Ahhhh, warm weather is finally here. Let's say you decide you want to buy a pool. So you head to your computer, navigate over to www.google.com, type in the search box something like "pool nashville" (or whatever you local city is) and hit your Enter key. Presto! A whole list of local pool dealers in the Nashville area appears. Or maybe you wanted to be more specific. This time you type in pool with jacuzzi nashville. This yields a list of dealers in your area that specialize in pools with jacuzzis. These words that you entered to perform your search are called keywords or keyword phrases.

Keywords and keyword phrases are how people find your website when they go to a Search Engine. Which keywords you choose for your website will determine how well your pages do in the major search engines. One of the key areas for placing keywords is in Meta Tags. Your vistors will never see these tags on your site - Meta tags are only visible in the code. They contain specific commands and information, and keywords are one type of information you can place in Meta Tags.

Have you ever wondered why some web pages get higher search engine rankings than others? We want to let you in on 10 secrets used to help get web pages to rank high in the search engines.

10 Rules for using Keywords and Meta Tags

1. Use the right amount of words for a particular type of page. For instance, Service/Product Pages should be between 500 and 750 words. Article Pages should be at least 1000 words and not more than 5000 words.

With a Service/Product Page, all you are trying to do is sell a service or product. Visitors that make it to these pages probably already know what they are looking for. Your job is to convince them that your product is the right one.

If you have a really good article on your page, most people will read all the way through it. If not they are off to the next website in a flash. If you have more than 2000 words you may want to consider breaking the article into 2 pages.

2. Focus your page names on your primary keyword (the first one). You want your primary keyword to be an exact match with the file name of your page. This lets the search engines match up your keyword with your page and give your page higher relevancy.

3. Use only 5 keywords or keyword phrases in your meta keywords tag. Any more than that and the search engines might think you are keyword spamming and won't list your page. The search engines rank your keywords in the order that they appear. This makes the first one the primary keyword and the second one a secondary keyword and so on. You should line your keywords up in the order of relevance to the page.

4. Use all of your keywords in your meta description, with the primary keyword as close to the front as possible. The search engines don't read your description verbatim, but can find and match them with your keyword list. So try to use them all but don't repeat them if at all possible. If your meta description repeats your keywords too often the search engines might think you are keyword spamming and not list your page at all.

5. Meta Description should be between 100 and 200 characters. It is important to get a solid description of your page. Less that 100 characters and the search engine may not find it relevant enough to list. More than 200 characters and the search engines may truncate it. Truncated meta descriptions may leave searchers with the impression that your content will be too wordy. Too short a description and your visitors may think there is not enough information on your page and move on to the next result.

6. Line up your Keywords to resemble a sentence. Although search engines don't read your keywords as a sentence verbatim, it should reflect well what your page is all about.

7. Proofread your content twice. You need to look for things like spelling, grammar, placement and paragraph distribution. Once your page looks great, proofread it again with your focus on keyword placement and repetition. You want your keywords placed in your content sparingly. Over use of your keywords might result in the search engines thinking you are keyword spamming. We recommend 3 uses of a keyword for every 300 words. This lets the search engines know that there is a lot of supporting content for the keyword.

Once you feel your page looks great, have someone else proof read it. You’ll be amazed what others see that you’ve overlooked.

8. Put your Meta Description all on one line in your html code. This will ensure that the search engines reads it all. We have seen that some search engine results leave off the second line of a description. That may leave out some of your meta keywords if that happens.

9. Never use more than 4 words for your primary keyword and file name. People rarely search for a keyword phrase over 4 words long. Too many words in a keyword phrase and the search engines may not find enough relevancy to list your page in the results. Two words in a keyword phrase (and file name) is ideal.

10. Use your primary keyword in the first and last paragraph of your page. The search engines will give more relevancy to your page if they find your keywords at the beginning and the end of your page. Also your primary keyword should appear in the first 90 characters of your content.

Today I participated in a webinar with Howard Partridge of Phenomenal Products.  I was one of 3 other guest speakers.  One of the other panelist was David Akindele of Reach Local - an international Internet marketing company specializing in Pay-Per-Click programs.  David talked about Search Engine searches and the 3 different types and I wanted to pass that information on to you.

There are 3 types of Searches:
Navigational:  This simply means that a 'searcher' knows what they are looking for.  They may know the company name.  They may even know the domain name.  (Yes, people sometimes go directly to Google to put in a domain name then click on the link in the index to go to the site.  It's an extra step or two but they do it.)  This searcher typically goes to the Organic Search Index to find what they are looking for.

Transactional:  This searcher knows what they need and they need someone now.  They don't do a lot of research on it - they did that on another visit.  They just come to the Internet searching for who can give it to them the quickest.  This searcher typically migrates to the Sponsored Links Index because they know that these are the aggressive companies - the companies that are there and ready to serve them right now.

Information:  This searcher is looking for information.  This is where the do their research.  Who offers what they are looking for?  Who has the best presentation to give them what they need?  And where can they find it - locally or elsewhere?  This searcher tends to use a mixture of both the Organic Search Index and the Sponsored Links Index to find what they are looking for.  They want to know where the information is going to be when they need it.

By understanding the 3 Types of Searches you can know how to focus your marketing dollars. 

1. Identify your target audience.
Before you can determine which words you need to use, you have to identify your target audience - who are you trying to reach? To use terms that are not relevant to that target audience minimizes your effectiveness. Know your audience. Research the sites they frequent. Learn their language. Make a list of terms used on those websites that relate and are also relevant to your organization, information, services or products.

