Web Design - 3 Basic Rules of Keyword Optimization (and 1 No-No!)

Your web site can be great. But if the search engines can't find it, it doesn't really exist.

One way to ensure visitors is to buy paid clicks, like the Google AdWords program. Despite a recent class-action suit regarding the empty clicks for which the Google customers were allegedly charged, Google still remains a reliable source of traffic that professional web sites rely on.

There is a lot you can do as well to make sure the web robots index your page when your key words are searched.

By careful placement of key words in your page, you can increase your visitors substantially.

Here are the 3 simple rules for Keyword Optimization of your web site:

1. Your key word(s) should be a part of the header. For example, if your key word is “hotel,” do not post a leading article with the headline “An Unforgettable Caribbean Vacation.” “Best Hotels in the Caribbean” would a much better headline for your purpose.

2. Make sure your key word(s) is used within the first paragraph, and if possible, the first sentence of your leading article. The above example applies here as well.

3. Make your keyword(s) a part of your FILE NAME. For example, if your keyword is “education,” your “articles” page should not have a file name like “articles.html” but something like “articles_on_education.html”.

And here is a BIG NO-NO: Do NOT stuff your web page with “invisible text” of high search frequency. You could get away with such desperate tactics 10 years ago. But these days such behavior can get your web site blacklisted permanently on sophisticated search engines like Google.

(And if you don't know what "invisible text" is, that's even better. Don't worry about it.)

My most favorite keyword optimization device is Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool. http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

When you type in your intended keyword, this marvelous tool lists you the frequency with which that word and its derivatives were searched for in Yahoo within the past month.

Since Yahoo with about 100 Million visitors is the most frequently visited web site on the planet, you can take the Yahoo results as the most reliable feedback available today on your keywords.

Other available Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools:

AOL searches

http://hotsearches.aol.com/search/hotsearch.jsp

Google Zeitgeist

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

Google Zeitgeist

Top 5 Monthly Summary

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist_monthly.html

Google Zeitgeist

Top 15 Search Keywords from Around the World

http://www.google.com/press/intl-zeitgeist.html

Lycos Top 50 Searches

http://50.lycos.com/

and

Yahoo BUZZ Index

http://buzz.yahoo.com/

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