Key to Getting Noticed

Recognition Sought

It all depends on your definition of recognition. You probably started a web site to wow potential customers with all the fantastic things your organization or company does, and to convince them how much better their life would be if they hooked up with you. You know all about your business; you might even be considered a subject matter expert. You know the lingo and the acronyms; you can talk the talk. But, think like the customer for a moment. Your customer isn't a subject matter expert (that's why they need you) and they most likely wouldn't search for your services in the same terms that you might use. The key to search engine success is knowing the phrases your customers will use when searching for your product or service. Once you know the right phrases, leveraging search engine power can be accomplished through web site and content construction. But you've got to target the right phrases, or your other efforts will be in vain.

Just as search engine's algorithms get more sophisticated each day, so do search engine users. According to statics compiled by Google, 19% of their users search on one keyword and 33% search on 2 keywords. That means over 50% of Google's users include 3 or more words in their search.

Let's play a little Jeopardy . List all the wonderful ways your company satisfies customer's needs, but as in Jeopardy, phase your thoughts in the form of a question. A few examples would be:

Thinking like your customer thinks will start you on the path to your optimized key phrases.  The answer to the Jeopardy questions should always be your company or a product you sell.  Local searchers will typically use the geographic area in which they are interested, so be sure to work your location into your key phrase strategy.

Brief Case Study - I've been involved with our local Little League for several years. Part of our Little League's defined mission is to provide instruction to boys and girls in baseball and softball. Numerous variations on the instructional theme have been posted (via MyOhMy's CMS) throughout the site for a number of years now. Keywords of that theme are also listed in the Meta Tags on most of the web site's pages. In our Jeoardy game, we listed softball instruction as one of our questions. The correct answer, Alex, is Devon Strafford Little League (dsll.org). Google the phrase ("softball instruction " main line pa). The top result (as of this writing anyway) is dsll.org. The keyword phases "Softball Instruction" and "Main Line, PA" are used frequently throughout the dsll.org web site and are contained in the description Meta tag. DSLL.org has several backlinks from reputable web sites and has a large number of outgoing links to sponsor's web sites. Many of the league's sponsors use "Main Line" in their title.

When brainstorming for your keywords, focus on words that searchers will use frequently, aren't unobtainably competitive, and are applicable to your product or service.

    • Volume - How many searches include your keyword or phrase?
    • Competition - How many sites are using the keyword or phrase?
    • Applicability - Don't go all Dennis Millery (Millery:obscure esoteric references). Use keywords that normal search engine users are likely to use.
Your keywords and phrases should be something the common searcher would use in everyday conversation to find your product or service. Sound deceptively simple?  To hone in on just the right keywords and phrases, try one of these free (mostly) tools;
Once your hit on just the right set of key words and phrases, you can test them using Google's Adwords or other similar pay per click products.  Positive results for a well structures site with a solid number of backlinks and optimized key words or phases can take 6 to 8 months to materialize.  Using Adwords is not only a good test tool, but can also fill the agonizing 6 month void while you wait the Googlebots and spiders to find and index your site.
See our article on Search Engine Optimization for hints on how to use your keywords and phrases to optimize your search engine results.