Fused Nation - UK SEO Blog

Just a quick post which has been mostly ripped from a SEO review I was writing.  It might not make a whole lot of sense out of context - it is intended to supplement the specifics in the review I wrote.

The concept of SEO

Most people tackle SEO in different ways - this is just how I look at it.

Each keyword you identify as a source of traffic is an unique market in itself.  This market has a different level of competition and a different type of customer than every other market out there (although of course there will be a lot of similarities).

Someone searching for “mens jewellery” might be looking to “window shop”, whereas someone searching for “mens jewellery for sale” might be more likely to buy.

Generally, your SEO won’t be able to define the difference, but someone with a good business head in consultation with you (the client) will be able to help you to define a “best guess” approach to take.  As a business owner, you are the best person to advise on what type of customer converts well - check your referral logs - do aftersale research - find out who is more likely to buy your product.  This is the kind of information that your SEO needs before the campaign starts.

Targeting a market

Ideally you should be using a single page to target one or more keyword markets.  These keywords should be in some way compatible (eg, “mens jewellery” and “mens jewellery for sale” can effectively be targeted on the same page).

While some would argue that this “dilutes” the focus of the page, I wouldn’t agree.  I believe that this approach allows you to broaden your targeting (more keywords targeted for the same amount of content) while keeping each page relevant for users.

Keyword research

Do your research using your tool of choice.  Stick all your keywords in a spreadsheet and add in competing pages + search volume figures.  If you want to go a little more advanced, create your own figures of “level of competition” to indicate how much SEO your competitors are getting into.

It’s largely irrelevant - the key data you need is to find out what people are searching for.  Competitiveness just means a tougher battle and we’re not going to run away from that now, are we?

Next step is to assign keywords to pages on your site (or vice versa - whatever way you feel more comfortable doing).  What are you left with?  Pages with no targeting (you need to do more keyword research) or keywords with no pages (you need to write more content).  This gives you an idea where your work is going to take you next.

Some rules to follow:

• More competitive / high traffic keywords are usually the best targets for your homepage (which will ultimately be stronger).
• More generic keywords are good for general “product” sections.  Don’t mess around writing an article about “mens jewellery” (which will just read like SEO crap) when you can optimise a product page for the term.
• More specific search terms are usually good to use as article topics or slogans.

By assigning your keywords to pages (or vice versa) and laying it out in front of you, you can get an idea of how the structure of your site will look.  Are you neglecting a lot of specific search terms?  Then maybe you need to be writing user guides / articles / news?  How about generic search terms?  Perhaps consider splitting down your product categories down so you can target more terms?

Generally, be creative and don’t stick to the thought that each SEO page needs to only mention one particular keyword.

Another article on the subject that might be of use:  Search Engine Optimisation Begginers Guide

MG