SEO Tips: How to Organize Your Site For Fast Ranking
- Date: 2007-01-08 - Word Count: 558
Share This!
In my last keyword building article I wrote about how to select keywords that would generate the highest return with the least amount of work.
I demonstrated how employing advanced search strings and recording Overture data can be used to find keywords with very little competition and high search volumes. My conclusion was that by conducting keyword research in this manner, ranking for keywords becomes easier.
The next step in Keyword Building is learning how to organize a site around a keyword list for fast ranking and best results. The following is my strategy for doing so.
What You'll NeedA finalized list of keywords as well as their corresponding search volumes and number of competitors. Excel, or some other spreadsheet program. An understanding of the site's industry, and which terms are semantically related. Enough SEO knowledge to decide which words from your list are "low competition."
Low Competition Keywords
"Low competition" is a relative term. To illustrate why, search the term "Marietta, Georgia real estate" in Google. Here are the key numbers:99 inachor and intitle competitors for the term1,300 searches for the term each month330.8 average backlinks for a top 10 result4.2 average page rank of a top 10 result
Now here are some seemingly perplexing numbers regarding the 9th result:It has only 8 backlinksIt also has a PR of 0
Meanwhile the 10th result has…240 backlinksPR of 3
This raises the question of why the 10th result doesn't rank higher than the 9th result, as well as why the 9th result is even on the first page. The answer is two-fold:The 9th result is a sub-page optimized singularly for that search term. The 9th result's domain has roughly 1.1 million more backlinks than any other site on the SERP and is a subdomain of Yahoo.com.
For Yahoo, a term with 99 competitors and 1,300 searches every month is very "low competition." However, because it has optimized a page for the search term, and is well trusted by Google, it easily ranks.
When organizing your keywords, picking out the "low competition" words is an integral part to driving traffic. Devote a page to every word that will easily rank from your list, optimizing the title tag, h1 tag and keyword density.
Remember, just as you look to Yahoo, thinking, "I wish I could rank for a word like that without having to link-build" so too will a site smaller than yours say of your "low competition" keyword pages.
High Competition Keywords
Keywords that will require a link-building strategy before ranking are considered "high competition." High competition keywords should be broken down into semantically similar groups. Intuition is largely used to separate the keywords, but here are a few universal guidelines:Keep the groups under 6 words each.Group phrases together with more than one word in common. Check to see if two keywords return similar results in Google. No group should have only 1 keyword. Maximize the efforts of your link building.
Once the keywords have been semantically split, prepare an optimized title tag containing all of the keywords from that group. Also choose one word from each group which is the most important to get ranking. That term should be what is in the anchor text of your links when you begin a link building campaign.
Overall, this strategy will save you hours of fiddling and tweaking. Remember, SEO is no different than any other business process
I demonstrated how employing advanced search strings and recording Overture data can be used to find keywords with very little competition and high search volumes. My conclusion was that by conducting keyword research in this manner, ranking for keywords becomes easier.
The next step in Keyword Building is learning how to organize a site around a keyword list for fast ranking and best results. The following is my strategy for doing so.
What You'll NeedA finalized list of keywords as well as their corresponding search volumes and number of competitors. Excel, or some other spreadsheet program. An understanding of the site's industry, and which terms are semantically related. Enough SEO knowledge to decide which words from your list are "low competition."
Low Competition Keywords
"Low competition" is a relative term. To illustrate why, search the term "Marietta, Georgia real estate" in Google. Here are the key numbers:99 inachor and intitle competitors for the term1,300 searches for the term each month330.8 average backlinks for a top 10 result4.2 average page rank of a top 10 result
Now here are some seemingly perplexing numbers regarding the 9th result:It has only 8 backlinksIt also has a PR of 0
Meanwhile the 10th result has…240 backlinksPR of 3
This raises the question of why the 10th result doesn't rank higher than the 9th result, as well as why the 9th result is even on the first page. The answer is two-fold:The 9th result is a sub-page optimized singularly for that search term. The 9th result's domain has roughly 1.1 million more backlinks than any other site on the SERP and is a subdomain of Yahoo.com.
