Basics of Keyword Phrases
Written by Suresh Mishra   

First think of your prospects. This should tell you the phrases they are likely to use while hooking up into a search engine. Don’t worry too much about search engines we’ll tell you what to worry about. To take an example you are starting to provide  household equipment in Atlanta.

 

Now comes the hard part  finding keywords. “Atlanta household equipment shop” “Atlanta household equipment store”  are both good, someone could look for   a shop or a store.  “Atlanta household appliance store” is also good, someone may key in “appliance”.  Instead of “household” “home” could do. These are generic terms.

 

What are you selling? A washing machine? Air conditioners? What else? These can all yield keywords which strung together form a phrase. These are still generic terms of the different types of equipment you are selling.

 

Now come down to the  specifics. Are you selling a Bosch washing machine, a Hoover vacuum cleaner or what else. Now make phrases including brand names of products you are selling. Many websites forget to target brand names in their phrases, you can gain an advantage here.

 

While talking of brand names you may not be selling anything of Panasonic but that would be invoking searches. What do you do?  Include Panasonic in a keyword phrase and possibly lead them on to a page in which you do a comparison with your branded product. Most people love to read product comparisons, this would hook them to the page and raise the chances of their becoming prospects.

 

If you leave keyword construction to the Search Engine Optimizing company they will use a keyword tool to find the most popular searches, a list of relevant searches and tell you that those are the keywords needed for optimization. You know the business best so you should control keyword construction. 
 

Aim for four words in a keyword phrase. It has been seen that serious searchers often specify four words or even more during a search. The researchers correlated the number of words in a keyword to the final conversion and found this. On the other hand those who key in one or two words are typically browsing through search results looking for information in  a general manner.

 
Geographic terms should be included. “Atlanta household equipment store” will be “caught” by the search engine even if only “household equipment store” is keyed in. If “Atlanta household equipment store” is keyed in by the prospective customer, then bingo, your website will be the first in the search if no one else has used the term. 
 

Remember there are visitors, prospects and customers. Every visitor is important, a prospect vital for your future, and a customer the reason for your business’ existence. Keywords provide you with a hint as to what sort of a seeker has come into your website. So as a more advanced lesson don’t forget to log in the keywords or the route by which enquiries have come to your website. This in turn will tell you how to adjust the keywords if need be. 

Last Updated ( Monday, 08 June 2009 )