Keywords

[matrixxxxxx1]

when entering your keywords in BV. Should you enter less or more?
Do too many keywords hurt more than benefit?
What's an ideal count to conctrate on or is that irrelvant?

your ccomments are appreciated

Mike

[Girlonthehill]

Re: Keywords

when entering your keywords in BV. Should you enter less or more?
Do too many keywords hurt more than benefit?
What's an ideal count to conctrate on or is that irrelvant?

your ccomments are appreciated

Mike

Hi Mike,

I don't think there is a 'perfect nuimber' of keywords. When someone asked a similar question yonks ago I did a teeny bit of checking around and found that most websites that are taken seriously tend to have anywhere between 10 and 40. I think I've limited mine to around the 20 mark because many experts say that too many will score a big negative with the SEs.

I hope this helps :o)

[Bethers]

Re: Keywords

Don't enter keywords that you don't have on the page. The major se's don't look at them any more, but some of the smaller ones still use them. However, they do notice (all of them) if you spam them. What IS important in your meta is your title and description.

[matrixxxxxx1]

Re: Keywords

Thnx for the tips Amanda and Beth. I apreciate your info.

When you guys get a minute, If you woudn't mind going over few of my pages and checking my keywords/descriptions. That would be awsome
"View page source" I'm sure you already knew that, but just in case..heh

Keep in mind that I'm targeting a specific area and not the World Wide Web, so thats why my titles may seem werid.

Looking forward to your feedback

Mike

[Bethers]

Re: Keywords

Want to list the site you want me to look at? And if you tell me what you're targeting, I'd be better able to answer.

[ollie35]

Re: Keywords

Hi Bethers you say " What IS important in your meta is your title and description "
Very new to this so bear with me can you just expand a little, I see the description box in metatag allowing 25 words. Do you mean put descrption of the page and the title of your website. Sorry confused could you expand please.

Thank you so much
Paul

[davidundalicia]

Re: Keywords

Hi ollie35,
Bethers is absolutly right...

You normally enter your Title in page properties and your Description in the meta tag box.
It is also useful if you include your page title within your description.

[matrixxxxxx1]

Re: Keywords

Hi Bethers

The site is http://www.atexflooring.ca
I'm targeting an area called Durham region, which consists of 4 towns, and few towns on the outskirts.

Small description of customer profile

• 95% home owners
• Men/Women over 30
• Mid to high Income
• etc...

What I would like to achieve is:

If someone comes into a SE and types the company name "Atex Flooring" to be able to find it.
My keywords are the name of the towns I'm targeting and the product names. I.E I live In a town called Ajax, therefore if my customers types ajax carpet for example I would like to be able to come up on the SE's.

Mike

[Bethers]

Re: Keywords

You should discover very quickly that you'll be number 1 for your name - unless that's a really common name over there.

With what you want - to come up using the city names - I think you need to add some text in various places. I would change how you have your name at the bottom and do something like this:

Copyright 2006 - Atax Flooring
telephone as is
Atax Flooring - serving Durham region - Ajax | other town | other town | other town

This gets the names of the towns on the pages and will help you when people search using them.

For your titles, I suggest you change them, because you don't want to confuse people or se's - and you need the town names ON the page - just in the title or description won't do it for what you want. You can do the title - say for carpeting - like this "Durham area carpet | Ajax | Pickering from Atex Flooring" This gets the names in there so people know what their reading - and also adds your name for branding purposes.

For your meta - you have a problem because you are listing words in it that are not on the pages. While the major se's don't use the keyword list to help you - they will notice if they think you are using it incorrectly and it can possibly hurt. You never want a word in there that isn't on the page the list is for. So, adding those towns as I suggested, will allow you to put them in the keyword list!

Your description is good but needs correct spelling, capitalizations, punctuation, etc (which the se's notice also) - and remember this description will sometimes be pulled to be used when people search. Here it is rewritten:
Atex Flooring sells carpet, laminate flooring, hardwood floors and tiles to the Durham region, including Ajax, Pickering, Whitby, Courtice, Oshawa, Bowmanville and Port Perry.

Another comment on your titles - do you really think someone will look for Ajax selections? for hardwood flooring? You can't leave out the major keyword you want them to find with Ajax in the title. (I'm now looking at your hardwood page). So a better title here would be Hardwood Floors in Ajax, Pickering, Oshawa, Whitby by Atex Flooring.

You don't want to go over 96 characters - and I haven't done the keyword research, so you might want that to be Hardwood Flooring instead of Hardwood Floors.

I hope what I'm saying is making sense.

You also need to look at your text. I'm not sure, but I don't think you used the word hardwood at all on your hardwood flooring page. That needs to be worked in. And adding the cities in your info on the bottom left of all pages - will help also.

I also suggest you add h1 tags in headlines on these pages. If you are unfamiliar with them - for the Hardwood page, I would simply do this (and you have to enter it as html - I suggest starting the page with it - as it will be the page headline):
<center><h1><font size="4">Hardwood Flooring</font></h1></center>

Let me know if this helps at all.

[matrixxxxxx1]

Re: Keywords

Hi Beth

WOW. This is awesome info. I REALLY appreciate the time you took to browse my site and to post this info. You're extremely helpful. Thank you So Much.

I believe I understand what you're saying. I thought descriptions had to be in lower case. Thnx for the heads up on that.

I also didn't realize that keywords should be displayed on your pages.
I had originally hired someone who did my brother's site to do my website professionally but than changed my mind when he told me the price and what exactly he's willing to do...that's when I decided to do my own..lol...

anyways..I tried to mimic his style as far as the optimization by going to my brothers site and another site this gentlemen had done. He had really done an extremely good job on the optimization. I noticed that he actually didn't have the keywords in the page and the titles didn't mention the company name, but had the keywords that he used. So that's how I based my optimization.