For Yahoo, a term with 99 competitors and 1,300 searches every month is very "low competition." However, because it has optimized a page for the search term, and is well trusted by Google, it easily ranks.
When organizing your keywords, picking out the "low competition" words is an integral part to driving traffic. Devote a page to every word that will easily rank from your list, optimizing the title tag, h1 tag and keyword density.
Remember, just as you look to Yahoo, thinking, "I wish I could rank for a word like that without having to link-build" so too will a site smaller than yours say of your "low competition" keyword pages.
High Competition Keywords
Keywords that will require a link-building strategy before ranking are considered "high competition." High competition keywords should be broken down into semantically similar groups. Intuition is largely used to separate the keywords, but here are a few universal guidelines:Keep the groups under 6 words each.Group phrases together with more than one word in common. Check to see if two keywords return similar results in Google. No group should have only 1 keyword. Maximize the efforts of your link building.
Once the keywords have been semantically split, prepare an optimized title tag containing all of the keywords from that group. Also choose one word from each group which is the most important to get ranking. That term should be what is in the anchor text of your links when you begin a link building campaign.
Overall, this strategy will save you hours of fiddling and tweaking. Remember, SEO is no different than any other business process
Related Tags: keywords, keyword selection, site optimization, atlanta search engine optimization
This article was written by Mike Bradbury. Mike is an employee of Objectware, Inc an Atlanta Web Design and Atlanta Search Engine Optimization Company. Mike creates search engine visibility for clients in the Atlanta and Washington DC areas.
Your Article Search Directory : Find in ArticlesRecent articles in this category:
- What is the Google PageRank: An Easy to Understand Introduction
THE GOOGLE PAGERANK EXPLAINED SIMPLYA common question amongst website owners is, "How is the G - 3 Easy Way to Get Edu Baclinks
Education websites are the most trusted websites on the internet and if you've got backlinks on thes - How to Launch Your Own SEO Company
Having knowledge and experience about search engine optimization doesn't really mean it's goin - Ethical SEO optimization always pays stable search engine rankings
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Sty - Five Easy to Make Mistakes That Keep Search Engine Robots Away From Your Website
Search engine robots are very simple software programs. If an indexing robot cannot find the conten - Generate an Intelligent Set of Link Building Services
Link building can be best defined as the most suitable way of promoting a website, however, at the - It's Time to Develop Intelligent SEO Content Writing
Creating appropriate, value content is significant for a website to get listed on the search engine - Does Your Website Have No or the Wrong Sitelinks in Google?
What are Sitelinks? Sitelinks are additional links below the description and the URL of a web page - Search Engine Optimization and Spam - How Will You Know That?
There is a fine line between proper search engine optimization, and what a search engine will consi - 9 Steps for Making Money Online
I've outlined a step by step marketing process flow, and more, on how to setup an online Money Mark
Most viewed articles in this category:
- Free Search Engine Optimization Tools on the Internet
As I run across tools and websites that I find particularly useful for software and high tech compan - SEO Explained
Search engine optimization is part science and part art. How well it is done has a lot to do with t - SEO - Choosing Blog Fonts and Colors
Part of having a cohesive blog design is to choose one or two fonts and two to four colors and stick - How "Blog-and-Ping" Can Boost Your PageRank
"Blog and Ping" is a term that refers to a technique where you make a post on your blog, and using y - Top Ranking SEO Secret
Most web programmers and designers now have a good idea of how to optimize their site using on-site - Affordable Seo: Where Do I Start To Optimize My Website?
The Starting point is clear. Understand what your main competitors are doing. That is Right! If you - Off Page SEO: The Importance Of Incoming Links And Search Engine Optimization
Off page SEO: The importance of incoming links and search engine optimization Off page seo an in - Stop Chasing the Search Engines and Get Better Traffic
Search engines are mysterious and unpredictable. One day you might be on the top of the SERPs and t - How To Get Search Engine Traffic From Kenya in Africa
Traffic from Kenya and Kenyans via search engines like Google basically means unlimited traffic and - Why Search Engine Fail
Imagine asking a stranger for directions to a clothing store. Chances are, the stranger will