Re: Keywords or key phrases?

From: Michael Martinez <Michael_at_xenite.org>
Date: Fri 08 Dec 2000 13:23:46 -0500

KEVIN ENGLISH <kenglish_at_littlefan.com> WROTE:
> Hi, I've been lurking on this list for a couple of
> months now, and have gleaned a lot of really good
> information! My question is probably pretty basic, but
> here goes: Am I better off promoting phrases or
> individual words in my keywords? We're a brand new
> company trying to increase business through search
> engines... and we've just started getting some hits
> from a couple of search engines (AOL & NBCi), but they
> are from very specific sets of keywords. For example,
> if a customer enters "children sport apparel" they're
> likely to find us - but it seems that unless they type
> in pretty much exactly what our keyword phrases are, we
> fall way down (or off!) the list.

Kevin,

Determining what words or phrases to target is not an
exact science. It requires a thorough understanding
of both what people are searching for and what market
you are addressing. And people will search for the
same thing in many different ways. The various search
services will also handle the queries in different
ways.

In general, it is easier to get a higher ranking for a
phrase than for a single word. The reason is that
there is less competition for a phrase than for a
single word. But targeting a phrase means you may be
excluding part of the surfer market.

Few sites are able to move in on popular 1-word
searches. A lot of these search terms are dominated
by trademarked names with official Web sites that
many, many other Web sites link to.

> In all cases I have phrases first in my keywords...
> would I be better off using individual words (e.g.
> "children, sport, apparel" as opposed to "children
> sport apparel")? Please forgive me if this has already
> been covered by the group... but I'm just starting out
> and want to make sure my keywords are as effective as
> possible!

There is a keyword methodology called "power keyword
phrasing". Basically, most people think of single
keywords: isolated from each other, working on their
own. In your example, you're suggesting "children,
sport, apparel". The power keyword methodology takes
the phrase "children's sports apparel" (not quite the
same as your alternative) and focuses on that. It
makes the following assumptions:

1) Most search engines are going to use word-stemming
(they'll see only "children" and "sport").

2) Most search engines are going to look at both the
phrase "chidren('s) sport(s) apparel" and its
individual components "children('s)", "sport(s)",
"apparel".

3) Most search engines are going to look at
"sub-phrases": "children('s) sport(s)", "sport(s)
apparel". Some may even see "children('s) apparel"
although I consider that less likely.

What this methodology does is cut down on the amount of
repetition people put into their keywords:

children, sports, apparel,children's sports
apparel,children's sports,sports apparel

You get the same effect from "children's sports
apparel" alone.

So, now you have more room to work with in your
keywords meta tag. Although some people will load up
the meta tag with nearly everything they can think of,
it's generally advised that the tag be kept to 200
characters or less. So you want every word and phrase
to count. Some people also advise against using
commas, other people advise that you either use a
comma OR a space but not both:

children,sports,apparel,children's sports
apparel,children's sports,sports apparel chidren
sports apparel children's sports apparel children's
sports sports apparel

The second example looks messy but since "children's
sports apparel" will take care of all these search
terms anyway, you don't need it. You can now add in a
few other search terms that appear on your page (even
if the words are not together).

For example, suppose you have the sentence "We have the
highest quality in designer children's clothes and
sports apparel!" You could construct a keyword phrase
of "highest quality chidlren's apparel". You could
also use "designer children's sports clothes".

You don't want to repeat any word in your keywords meta
tag more than three times (some people recommend no
more than twice), so the power keyword phrases are
vital to keeping your keywords meta tag lean and
efficient.

But a good keywords meta tag is only part of the
equation. You should be sure to use your most
important phrase in the following areas of the page:

1) The title tag
2) The description meta tag (some people recommend
   there should be at least five words at the
   beginning of the description which are less important)
3) The primary header tag (H1,H2) or large size font
   text that serves as the page's "masthead" (do NOT use
   a graphic for this)
4) Plainly visible text near the top of the page, above
   any graphics tables.
5) Once or twice in the body of the page (plainly
visible)
6) Once near the bottom of the page

By showing the search engines that your page is
emphasizing the keyword phrase, the search engines may
decide the page is more important than others.
However, some people confuse "hyping a search term"
(FREE! IMPROVED! GET IT NOW!) with "emphasizing a
search term". You want 2-5 paragraphs of normal
looking text, not a lot of centered, bolded,
spammy-looking lines. Even if the spam lines get you a
high ranking, they are likely to send people away in
droves after they see what the page is.

When all else is said and done, after you get the
surfers to click through, you want to keep them on
your site for as long as possible. So Web page design
MUST consider what will please the surfers as well as
what will please the search engines.

Science Fiction and Fantasy info_at_xenite.org
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http://www.xenite.org/forums/science_fiction_tv/
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Received on Fri Dec 08 2000 - 12:23:46 CST