Reading your post, it makes perfect sense though what you're saying. So now I have to fix all my description, I love the idea of adding the towns at the bottom of the page.

Only thing Ii'm lost with is the h1 tag you mentioned...i don't know what that does???...and should I write it the way you did for all pages, just changing the product name to make it relevant to that particular page?

Thnx again Beth

Mike

[Bethers]

Re: Keywords

H tags date back to the newspaper industry. If you look at a newspaper - the top main headling is the h1 tag - telling everyone that is what the paper considers the most important item. Then they use lesser tags for other headlines (h2-h6).

There are mixed beliefs about how much attention se's pay to h tags, but I've found that they do notice headlines, whether in the tag or not - and a headline at the top of the page gets more emphasis. Since it's easy to put it into an h1 tag, for the se's that do give that more emphasis, you're got it. Some people then think they should put them all over the page. NO - no more than one h1 per page except in very unusually circumstances. That dilutes the value. If you look at my A Child's Palace store - each headline on each page is in h1. What you put there needs to be keywords that are on that page - and that ARE what the page is about. Because you are wanting to get the cities, you could always combine the h1 tag with an h2 and do something like this:
<center><h1><font size="4">Hardwood Flooring</font></h1>
<h2><font size="3">Serving the Durham Area<br>
Ajax, Pickering, Whitby, Courtice, Oshawa, Bowmanville and Port Perry</font></h2></center>
You could go through all your pages and change the h1, leave the rest, if you like it.

BTW, building my own websites is new to me - but I've been working on SEO for awhile.

[matrixxxxxx1]

Re: Keywords

Thnx Beth

Where do I enter the h1/h2 info please?

In BV I goto view-page html-than in the head of the page??
Am I on the right track??

I checked your site. I saw what you mean, but i see all the h1 in t middle of the page?


Thnx for your help.

Mike

[Bethers]

Re: Keywords

You would have had to look at the text the h1 was surrounding then looked back at the page displaying to see where they are. I put the html box with the h1 at the top of the page. In your case, say on the carpet page - you'd want the h1 with the page's headling to go in the space immediately under the line across under your navigation.

If you look at A Child's Palace, this:

Child, Baby and Toddler Bedroom Decor
Kids Bedding, Rugs, Clocks, Furniture and Accessories

is my h tag for the home page. The others are in the same place on their respective pages. There are times when I'll use h2 tags to head areas on a page. I haven't at this time on that site - but where you could easily do this would be with the different types of flooring within a page. For example, on the same carpet page - you could do an h2 for "Shaw Patterned Carpet" before those pics - then further down before the next - "Plush Carpet Selection" - In fact. I would replace "Pattern Selection" and "Plush Selection" with the headings in h2 - and always remember to use a keyword - right now Pattern Selection doesn't tell me nearly as much as Shaw Pattern (or patterned) Carpet.

Here's a brand new website I've been paid to optimze www.suedonymdesigns.com (sorry Voda - she's not on here) - she has two areas she wanted to reach first. With her first spidering by MSN, I got the first keyword phrase I targeted is on page one of MSN search (crystal ball jewelry). Now, I'm not promising you that - and it takes longer with Yahoo and much longer with Google - but I know that the titles and headlines I put on her site did this. (By the way - look at the title and headline of A Child's Palace - and realize I just got spidered for the first time by MSN this week - then go to MSN and put in Child Bedroom Decor (or Baby Bedroom Decor) in their search.)

This week she added the Breat Cancer Awareness line - and I've got 2 news releases going out on that - one I heard will hit the wires tomorrow - and hopefullly that will get that page indexed and bring some traffic. But this is also a brand new website - so with using the right techniques, you'll get your site up the se's. Just don't expect it to be in a week - or even a month - and always be willing to tweak!

You actually have something good - you can target a very limited market - right near you - and that helps. I suggest you see about exchanging text links with local businesses on the web that work with people who might need your services - realtors would be a good one.

Making a professional website is the start. Remembering it always is the customer (visitor) to your website that you always have to have in the forefront of your mind, you then also have to think about what THEY would like to see. What words are THEY using to search for what you carry? For you to come up on the se's for those words, you have to use the words in your text. And the words that really are what you are all about - should be in headlines on your pages.

[matrixxxxxx1]

Re: Keywords

Thnx Beth

I understand what you're trying to tell me. I looked at your site and the other one you suggested and I know the root you're trying to take me on. Thank you so much for all the good info.

I'm very new to HTML. I'm still confused about the h1. I understand your explantion and the conept, however I'm not sure how to get the command you did for me to the appropriate place.

Do you do this through BV or do you use an html editor?
If you use an editor. How do u upload it it to your folder? through blue FTP??

I changed few things on my home page. If you wanna have a quick peek, that would be great. Only thing I haven't figured out is the h1 tag yet.

How did you know you were spidered by MSN
I typed your keyword. you're in first place...Very nice job.

Thnx again Beth

Mike

[Bethers]

Re: Keywords

In BV - in the options that run along the left side of the page - the top (I think top) one is the html box - click on it - drag it to where you want it on the page. Unlike a text box, you can't "see" this code - but click on it and you'll be able to write in html code - that's where you can simply copy and paste what I gave you. It'll only be one or maybe two lines - so make the box the length of the type area in the page - and fairly narrow - then preview the page - see if it's where you want it. If you make sure the middle spot on the box lines up with the middle of your page, it will be centered.

Let me know if you need further info.