!

Let’s Start with the URL Structure: URL, which stands for Uniform Resource Locator, essentially is an address which is used to find your website pages. Without them there would be no means of navigating from one page to another.

Making your URL file names relevant to the content contained within the page is not only an important organization factor, but both search engines and your visitors associate the name of the page with the content that it contains. Just as it makes sense to have relevant keywords within your web page for the topic you are writing about, you should name the file URL after your main keyword phrase.

Your URL file name needs to contain only the keyword phrase that you are targeting. It does not need to be the full sentence of the main article headline… the shorter, the better!

Main Article Headline: Capture the visitors attention with a compelling and relevant headline in regards to their search, or lose them. You have less than 10 seconds to grab their attention before they move on. And, of course, you will want to place a keyword phrase describing your content within the article headline.

Keep in mind that your Article Headline is a brief summary of the content contained, it does not need to be more than 5 to 7 words long.

By John Engle (c) 2012