Self Taught SEO | Search Engine Optimization Blog

Keyword research and analysis is one of the most important SEO tasks you can accomplish.  The fact is if you are not targeting the right keywords then you can potentially have a failed campaign with undeserving results.  The goal should be to target keywords which have low competition but yields high search volume.  There is very little guesswork that should be done when determining the right keywords for your search marketing campaign.  Guessing your target keywords is not a good strategy because you can easily target keywords which you may think are performing well, but in essence they are not.

The best way to find the proper keywords for your campaign is to use keyword research tools.  Some of these tools not only provide you with keyword suggestions, but also display search volume and competition ratio for the target keyword.  There are a number of keyword research tools available, but you only need to choose one.  I prefer using Google Adwords Keyword Tool because it gives you the most information than any other tool and it’s feedback from the horses’ mouth!  However, it may be wise to compare results with one other keyword research tools so you know you have the best performing keywords.

Recommended Keyword Research Tools

• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
• WordTracker Keyword Tool
  
• Keyword Discovery Search Term Suggestion Tool
• SEO Book Keyword Tool
• Nichebot Classic Keyword Tool
• GoodKeywords Research Tools

Using any of the above keyword tools are simple and pretty straight-forward.  Many keyword tools do not give full data results such as search volume or average cost per click information, as many of the third-party vendors are not privy to this information and it would be complete guesstimates.  However, Google Adwords Keyword Tool gives you all the information you’ll need to make the wisest choice when selecting keywords for your campaign, plus you are getting it straight from the horses’ mouth!  This is why I choose to use Google Adwords quite faithfully.  The only concern with using Google Adwords Keyword Tool is that since Google does have a beneficial motive it is quite possible Google Keyword Tool will pull back the keyword suggestions which are more likely to cost more per click opposed to those which are more likely to be better performing.  This method of manipulation has yet to be proven, but it is something of concern since the motive does exist.

Each page of your website should have unique page titles.  You should create and generate unique page titles for your entire website.  However, it’s not just creating the page title, you should aim to write the PERFECT page title.  The one that is enticing to an human audience and appeal to search engines.

To attract a human audience you must write for humans and grab their attention.  If your writing skills or grammar is not up to par then it may be wise to hire a professional content writer or take writing classes to perfect your writing habits.

You first must define your audience.  You should know your target.  If you were planning a trip to India then you will most likely be attracted to articles and content which involve India.

When humans read, we like to be intrigued by something unanswered or involved with something we know the answer.   Here are some example titles which will entice most people who are traveling to India:

“The 10 Most Important Things to Know About Visiting India” or “Visiting India: The 10 Guidelines to Traveling Abroad”

Those two example titles are human enticing titles, now we are going to step it up a notch and make the page titles human enticing as well as search engine appealing.  To do this we must do some keyword research to make sure we include the best performing keywords in the title.  So using the same theme — people who are traveling to India, here are the optimized page titles

“The 10 Most Popular India Hotels & India Travel Hotspots” or “India Flights: The 10 Best Airlines for India Travel”

Now you probably would not have guessed that the keyword “India Hotel” is searched over 1,000,000 times each month on average according to Google and the keyword “India Flights” is searched over 246,000 times each month.  The keyword found in both titles “India Travel” is searched over 550,000 times each month.

The title page is what is seen in the search engine result pages.  The more enticing the page title is for an human audience then the more likely your website listing in the search engine will be clicked.  The better optimized your page titles are for search engines then the better rank and position you will have in the search engines.

Page titles are not the only piece to the puzzle, but having unique title pages will give your website a good search friendly structure.  If you do keyword research and create search friendly URL’s, unique content, internal link architecture then you’ll be in a great position for improving your rank.  You should also make your titles a minimum of 25 characters and a maximum of 70 characters.  Another good rule of thumb is to place the keywords to the left of the title.  This is not a requirement only a recommendation, so if this cannot be done without losing legibility then avoid it.

The title tag needs to be placed inside the head tag, here’s an example

<head>
<title>YOUR UNIQUE PAGE TITLE HERE</title>
</head>

Once you have created and wrote the perfect page title for all of your website pages then you should notify the search engines with a newly generated sitemap.xml file.  Within weeks you should see rank improvements for your website and new titles within the search engines.

Good luck and wish you the best!  If you like to add anything or have any feedback please feel

Google Voice is the new Google voice over IP (VoIP) solution for those looking for a way to manage only one phone number for all their communication needs.  Google acquired the original company, GrandCentral, in 2007.  Since acquisition Google has done very little to modify its offerings or integrate it into their current Google products.  As of recent Google has changed this by launching Google Voice.

Google Voice comes with more features than its original offerings.  It allows you to manage one phone number while routing all your other phones through a single phone number.  You can use your Google Voice phone number to accept calls from your home phone, mobile phone, business phone, or any other phone of your choice.  There are many reasons why Google Voice is a useful service and I can only imagine it will only get better.