By Daria
Goetsch
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Ever
see a website that seems to speak a foreign language...in
English? We encounter many SEO client websites
that rely on buzzwords in the page copy to get
the word out about their product. The problem
lies with visitors who may not be familiar with
those terms. This means optimizing with buzzwords
may not be the best way to gain traffic. If your
prospective visitors are not searching for those
terms, how do they find your website?
Start
With The Obvious
You really need to know your
industry. Study your prospective visitors--who
your target audience is. If your prospective visitors
are highly technical and work and talk in "buzzword
speak", no problem. But if you also want to attract
prospective visitors who may not be immersed in
the terminology used in your business, you must
compensate by optimizing with a wider array of
targeted keywords.
How Do
I Find All Those Keywords?
Start researching. Yes, it's
going to take a little work on your part to take
a close look at what keywords you may be missing
out on. Keep account of prospective website visitors
who may use other terms to find your website.
Track the keywords used by visitors through your
log reports. Most log statistics programs have
a report showing the keywords used by searchers
to find your website. Using your server logs or
log statistics program for keyword information
is a good way to get a better picture of how visitors
are finding your website. Use Overture's
keyword tool or Wordtracker
and note the words used on your competitors' websites.
Using these, or similar tools, type in your buzzwords
and see what variations come up. Competitor websites
may use a slightly different language than you
when writing copy for their pages. Visit their
websites and learn all you can about how many
ways your business can get its message across.
Read online articles; visit business newsgroups
and forums. Find research information through
industry websites and companies that specialize
in producing reports about your industry.
Help
Search Engine Robots Do Their Job
Search engine robots are
just automated programs. Their concept and execution
is relatively simple: search engine robots "read"
the text on your pages by going through the source
code of your web pages. If the majority of the
words in your source code text are buzzwords,
this is the information that will be taken back
to the search engine database.
It's Obvious
(the "DUH" factor)
Ok, so it's obvious to you
what your industry buzzwords are. But don't discount
the simpler versions of those catchy words. Focus
also on some lesser used terms and make a list
of additional keywords you might be able to add.
Clear, precise copy that catches the visitor's
attention and tells your story is generally more
effective in the long run.
Compromise
- Mix SEO Keywords and Buzzwords
You don't want to change
the copy on your webpages? This is often a problem
with business websites. Once you have your keyword
list of other-than-obvious words, work at fitting
them into the page text carefully. You want them
to make sense with the context of the web page.
Use these new keywords as many times as "makes
sense" so they do not sound spammy. Read your
copy out loud or have a colleague read your copy
to get a sense of how it might sound to a website
visitor.
The Bottom
Line
It should be easy enough
to see how those extra keywords are producing
for you. Keep track of your log reports and see
if those new terms start showing up in your reports.
Test a variety of keywords, then test again to
see if visitors are staying on your website, moving
through your individual web pages, or clicking
away. Create specific pages using those keywords
as a test scenario. The information you need should
be available to you in your log statistics reports
for visited web pages.
Don't let business jargon
get in the way of getting your message across
to your audience. Yes, buzzwords may sound cutting
edge, but the bottom line is, traffic and sales
are what you really want to show for your hard
work.
About the Author
Daria Goetsch
is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant
for Search Innovation Marketing (http://www.searchinnovation.com),
a Search Engine Promotion company serving small
businesses. She has specialized in search engine
optimization since 1998, including three years
as the Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly &
Associates, a technical book publishing company.
Copyright © 2003 Search Innovation Marketing.
All Rights Reserved.
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