If you have the chance to talk with the sites owner about the goals of the site and who the competition are then this stage is much easier, but even if you do not have access to the sites owner you can still work out the nature of the site with a little more work.

Get a pen and paper and look through the site, jot down what you think the site is about, what the site is trying to get you to do, make a purchase, give you information , get you to interact with it etc.

Write down words that are related to the sites subject, if it is about share trading on line, then you might include words like;

Shares
Share dealing
Buy shares
Share trading

These are just base words to work from, they are far from a final list and can be just 2 words related the topic or a list of 50, at this stage they are just to get us thinking along the right lines.

So to recap we have established

a) What the site is about
b) What the site owners need the visitor to do
c) We have a broad list of words related to that site’s subject (not the action – just the topic)

This list of words is your seed list, the list you are going to grow your keywords from.

When optimising a site we need to know what the site owner needs to get from the site, sometimes it is obvious, they sell an item and therefore they need people to purchase it from them via the website.

Other times it is less obvious, they may be a site that offers information, local government and community sites do this a lot, they are not selling things but they still need to be found in the search engines for the correct terms or they will not receive their funding.

Some sites are similar to online catalogs, they show a range of services or products that are available off line, these might include car companies that wish to promote brand awareness but they know the internet is part of the decision making process not the end of it.

The goal for a company like this might be to gather contact information from visitors that can then be used by the off line sales team.

So different techniques and keywords need to be used for each type of site.

When optimising a site you may have picked it up in one of several states;

A new site we have designed for a customer – this has some distinct advantages, we have had chance to meet and speak to the customer about the site, their ambitions and goals for it, from these meetings we know the sort of keywords the customer needs to rank well for.

A new site that was built by someone else that we need to start optimising, care needs to be taken as it is easy to assume that the words used in the text are the correct ones to use in the optimisation, often they are not as they can contain industry terms and abbreviations that are not going to be used when searching for that site.

Sites that have been around and running for a time that are partly optimised, again the danger with these is that you assume the keywords used in the optimisation are correct and just plough ahead with ranking for these, it can be a time consuming and costly error to make these assumptions.

An hour or two spent on keyword research at the beginning of the process can save thousands of pounds in wasted time and effort down the line and can be the difference between retaining a client and seeing the business grow and loosing the client altogether.

The search engines love links; they are seen as a vote from one site to another and as such can be difficult to get if you are new to on-line marketing.

In general you need to offer something of value to the site you wish to get a link from. This can be information which is hard to get elsewhere, tools that can be used by visitors to their site, discounts on your services or anything else with a perceived value.

You should avoid building links too quickly as this can harm your rankings in the search engines. You should also avoid companies offering to build hundreds or thousands of links for you for just a few dollars as they use automated spam that can also harm your position in the search engines.

If you get the right links from the right sites, formatted in the right way, you do not need thousands. Quality is more important than quantity.

Free Keyword research guide

Keyword research is a vital part of site optimisation, with out this aspect of the process being completed properly then there is little chance of getting the desired results.

The correct keyword analysis and selection allows us to rank well and drive traffic from the keywords our customers use.

As an example if we were going to sell a book on “how to buy shares on line” your first thoughts might be to optimise for words like:

Shares
Share dealing
Buy shares
Share trading

These are all good useful words and phrases to optimise for but they are too broad for what we are selling, they might deliver traffic to the site but the sales rate would be very low and the competition for top spot very tough.

So instead we must think what would a perspective purchaser of our “online share trading” book use to find such a product, these might include;

Online share trading
How to trade shares online
Buying shares online
Online share dealing information
Online share trading book

The first thing you will notice is that the phrases used to find this product are longer than the previous example, this is because people who are looking to make a purchase rather than just gathering information use more definite search terms.

The term keyword can also mean key phrase – often phrases are more important to rank for than individual words.

We can use various tools to help in the keyword selection process, these will be gone into in more detail later, the thing to remember is always put your self in the customers position, what search term would they use to find your site, these then become your keywords.

We can use various tools to help in the keyword selection process, these will be gone into in more detail later, the thing to remember is always put your self in the customers position, what search term would they use to find your site, these then become your keywords.

