Buzzwords vs Effective SEO Keywords

Ever see a website that seems to speak a foreign language...in English? We encounter many SEO client websites that rely on buzzwords in the page copy to get the word out about their product. The problem lies with visitors who may not be familiar with those terms. This means optimizing with buzzwords may not be the best way to gain traffic. If your prospective visitors are not searching for those terms, how do they find your website?

Start With The Obvious

You really need to know your industry. Study your prospective visitors--who your target audience is. If your prospective visitors are highly technical and work and talk in "buzzword speak", no problem. But if you also want to attract prospective visitors who may not be immersed in the terminology used in your business, you must compensate by optimizing with a wider array of targeted keywords.

How Do I Find All Those Keywords?

Start researching. Yes, it's going to take a little work on your part to take a close look at what keywords you may be missing out on. Keep account of prospective website visitors who may use other terms to find your website. Track the keywords used by visitors through your log reports. Most log statistics programs have a report showing the keywords used by searchers to find your website. Using your server logs or log statistics program for keyword information is a good way to get a better picture of how visitors are finding your website. Use Overture's keyword tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/) or Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com) and note the words used on your competitors' websites. Using these, or similar tools, type in your buzzwords and see what variations come up. Competitor websites may use a slightly different language than you when writing copy for their pages. Visit their websites and learn all you can about how many ways your business can get its message across. Read online articles; visit business newsgroups and forums. Find research information through industry websites and companies that specialize in producing reports about your industry.

Help Search Engine Robots Do Their Job

Search engine robots are just automated programs. Their concept and execution is relatively simple: search engine robots "read" the text on your pages by going through the source code of your web pages. If the majority of the words in your source code text are buzzwords, this is the information that will be taken back to the search engine database.

It's Obvious (the "DUH" factor)

Ok, so it's obvious to you what your industry buzzwords are. But don't discount the simpler versions of those catchy words. Focus also on some lesser used terms and make a list of additional keywords you might be able to add. Clear, precise copy that catches the visitor's attention and tells your story is generally more effective in the long run.

Compromise - Mix SEO Keywords and Buzzwords

You don't want to change the copy on your webpages? This is often a problem with business websites. Once you have your keyword list of other-than-obvious words, work at fitting them into the page text carefully. You want them to make sense with the context of the web page. Use these new keywords as many times as "makes sense" so they do not sound spammy. Read your copy out loud or have a colleague read your copy to get a sense of how it might sound to a website visitor.

The Bottom Line

It should be easy enough to see how those extra keywords are producing for you. Keep track of your log reports and see if those new terms start showing up in your reports. Test a variety of keywords, then test again to see if visitors are staying on your website, moving through your individual web pages, or clicking away. Create specific pages using those keywords as a test scenario. The information you need should be available to you in your log statistics reports for visited web pages.

Don't let business jargon get in the way of getting your message across to your audience. Yes, buzzwords may sound cutting edge, but the bottom line is, traffic and sales are what you really want to show for your hard work.

Copyright © 2003 Search Innovation Marketing. http://www.searchinnovation.com - All Rights Reserved.

Permission to reprint this article is granted as long as all text above this line is included in its entirety. We would also appreciate your notifying us when you reprint it: please send a note to reprint@searchinnovation.com.

About The Author

Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing (http://www.searchinnovation.com), a Search Engine Promotion company serving small businesses. She has specialized in search engine optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly & Associates, a technical book publishing company.

---

Googles Back Door... Get Your Website Indexed Quicker!

It's the buzz word's going across the internet marketing guru's... Read More

SEO and Google Indexing - Why It Requires A Complex Blend of Skills

If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. Getting... Read More

Creating A Search Engine Copywriting Plan

Search engine copywriting has become an extremely important part of... Read More

How To Really SEO Your Site

Search engine optimization is one of most popular online marketing... Read More

Common Sense Approach to Search Engine Optimization

Most web surfers start their sessions at a search engine... Read More

Search Engine Optimization With Sitemaps

I just wanted to share a little Search Engine Optimization... Read More

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 2: Content Creation

Welcome to part two in this search engine optimization series.... Read More

Submitting Your Site To The Open Web Directory: Some Dos And Don?ts

One of the most important steps in any site's publicity... Read More

Top 5 Search Engine Optimization Mistakes

There are a lot of ways to promote your website... Read More

Dont Make the Top 30 SEO Mistake

SEO consultants will tell you that you need to be... Read More

8 ways to build a really bad web site for Search Engines

Some web sites receive hundreds or thousands of unique visitors... Read More

Search Engine Optimization and Web Site Usability

Build a Web site and the people will come.Ha! If... Read More

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy - Navigating the Dark Waters of Website Promotion

Creating a well-designed website is the first step in your... Read More

Link Building Services

In today scenario when we talk about Search Engine Optimization,... Read More

Google has an Achilles Heal - Will Their Competitors Notice?

Even though Google Revenues continue to soar, the hidden problem... Read More

Alert Marketing - Get Google Search Results By E-mail

Sometimes our jobs as marketers means we need to look... Read More

Are Your Keywords Making Money for You?

I built my website, it's perfect. My chosen subject of... Read More

SEO #1: Choosing THE Keywords to Optimize for

This is the first lesson out of 6 that teaches... Read More

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step 3: Site Structure

Welcome to part three in this search engine positioning series.... Read More

Valid HTML code is crucial to Search Engine Optimization

Why valid HTML code is crucial to your web site's... Read More

10 Ways to Tackle Keyword Research and Selection

You need to be extremely careful with keyword research so... Read More

Your Online Home-Based Business Can Lead To Search Engine Stress

As a member of several search engine optimization forums, I... Read More

Copywriters: Make Friends with Search Engine Optimization

I don't know about you, but I felt a lot... Read More

Site-Digest 7 Simple Steps To Place Your Site Map On Steroids

The Site Map is a too often overlooked piece of... Read More

Do-It-Yourself Keyword Optimization

The first step in a search engine optimization campaign is... Read More

Work With The Search Engines - Dont try to Outsmart the Search Engines

Contrary to the claims of high-priced SEO firms, optimizing your... Read More

STOP Writing for Search Engines

Back when I was starting out with my first internet... Read More

Link Building for Hilltop

Hilltop is one of the major concepts underpinning Google's search... Read More

Google Has No Content On Page

One of the post from My SEO world Meet Up... Read More

Surviving Googles Aging Delay

Google has always been the search industry's innovator and that's... Read More

Google PageRank Explained

PageRank - an exclusive technology developed by Google which can... Read More

An SEO Checklist

Search engine optimization is on every webmaster's mind these days.... Read More

Google Gunning For Directories?

Why is it that webmasters are so quick to blame... Read More