2. Use the tools that are available.
You can do your homework to find websites and develop a great list of keywords, but invaribly you will miss a word or phrase that is in use. For this reason, I would suggested that you avail yourself of the numerous keyword research tools. Most free tools are ok but relatively weak by comparison with the programs for purchase.  If you're planning to invest money and time into optimizing your website, my advice would be that you utilize a strong keyword research tool.  

3. Think specific.
Who wouldn't like to be at the top of all searches with a broad general term describing their services? For example, as a website company in Nashville, Tennessee, it would be awesome if every time someone typed website company into the search bar of http://www.google.com/ a link to our website would appear at the top of the index list. However, that is not a reality.  To make it one would take massive amounts of time and resources. There are only a handful of websites that will ever reach that position. Instead, we put our focus on nashville website company. That narrows down the list. We could narrow it even further by using nashville tn php website design. The more specific your terminology, the better chance of reaching your exact audience. Statistics also show that your site visitor is 4 times more likely to use your services if they type in 4 or more words in a search bar to find you. Be clever. Look for terms that may have slipped under the radar and are not being targeted as much. 

4. Think locally.
In narrowing down your target audience and specific keywords, think in terms of your local market. In our case, we use nashville website design. If we were wanting to expand outside the Nashville area, we might use middle tn website design or tn website design. Local market not only means location on the map - it can mean community. For example, if you are promoting karate pads to karate students rather than wholesalers, resalers or the general public, you might use the term student karate pads. You're more apt to get more attention from students looking for karate pads rather than just anyone - not to say you will not get traffic from the others.  But it will help drive your target audience to you. 

5. Keep it relevant.
Use words and phrases that directly relate to your website content. Just getting high ranking and heavy traffic does not constitute SEO success. If you make a habit of using off-topic terms, you will not only knock your branding off balance by driving traffic away from your site, but you run a high risk of getting caught by the search engine companies and get penalized for it.  

6. KISS.
You've heard that term - Keep It Simple Stupid. Although you want to be specific with your target audience and terminology, you also want to keep your wording simple. Don't use extra words like and, of, or the. They only muddy the water. Most search engines are designed to eliminate those terms in the search. Let's look again at the example of our company. We would never use the nashville website design company. That is too wordy - nashville website design company or nashville website company will do. 

7. Monitor your traffic.
You need to keep an eye on relevance and referrals. Are the words you're promoting getting attention? And if so, where is the majority of your traffic coming from? The best way to do this is by employing a web analytics keyword monitoring tool. Generally, as you follow the traffic on your site, you become enlightened and sometimes amazed at how people are finding you.  Analytic tools can even show you where you are getting traffic from misspelled terms or other abnormalites.  

8. Constantly reevaluate
Remember that the Internet changes like clothing trends. What is important and works today probably won't look the same tomorrow. Websites are constantly popping up and changing the face of the Internet. MySpace and YouTube are here today, but what will be at the top of everyone's important list tomorrow. The same holds true for the terms that are used to find you. Continually evaluate where you stand. Where your traffic is coming from? Are people still finding you the way they used to? Is there anything that has changed in your market that could affect your placement or relevancy to the market?  Keep it fresh! 

PPC is an acronym for Pay-Per-Click.  PPC programs are basically areas in the Search Engines where you bid for placement. 

How does it work?
You research your competitors, find out what they are bidding on and how much they are bidding.  Then you compete against them by trying to out-bid them for higher placement in the Search Engine.  Placement with PPC is dependent upon your budget and the how fierce the competition.  To reduce the expense you can target your local area paying only for traffic from the targeted area. 

Why use PPC?
The answer to that question for a brand new website is simple - immediate high-ranking placement in a search engine.  Sites can reach top status within 12 hours of launching a PPC program.  For a website that's been around a while, PPC marketing is a dynamic tool in your marketing arsenol. If you are going to budget marketing dollars for your business or website, PPC marketing ensures that your website link is seen. It's much like investing in a billboard on the side of a major interstate. PPC marketing ensures you will be seen. PPC marketing does not guarantee that those who see you will become traffic to your site, but it does ensure you will be seen. 

Where do I find PPC ads?
The most common place to find a PPC ad is at the top of a search engine. For example, on http://www.google.com/, the PPC area is at the top of the index in a blue bar and down the right side of the page. They are typically labeled as Sponsored Links.  Another place you might have seen PPC’s is on a web page, usually at the bottom, in an area called Advertisement Links or Sponsored Links or Google Ads? These are PPC ads. That website is pulling in PPC ads that are relevant to the content of that page providing you with links to similar content. That type of marketing is known as Content Targeting or Target Marketing.  

If I've done SEO properly, do I need to do PPC marketing?
That depends on how new your website is and how much traffic you want on your site.  If you have a new website, SEO alone will not get you placement for a while. SEO will ensure that your chances are higher for placement sometime in the next 2-6 weeks. PPC will ensure that you get immediate placement. Typically speaking, if you combine the two together, you will notice a significant decrease over time in the money you are paying out for PPC marketing because your site will rise in the actual search engine (index) lessening the need to for PPC traffic. 

At the same time, how much traffic do you want on your site? If that answer is high, SEO is not the end all be all. You have to create other means by which to drive traffic to your site - and content targeting helps do that.