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Search Engine Articles
Making Keyphrases Work
for Your Site and the Search Engines
by Jill Whalen (The Web Whiz) Written May 2001
Does your site rank highly for keyphrases that no one searches on? If no one is
searching on your keyphrases, it won't matter how highly your site is ranked on
the search engines. Here's a technique for securing just the right keywords.
When a Web site needs to be optimized for high rankings, usually the first step
is to find the keyphrases most relevant to the site. But what happens when the
keyphrases that are most relevant are not the ones that people are actually
searching out? Sure, you can probably get a high ranking for "Boston business
directories," but if no one is looking for that type of site, your high rankings
will not bring your site any traffic.
We recently optimized a portal site for local businesses that had this very
problem. Here's how we overcame our keyphrase dilemma.
The site was a portal for regional businesses. For the purposes of this article,
let's say it was based in the Boston area. The site had been optimized to rank
highly for phrases such as "Boston business directory." However, a quick Word
Tracker report revealed that people weren't using that phrase when searching the
engines.
The report showed that the most searched-on phrases relating to Boston included
"Massachusetts Lottery" and "Boston weather." It also showed that people were
searching for "Boston zoo," "Boston airport," "Boston classifieds" and "Boston
restaurants." At first, it seemed that it would be a daunting, if not
impossible, task to optimize for keyphrases that would bring targeted traffic to
this site. However, the site owner was prepared to alter the focus of his site
in any way he could to get more traffic. Together, we brainstormed an
optimization plan. We thought long and hard about how we could integrate some of
the keyphrases mentioned above into this business portal without tricking the
engines and the visitors. Finally, a plan began to gel.
The Transformation
First, the client found a script that showed the up-to-date local weather report
and added that to the main page of the site. He also hired a programmer to
create a script that would integrate state lottery results into his main page.
He already had a listing of local restaurants, as well as a section for free
local classifieds. All that was left to do was create a page of links to the
most sought-after local sites, such as the zoo and the airport.
The next step was to rewrite the main page, focusing on the fact that this site
now offered information on the Massachusetts lottery, Boston weather, and Boston
classifieds. We also heavily emphasized the most important keyphrases on the
links page. The business directory itself was still prominently featured,
however, it didn't get the same focus on the page as it previously had.
Once everything was in place, we optimized the tags and other HTML code
accordingly, and began the submission process. Luckily this site had not yet
been submitted to the major directories such as Yahoo! and Looksmart. Using
those directories' business express services, we were able to get the keyphrases
"lottery," "weather forecasts," "restaurants" and "classifieds" into the
descriptions, since these were now a major focus of the main page of the site.
Yahoo! did give us a bit of a problem at first by severely editing the
description, however, a simple e-mail appeal worked wonders. Yahoo! added our
important keyphrases back in.
Lessons Learned
It's been three to four months since submission, and the site is doing
terrifically in the rankings. The key to success with this site was the site
owner's willingness to be flexible. While not every site will be able to alter
so much of its content in accordance with popular search phrases, it's often
possible to make a few additions that don't conflict too much with the focus of
the site.
The site owner was also willing to take some risks. He was not making much, if
any, money on his site, but he was willing to spend some money up front. He
invested in our optimization services and in a programmer for the scripts he
needed. It's still too early in the game to know for sure how profitable this
client will be, but something tells me he will eventually realize a tidy profit.
There are several lessons in this case study for anyone in business on the Web:
If your most relevant keyphrases aren't going to bring you traffic, find ones
that will, and alter the focus of the site if you can. If you're serious about
your business, you'll often have to spend money to make money.
Now it's your job to figure out how can you put some of this information to use
for the benefit of your own site!
Contact Jill Whalen by e-mail at jill@highrankings.com, or by phone at
508-309-3037.
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Jill Whalen of High Rankings is an internationally recognized
search engine optimization consultant
and editor of the free weekly High Rankings Advisor
search engine marketing
newsletter
She specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations and seminars.
Jill's handbook, "The
Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" teaches business owners how
and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make
sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines.
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