When you are beginning to optimize a website for better search result ranking, the first place to start is “good keyword research”. There are a number of websites that can help you with this. The one I prefer to use is Google Trends at http://www.google.com/trends/. I used this site to research and select the keyword phrases for my software developer website. It has helped me to zero in on the keywords that web visitors are actually using. When you do your homework like this, you avoid the classic blunder of being led down blind alleys with regard to choosing your keywords.
After you bring up the Google Trends site, just key in the keyword or keyword phrase in the text box on the home page and press the enter key or the “Explore” button. Next, you will be redirected to a “web search interest screen” for the keyword(s) you entered. This page has all kinds of useful information, much of it in a graphical format so it’s easier to understand.
As an example, I keyed in “software developer”, which are the keywords I use on my website’s home page in addition to “Cleveland” and “Ohio”. The first thing noticeable on the web search interest screen is a line chart titled ”Interest over time”. This plots the search volume index on the vertical axis in units up to 100 (the peak search volume) against the year on the horizontal axis beginning with 2004 for worldwide. These are the defaults, though you can make various adjustments for viewing more specific research data. The “software developer” keyword phrase seems to trend fairly steady over time.
You will notice a world map located just below the line chart and to the left in the “Regional Interest” section. After you are focused on a specific country, you can click on a specific region, state or province for even more geography specific research data. In map mode, each country is filled in by a varying shade of blue, which denotes the search volume index on a scale from 0 to 100. This geographical map mode can also be toggled to list mode by country. Here it uses the same idea, except there is a blue horizontal bar with the search volume index printed next to it for each country. It does the same thing for specific regions within a country, also.
Just to the right of the “Regional Interest” section lies “Related terms”. Under the “Top” mode, which appears first by default, it shows the top keyword and keyword phrase searches. Each one is accompanied by a blue bar with its search volume index, similar to list mode under the “Regional Interest” section. This section can toggle to “Rising” mode. This is similar to “Top” mode, except each search term is accompanied by the percentage it’s rising in search popularity.
Each country, state, province, top keyword phrase or rising keyword phrase can also be double clicked for more specific research data. Google Trends really is a “treasure trove” of valuable information!
It would seem the above mentioned tools would be enough to assist one with making good keyword selections to optimize a website. But as luck would have it with Google Trends, there is also a section on the far left side called “Limit to”. Here, you may filter your keyword search by type of search (web, image, news or product), geographical area, time interval and search category.
Just above the “Limit to” section is another feature called “Search terms”. Here you may key in up to 5 search keywords and/or keyword phrases. The results will be superimposed on the line chart for easy comparison. Just to the left of the line graph is a handy bar chart which computes the average search volume index of each search term. Each of these search terms will have their own tab for “Regional Interest” and “Related terms”.
There are 2 other options in the same grouping with “Search terms”. You can search by multiple “Locations” and “Time ranges”. Like search terms, you can specify up to 5 geographical locations or time intervals. Unlike the search terms, these only display a “Related terms” section that shows the top and rising search keyword(s) for particular geographical area(s) or time period(s).
With all these useful tools for selecting good keywords and keyword phrases, Google Trends has your back. One last thing I would like to mention is that I like to pick keywords that are either trending even or upward on the line chart. It’s important to stick with keywords that seem like they will be used for a long time. Also, please be sure to visit my website to learn more about my computer repair services.
Guest Blog by Douglas B. Miller