We are now at Day Ten in the Growing Your List Challenge. We’re also entering a new topic in the challenge that spans three days, which is all about optimizing your site for search engine traffic.
For Day Ten, refer to pages 26-28 in the
31 Day Guide to Growing Your List
While JV Partners and Affiliates will bring you a nice amount of very targeted traffic, and is well worth the ongoing investment of your time, you should also optimize your pages for free search engine traffic. This is a more passive source of targeted traffic, which is ultimately very low maintenance with a very high ROI...
How To Optimize Your Site For Free Search Engine Traffic
There are two steps involved in optimizing your site for the major search engines: keyword selection and on-page optimization. This is done on the page level, meaning for each individual page on your domain.
Search engines rank pages, not sites. You want each page of your site to rank well for a specific keyword phrase that relates to the content on that individual page.
While many people feel that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is complicated and difficult, the truth is it's quite easy. It is my top source for targeted traffic and sales.
Done right, you won't have to worry too much over the constantly changing search engine algorithms & updates. The methods I use have never resulted in getting penalized or losing rankings. Only those following fads or shady tactics have reason for concern. Organic SEO stands the test of time.
To prove that point, I have web pages that are 5+ years old that still rank in the top 10 at Google - and still make sales every single week. With nothing more than the occasional fresh link pointing to them to maintain those rankings...
Choosing Keyword Phrases
Selecting the right keyword phrases for each page of your site is where optimization begins. This is arguably the most important step in the SEO process. The keyword phrases you choose will either attract your ideal visitors on auto-pilot, or attract untargeted visitors and tank your conversion rate. I recommend choosing the phrases that attract your ideal visitors on auto-pilot. 😉
I use WordTracker, the industry leader for Keyword Research:
WordTracker's Free Keyword Tool
Free Trial of the full version of WordTracker
You'll start by typing in your base keywords. The tool will return the results for those, as well as other phrases containing your keyword. Those phrases are what you want to focus on as they will give you a broader view of what your market is searching for, and a clue as to the intent of the search.
The intent of the search is much more important than any number or metric the software gives you. Be careful not to get caught up in things like search volume or competition analysis. The more specific and targeted your keyword phrase, the higher your conversion rate will be.
Less of the right people is always better than more of the wrong people.
As for competition, there are many wrong ways to analyze it. Forget anything you've been taught about competition analysis. For example, the number of Google results for a keyword phrase does NOT indicate how competitive it is.
You are not competing with 3 million pages. You are only ever competing with 10 - the top 10 results. Period.
You don't determine IF you can rank in the top 10 for a keyword phrase. You determine how hard or easy it would be to rank in the top 10. And you make your decision from there. I prefer easy. 😀
I have several tutorials that make Keyword Research SIMPLE. I highly recommend you read through these before you choose your keyword phrases:
- Choosing Keywords & Phrases
- Long Tail Keyword Strategy
- Frustrated With Keyword Research??
- Using Keyword Modifiers to Qualify Visitors
- “how to get eyeballs and make sales”
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On-Page Optimization
Once you have chosen the keyword phrases you will use on each page of your site, you simply optimize the pages for those keyword phrases.
Again, this task is really simple. Ignore things like keyword density, keyword proximity, and any other over-complicated SEO terms or concepts. You simply want to use your keyword phrases in the appropriate places on each page -period.
See: Web Page Optimization (checklist)
To simplify it, you're basically going to use your keyword phrase(s) in these 7 places on any web page (or blog post) you are optimizing:
* File Name
* Title Tag
* Text Header
* Sub-Headings
* Within the Content
* Within the Meta Description tag
* Anchor Text of Incoming Links
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Your Task For Today:
Research relevant keyword phrases for your pages, and optimize each page of your website. Tomorrow we'll look at how to get your optimized pages ranking in the major search engines for the keyword phrases you chose.
Best,
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About Lynn Terry
Hi Lynn.
Thanks for the great info. LOVE your insistence that things don't have to be complex to be effective. Appreciate all you do to share your knowledge!
Thank you Scott! I do wish more people would "keep it simple". There's no rocket science to online business or internet marketing - or SEO for that matter. It's mainly common sense, and serving your marketing. 😉
this is some real good read Lynn and i appreciate your efforts for taking the time to write all this up. well, in this blog post you have used "keyword tracker" tool example which is no doubt a good tool when it comes to keyword research. but, i am more concerned about knowing the benefits if i use tools like Google's free keyword research tool?
