Top Tips for Selecting Keyphrases That Will Work for Your Website

Many website owners wait until their website is built and ready to launch before they even begin to consider launching a search engine optimisation campaign. There are certain elements of an SEO campaign that should really run in tandem with the website design process, and ideally even in advance. One such area is the selection of keyphrases, this article is going to explain what keyphrases are, state why they should be selected early in the design process and then explain how to analyse and select the keyphrases that will give you the best shot at success.



What Are Keyphrases?


The central aim of search engine optimisation is to increase the traffic and sales that a website experiences by ensuring that they appear as high as possible on search engine results pages. A keyphrase is a statement that a webpage is optimised for. The aim being to have that webpage listed amongst the top search engine results when a searcher types that specific phrase into a search engine.



Why Select Keyphrases Early?


It is vital to select keyphrases early in a websites design process. There are a variety of reasons for doing this but ultimately it comes down to making the process as easy and streamlined as possible. Choosing which keyphrases to target early can impact on a variety of areas of a websites design. First it will allow the pages and categories on the site to be named in a way that includes the keyphrases where possible. If any are available a domain name relating to one of the keywords can also go a long way to helping a website rank highly for that phrase. Finally it permits the content on the site to be written with the keyphrases in mind. Proper headers and title tags can be utilised and the keyphrase can potentially be entered in the copy itself.



How to Choose Successful Keyphrases


The first step in selecting successful keyphrases is to decide how many to target. It is important to strike a balance between targeting too few keyphrases to see a dramatic increase in traffic/sales and selecting so many keyphrases that the effort is diluted. You need to decide how much time you can devote to search engine optimisation each month and ensure that you target a reasonable amount of phrases without spreading your efforts to thin. Once this has been decided upon you can begin the process of analysing keyphrases and the most important element here is research. First sit down with a pen and paper and brainstorm what you would search for to find the products or services that you are planning to offer on your website. After this ask for suggestions from your family, friends, work colleagues and anyone else that you know. The set of words and phrases that you derive from this task should provide you with a great base for selecting keywords from.



The next step is to perform online analyses of the phrases that you have. There are many tools available online that can help you with this (the Keyword Tool provided by Google AdWords is an excellent, and free, example). This tool will allow you to type in a keyphrase and will tell you how many users on average search for that particular term every month. Obviously the more people that search for a particular term the more traffic you could potentially derive from search engines after your website is properly optimised. Finding keywords that a lot of people search for is only half the battle however: if there are already 15 exceptionally well established websites vying for dominance using that keyphrase then it is unlikely that a new site will be able to rival them without investing huge amounts of time and money into the endeavour. The best way to analyse competition is simply to perform a search for the keyword. This will first show you how many other websites have been indexed for this term; it will then also allow you to look at which websites already occupy the top positions in the search engines and decide if you think you have a chance at displacing them.



It is also well worth considering that raw traffic is no indicator of the impact that will be had on sales. Many, typically general, search terms can receive tens of thousands of searches per month however people using general search terms are typically either looking for information, or they are simply browsing with no urgent need for a product or service. Conversely people who search for more specific (often called 'long tail') keyphrases are more likely to be looking to buy a product or enlist a company's service. It is vital therefore that website owners carefully consider which keyphrases will best suit their needs and select those that strike the balance between traffic, competition and sales conversion potential.



Many webmasters don't have the time necessary to devote to keyphrase analysis, or SEO in general; however it is still an extremely important step. If you find yourself in this situation there are many SEO / website design companies that will be able to help with the task.



The most important thing to remember when optimising any website is that it should always be designed for human visitors first and search engines second. As important as SEO can be if it results in content that turns away potential customers the effort has been wasted. By spending time carefully selecting keywords that are appropriate to both your website and the market it targets you should be able to achieve great results.