Effective Keywords

by Idea Lab

Choosing effective keywords is an important exercise to go through when planning for a website’s success. Keywords are the search terms that a person uses to query a search engine. Choosing the best keywords to use on pages is helpful in getting listed near the top of the search engine results.

To find the best keywords to use, research needs to be done. Look for the top keywords people are already searching for that match-up with the content of the pages. Optimize pages by selecting frequently searched keywords that communicate what the webpages offer. There are several tools available online that can help to answer the question, “what are people searching for?” They fall into two main categories – keyword suggestion tools and search engine ranking tools.

  • Keyword Suggestion Tools:
    These tools are effective in revealing the number of searches that are performed for a particular keyword or keyword phrase. The results from these tools will help to steer away from ineffective keywords and will offer suggestions for other popular wordings to pursue.
  • Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool
  • Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Search Engine Ranking Tools:

These tools report the ranking of a website for certain keywords or phrases in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, AOL etc.). The results from these tools will help to determine the effectiveness of the targeted keywords and phrases. This gives the starting point for launching a keyword campaign and feedback to see if the results are improving.

For more information about researching and choosing keywords, read articles about the following:

Back to Search Engine Optimization Checklist

Next to The Importance of Anchor Text