One of the very first steps toward optimizing your website for killer search engine rankings is choosing the right keywords. But it’s easy to get carried away and start "keyword stuffing" – and that’s a big no-no.
Many beginners think that to get a site ranked in the search engines, it’s necessary to include all their target keywords in their home page copy and META tags. This is far from true. By trying to include all your key search phrases on your home page, not only will your copy sound clumsy, your META tags will look spammy as well. This is the opposite of optimization.
Instead, focus your home page on 2-3 slightly broader keywords that describe your website on a higher level. Then optimize your articles and product pages for more-specific terms. For instance, if you run a site about pets, try optimizing your home page for keywords like "pet advice" or "online pet help." Save your "dog," "cat," and "blue-fronted Amazon" keywords for pages about those specific topics.
[Ed. Note: You can get more little-known secrets to staying on the search engines' good side at ETR's 5 Days in July Internet Business Building Conference. Learn more about how you can build an Internet business from the ground up here.
And keep reading ETR for more search engine optimization Dos and Don'ts from Alexis Siemon, ETR's Search Engine Marketing Specialist.]
Similar Articles:
- SEO Don’ts: Using Hidden Text – If you’re just learning about SEO, you’re no doubt doing a lot of reading online. Plenty of SEO publ…
- SEO Don’ts: Critical Site Content as Images – When developing your website, it’s easy to get swept away by some of the gorgeous creations your Web…
- 3 Places You Should Use Keywords but Probably Don’t – When Charlie and Suzanne asked me to start writing articles for ETR about search engine marketing, I…
- Optimizing for Universal Search – Perform a search on Google these days and you may see something peculiar. Alongside the typical Web …
- Word to the Wise: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing a website’s visibility — and, thus, t…
- Targeting the RIGHT Keywords for Your SEO Campaign – Keywords are the most basic components of search engine optimization (SEO). Once you know how to use…
- Ask Yourself This… Is Your FAQ Page Making You Money? – Think your FAQ is one of those “admin” pages that just sit there on your website, quietly chugging a…