I was thinking to write a few things about keywords ad their uses, but after a while of beginning the article I realized that the domain has a very wider range. So now I have decided to post regular updates on this particular aspect of SEO. In this first part the basics of keywords are discussed.

What are Keywords?

Anyone who is even slightly related to Search Engine Optimization would have heard the term “keywords”, this is the most emphasized factor while writing the content of a website or setting the meta tags and page titles. Keywords are basically the words that are expected to be entered by an average internet user to search something, it is the job of the SEO team to identify such words and then use them in their website content, page titles and elsewhere in an appropriate manner.

What is the use?

So how do keywords help? The answer is simple, search engines like Google, Yahoo! and AltaVista have algorithms that are designed to display results when an entry is made. The results shown by these search engines are based on content relevancy, however there is no means by which the content or the page can be completely checked so the algo’s are used to find specific keywords on that page related to the search made. In this way search engine decides the relevancy of a particular page to that content. According to a research majority of the internet surfers consider the top 3 – 5 results as the most relevant ones and no matter how much your website is relevant to that search, if it is not on the top list all is in vain. How to get on the first page? The answer is already known, KEYWORDS.

How to Select Keywords?

Selection of keywords is the most important thing, you should be very careful as to which keywords you will be using in your text. There are numerous tools on the web that help in keyword analysis, but I recommend that you list down the services that your website/company is providing and then search for those services on the web. The entries that you make are the most accurate keywords for your work! All you have to do is to become an average JOE and then list the queries you made for that particular service, once done with this you can make use of any keyword analysis website like “Google Ad words” or “Niche Bot Classic”, these websites improve your keywords and suggest new ones based on your entries.

Final Selection

Once you have listed all these keywords you then check the market competition on them, this is done by typing the keywords in the search engine (Google preferred) and then note down how many results have been displayed against it. Larger numbers indicate that the keyword is highly competitive while lower numbers indicate that the keyword is not searched for that often, it is very important to select few but strong keywords. How to select these keywords and how are they properly implemented? This I will discuss in the next article.

SEO AND SEM – IS IT SAME THING WITH TWO NAMES?

I don’t agree with the fact that Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing are same things. There is a difference two SEO and SEM.

What’s the difference between SEO and SEM?

The terms SEO and SEM are sometimes used interchangeably even by so called experts, thus leading to confusion. Its important to note that these two terms have different meanings. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a part of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEO is a process of optimizing a website for search engines for organic search engine listings. SEO is the most cost effective function of Search Engine Marketing campaign. SEO gives you long term organic search engine listings as well. Search Engine Marketing is a process of marketing a website via search engines. It can be done by improving the rank in organic or natural listings, paid or sponsor listings, banner advertisements, or combination of all. A couple of days ago, a client ask me what are the key elements in your Search Engine Marketing plan? I suggested him a comprehensive search engine marketing campaign consisting of:

• Search Engine Optimization “SEO”.
• Inclusion of website in search engines and related directories.
• Paid inclusion and trusted feed programs
• Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisement campaigns
• Link building
• ROI and performance monitoring

Remember that SEO is a component of SEM. Don’t get confused.

Its hard to find a blogger who doesn’t want to increase traffic to the blog. It’s not easy to get traffic on your site thats why many bloggers frustrated after a month or two when they see they are getting around 20 to 30 hits a day. There are unlimited number of blogs available on a single topic, so you need to make sure that you stand out of others to ensure maximum traffic . You need to do hard work if you want to be a successful blogger. Below are the steps that teach you how to increase traffic to your blog:

• Start with a great topic
• Post to forums
• Yahoo Answers
• Register with Technorati
• Link to other blogs
• Use guest blogs
• Blog on what people want
• Keep it simple
• Article submissions

There are many ways to build your blog traffic, but the key factor is persistence. It takes time and hard work to build a blog with plenty of readers.

Bing is a new search engine opened up by Microsoft in earlier June 2009. People on the web are now comparing search engine results from Bing.com to Google. The questions are:

• Is Bing an improvement over Microsoft Live search?
• Does Bing have a better interface?
• Finally, does Bing provide better results than Google.

There are many tools and websites available on the web that compare Google and Bing search engine results.