Keywords Made Easy - How to Take the Fuss out of SEO

Search engine optimization. No, it's not a foreign language or a new dance craze. It's what you need to know to hit your ranks high on the biggie search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

So here are the basics that every designer, content writer, online marketer and wannabe techie needs to know about SEO.

I don't like code nor do I write code. I'm not a web designer or a programmer. I'm a marketing consultant and copywriter with a dash of techie geek thrown in for good measure. I've happened to learn a few zillion things about SEO and social media along the way, and work with some SEO and online marketing big whigs who have passed along their pearls of cyber wisdom to me.

Onto the juicy part about SEO and keywords - here we go:

Topic #1: Keywords and More Keywords

Keyword research

• DO IT! Use keyword trackers to find the best and highly searched keywords. Think about your target markets and niche. How will visitors find me? Don't get too crazy with your keyword phrases because you'll be lost in search engine cyber space and you'll never be found by those crawling spider bots!
  
• Do not, and I repeat, do not stuff keywords into your site/content. That's a common blackhat technique that Google hates (and you will be punished eventually!) You're just asking to be kicked out of the ranks - a big no-no that the crawlers don't like. Bye bye!
• Don't be too specific with your keywords - unless you want you to be wiped out by the competition. You can build a powerful keyword list BUT don't spend all day searching for those perfect keyword phrases and then turn around and give them away. I would hate for you to have your research go too waste. Competitors can easily "scrape content" that way so just be careful when adding your keywords.
• Remember that LESS is MORE - Phrases such as "John Doe Arkansas cowboy who rides broncos in the circus" is NOT a good keyword phrase
  
• Also, don't be a keyword cannibalist! Keyword cannibalism is when keywords are placed on different pages of a website compete against each other. Yeah, not a good idea. Sometimes cannibalizing keywords isn't intention - some webmasters just forget and optimize the same keyword on ALL pages. Be careful!
• Keep meta-keyword tags to a minimum (6-8 keyword phrases) Keep the words general and simple - and don't get too fancy or creative (see above John Doe cowboy example)
  

Stay tuned for more information about SEO and keywords. Now start researching!