Keywords for Search Engines
Recently a client asked me some great questions regarding key words. Our exchange highlights what you should keep in mind when writing up a list of keywords for each page of your web site:
"Search engines don't act intelligently. By that I mean, if your keyword is "hat" and someone types in "hats" it won't think it's the plural of hat it'll think it's a completely different keyword.
That's why I mix it up and make sure if plurals might be used that I include them as well. As for capitals - I don't believe most people bother with initial or all caps when searching - they're more likely to type words in quickly in lowercase. But if you think something will always be capped then it should be included in that form in your keywords."
1) I am a little confused about how to strategies around composite terms. For example, if you have biodiversity and conservation, do you also need biodiversity conservation?
Yes.
2) Are words like about (magazine about conservation), to (subscribe to conservation in practice), what is (what is conservation biology) useful for some search engines and not others?
No. I leave out all prepositions and articles. They just eat up your keyword allotment and create odd search engine results - search engines rate relevancy by looking for the highest density of a term in the title tag, meta tags (although less weight is given to keywords now), image alt tags and text in your web site.
3) Do we need all caps versions of the acronyms?
Only if you feel that people will capitalize them when they search for them.
Hope that helps. And, remember, Google is currently looking at title tags more closely than key word lists or descriptions.
"Search engines don't act intelligently. By that I mean, if your keyword is "hat" and someone types in "hats" it won't think it's the plural of hat it'll think it's a completely different keyword.
That's why I mix it up and make sure if plurals might be used that I include them as well. As for capitals - I don't believe most people bother with initial or all caps when searching - they're more likely to type words in quickly in lowercase. But if you think something will always be capped then it should be included in that form in your keywords."
1) I am a little confused about how to strategies around composite terms. For example, if you have biodiversity and conservation, do you also need biodiversity conservation?
Yes.
2) Are words like about (magazine about conservation), to (subscribe to conservation in practice), what is (what is conservation biology) useful for some search engines and not others?
No. I leave out all prepositions and articles. They just eat up your keyword allotment and create odd search engine results - search engines rate relevancy by looking for the highest density of a term in the title tag, meta tags (although less weight is given to keywords now), image alt tags and text in your web site.
3) Do we need all caps versions of the acronyms?
Only if you feel that people will capitalize them when they search for them.
Hope that helps. And, remember, Google is currently looking at title tags more closely than key word lists or descriptions.
posted by super webgirl at
4:52 PM
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