Most e-commerce business owners understand that search engine optimization is one of the key components of a good online marketing program. However, many are unsure how to go about optimizing their web content, or don't understand what is involved and may feel that paying an SEO management firm to run their campaign is the only option.
In truth, search engine optimization is a skill that can be learned by business owners. Optimizing a website is an ongoing process, and one that business owners can be actively involved in. The following tips help users discover and use keywords that are relevant, useful and popular.
Keyword Discovery Tips and Tools... the Secret? Google Zeitgeist
Google provides a number of helpful, free tools for keyword discovery and research:
- Google Hot Trends- Allows users to view the most popular queries on any date.
- Google Insights for Search- Web content writers can search by a number of criteria to see what people are looking for by geographical zone, seasonality and more.
- Google AdWords Keyword Tool- Users can search keywords and phrases, with results displaying related terms, average cost per click, monthly search volume and more.
Links to all of the above mentioned services are found on the Google Zeitgeist web page, an excellent resource for e-commerce business owners ready to tackle their own SEO and keyword discovery tasks.
What are Search Engines Looking For on E-Commerce Websites?
No one knows the exact formula popular search engines, such as Google, use to rank websites. Web content writers used to employ tactics like keyword stuffing (trying to achieve a certain density of keywords in the article, measured as a percentage of overall content) to improve their ranking.
However, search engines quickly caught on to that tactic and others that were designed not to provide valuable information to website visitors, but to trick search engines into giving a higher page rank to undeserving websites.
Search engines are trying to provide more relevant information to online visitors. Take the new Microsoft search engine, Bing, as an example. It has been described by Microsoft as a "decision engine," designed to help users make better decisions based on better information. They take into consideration how well the page content matches what the user is looking for, as well as how relevant the website is, measured by the number of links from other websites.
E-commerce businesses can use search engine optimized articles, blogs, newsletters and more to become established as the authority in their field. E-commerce websites must also be carefully designed for maximum usability and accessibility.
How to Write Search Engine Optimized Content
Rather than focusing on five to ten keywords, use a variety of keywords in key phrases. Don't worry about how often specific words appear throughout the website. Instead, focus on making sure all content is relevant to the topic, and that article titles, page introductions, subheadings, and image or video captions contain words and phrases readers will use to find information on the topic.
Search engines are literal; they cannot tell what the writer wanted to say, or perhaps meant to say. The best way to get hits from people searching for information on any given topic is to ensure that the website content uses relevant keywords and phrases throughout. Instead of striving to be ranked first when people search for a few select keywords, e-commerce businesses should focus on appearing in search results for any query on the subject.
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