This is part 1 of an ongoing keyword research guide, please return for the next part soon

You need to take your keyword research very seriously as it is the foundation of your entire on-line marketing campaign. If you start to optimise and promote phrases that people are not using, you will not get the visitor numbers you need to succeed.

You can analyse your own statistics to see how people have found your site and then build on those phrases. There is powerful software available that can suggest terms in your niche and provide estimated visitor numbers and competition analysis.

Look at your competition and see what they are trying to rank well for.

When conducting your keyword research you need to have an integrated balance of research and ‘buying’ phrases.

Keywords should be thought of as phrases rather than single words. They are the words people use to find your site on the Internet. These words are typed into a search engine which then brings up a list of websites related to that phrase.

Not all keywords, however, are worth the same to a company that is marketing itself on-line.

Some keywords are used for research purposes, while others are used to make purchases. Clearly ‘buying’ phrases will be of more interest to you if you are selling products on-line.

Pay Per Click (PPC) is an advertising tool used on the Internet. There are a number of companies offering this service but the best known at the moment are Google, Yahoo and MSN.

They all work in a similar way and allow the advertiser to create a small advertisement which is then displayed next to the search results when specific keywords are used or on partner sites related to the product or service you are selling.

The main advantage to the advertiser is that you only pay when someone clicks on your advertisement and visits your site. You are also able to impose strict budgets that enable you to control your advertising spend.

If you have ever considered using a Search Engine Optimisation company (SEO) to help promote your website in the organic search engine results there are some things you should be aware of to help stop you hiring a company that is not up to the job.

Companies that promise you the number 1 spot in Google for a term – no company can guarantee a top position, any one who says they can is being dishonest or does not know what they are talking about.

Not even Google guarantees to get your website indexed in the correct category, they obviously want to and do their best but they can not guarantee it.

Companies that offer you hundreds or thousands of links for $49 this will harm your site, not help it, search engine optimisation is not about tricking the search engines, it is about helping them index your site well.

Companies whose site is not in the top results for their own search terms, if you search for search engine optimisation UK you will find Be Found or Die, if companies can not get these positions for themselves how are they going to do it for you?

Companies who do not listen to you and insist on the keywords you should use, if they do this it is normally because these keywords are easier to rank for and will provide less traffic to your site – if the keywords generate more traffic than those you have chosen they should be able to prove this to you before they start work.

Following these simple tips should help you choose a SEO company that will help you in the search engine rankings, if you have not done so already call the SEO team at Be Found or Die for more information on why we think we can help.

Improving your traffic is the first step to increasing your return on investment from your website. The second is improving your conversion rate.

Both of these can be achieved by a well designed website, we recommend you look at web design Salisbury for web site design tips and information.

Ensuring that people land on the page that is most relevant to their search is a good way to boost conversions. This can be achieved through both Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimisation.

When people land on the page that is most relevant to the search they have performed they will feel much more inclined to stay and read that page, if you are looking to buy Christmas cards that donate money to your favourite charity you would search for charity Christmas cards, you would want to land on a page that was relevant to charity related Christmas cards and that would offer a donation to relevant charities, if instead you landed on a page that talked about business telephone numbers you would not stay there.

Using clear, crisp photographs of your products will help to increase your conversion rates. The saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is true, but only if the picture shows the product in a good light.

Professionally taken photographs may cost more than doing it yourself but calling in a professional can more than pay for itself in the extra conversions you get when you use them on your website.

Having a site that is clearly laid out with an obvious route to the products and a simple check-out process will help you achieve the conversion rates you want, this is all part of the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) that is so important when you are considering your website design.

Every site is different and each keyword that you promote the site for will require a different amount of time and effort.

Non-competitive terms take less time to rank well than the more competitive terms. We would always recommend the use of a combination of both when promoting a site in the organic search engines.

In this way you get a quicker boost in visitor numbers from the less competitive terms and the more competitive terms follow on. This also gives you a base of credibility in the search engines as they will regard your site as more rounded and therefore a more likely source of reliable and helpful information for your visitors.