May 9, 2008

Keywords and phrases

Introduction to keywords

The term 'keyword' denotes a word or phrase that a search engine user would enter as their search string. In the past, search engines relied heavily on the meta tag 'keywords' to assess the type of content found on a page. Now, they look for occurrences of keywords in the body text on a particular page.

For example, one would naturally expect a page about wine to contain the keyword "wine" in the page copy. One way of improving your chances of being found on a search engine is by ensuring you have good, well written, relevant copy on your website. A common mistake is to let your web design company write the copy which appears in your pages. They are specialist in web design, not in your business area. You can probably write much better copy than them.

Improving your search results

Many people find search engines frustrating because they are presented with so much information, it becomes hard to sort through the clutter and find what they really want. By refining your search phrase, you can achieve more targetted and relevant results.

A classic example would be searching for a new house online, by typing in the phrase 'estate agents'. I just did this, and of the top ten results, one was in Canada, one in Hong Kong, two were in the USA. I could refine my search by typing "estate agents UK" or be even more precise "estate agents east midlands" or "estate agents Leicester." Well written web copy would take advantage of this my having keywords or phrases positioned well in the body text on a page. As an illustration "...the longest established estate agents in Leicester...." would be excellent copy that should give the page a good chance of being quickly found.

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