Add Top Keywords to a Website

Fill in the blank: I'd like to my website to rank high in search engine results when a customer searches for "____, ____, or ____." These are your keywords (phrases with multiple words are also considered to be "keywords").

Gather additional ideas from other people on what keywords they would use if they were searching for your product.

Free Google Tools:

  1. Search-based Keyword Tool
    See what words your competitors are using. You can enter a website address to view phrases appearing on that site or type in relevant keywords.
     
  2. Insights for Search
    Look at trends of keywords over time and see which ones are rising in popularity.
     
  3. AdWords Keyword Tool
    You can either enter in a few descriptive words or a website URL to see a list of suggestions.

Once you've formed your keyword list, it's time to prioritize. In each of the tools, there's an indicator of how the keywords compare in terms of popularity. With the Keyword Tool, enter in your list, click on "Filter my results" to open the drop down, and select "Don't show ideas for new keywords. I only want to see data about the keywords I entered." Sort the results by local or global monthly search volume. This will give you an idea of the more popular keywords.

Now you have your top keywords and should work them into your page titles and content in normal language. Be sure the text reads naturally. (Overstuffing keywords can backfire and lead to search engine exclusion.)

Remember, you should be providing content that's beneficial to your users. What's good for users is quite often also good for search engines.

Next up » Make a Website Work