I'll have to see if we can get Karon Thackston to weigh in on that, as she knows more about the Google Keyword Tool than I do. I don't use it myself. Nothing against it other than the fact that I tend to be a bit "google phobic" and don't trust their numbers. 😀
WordTracker is the industry leader in keyword research tools and I've been using them (successfully) for years. Hopefully Karon will drop by as I would love to hear her insight on this as well.
"You are not competing with 3 million pages. You are only ever competing with 10 – the top 10 results. Period" - the best takeaway from the whole post. Most are shocked when they see 350 trillion other sites and cannot find their own. Just analyzing what the ones on page 1 did to gain their ranking gives you a clear picture of how difficult it really is.
Exactly! Besides, unless you are using very specific search queries that remove all of the "broad match" results... the majority of those millions (or even thousands, or hundreds) aren't even competing pages.
You're absolutely right. Many IM gurus try always to explain SEO as it's a sort of a Space Physics thing. I myself used some very basic SEO techniques and i got some of my webpages rank in the top 10 results of Google for many keywords. Thanks for the info and the challenge
I feel sorry for those "gurus" if they are using the complicated techniques they're teaching. Seems like an awful lot of work to me! I prefer quick & easy. 😉
Question. Should you just alter each landing page with the keyword/phrase and then rinse, lather and repeat for other keywords. Would this violate google's "Duplicate Content" rule. I've been trying this for about a week and so far no change in rankings.
You can't really expect to see any changes in as little as a week. Indexing and ranking changes take time - as pages are crawled and as each database updates.
On the topic of Duplicate Content, see:
http://www.clicknewz.com/2078/duplicate-web-content-google-penalty-myth/
Let me know if that doesn't answer your question.
Subheaders; that's the one I keep forgetting to do!
Big note on legal pad for next blog post 🙂
Subheaders are awesome - they help the scanners (like me) read your posts/content more easily and still get the point. I rarely ever read an entire page (I skim)... but I'm a huge buyer. So it's those subheadings and bullet points that make my action or buying decision!
Thank you Lynn for this info and SEO method. I will read all tutorial on keywords research and begin your way of doing things. Awesome stuff
Lynn, when looking at the wordtracker that you recommend, and then compairing it to google adword tool, i get completely different results for how many searches take place every month. Any idea why that would be?
I don't use the Google tool as I mentioned above, but I found this on Karon Thackston's blog:
"Google AdWords Keyword Tool
This is a free tool, but keep in mind that the info you’re receiving is pulled from AdWords accounts. You get a monthly search count and general indicator of what PPC competition levels are associated with each term. Great for quickie searches or a starting point for further research."
source: http://www.marketingwords.com/blog/?page_id=805
Hope that helps 🙂
I want my website to rank as high as possible for "crafts for kids" but each page of my website is a different craft, like puppets, foam crafts, music crafts....
Do I optimize each of those craft pages with the keyword "crafts for kids"? (so that my website will pull up when someone searches for "crafts for kids") or do I optimize each craft tutorial specifically on what kind of craft it is, like paper bag puppets or a craft foam purse???
The latter. Search engines rank Pages, not Sites. Link to the main page with the anchor text "crafts for kids" - from within your site, and from pages on other sites. That will help that main page rank for that phrase. Every other page needs to be optimized for a phrase that matches it best.
Imagine yourself as a searcher. You search for "paper bag puppet crafts for kids". Do you want to land on your main page, or on your page about paper bag puppet crafts. The latter of course 😉 The goal is to keep the path as focused as possible - from search to click to conversion.
I'm really starting to TRULY understand the importance of keywords and keyword modifiers. It's like tapping into conversations of the mind...
Exactly. It IS a conversation, and you have to figure out the best way to enter it - and meet them where they are on the topic.
Many people just look at keywords as a metric. But when you consider the people behind them, try to imagine what they are thinking - and what they feel and want - when they type it in - it becomes much easier to serve your market.
Sounds good Lynn and i would be waiting to hear Karon Thackston views on this, will be checking back this blog post in a day or two. thanks again for the information Lynn [heads up]
Hi Fred,
I commented above with a piece I found on Karon's blog:
http://www.clicknewz.com/2759/10-optimize-your-site/comment-page-1/#comment-861424
Does that help?
Hi Lynn,
that's enough to give me a brief insight of how the whole thing works. not now but i think i would be switching to wordtracker in the coming days.
thanks for your research though
I know that optimizing a site or the SEO part itself isn't that easy especially to people new in this kind of activity online. So some helpful guidelines like this one is a great help for them!