Field of Dreams: Getting a Homerun With Your Keywords

By Janet L. Hall
Posted Thursday, July 1, 2004

“If you build it they will come,” from the movie Field of
Dreams has become a popular phrase among newbies to
the Internet, uneducated web site owners, and those filled
with dreams of getting rich quick. That phrase is far from the
truth when it comes to your web site.

Many factors and variables come into play when trying to get
people to come to your web site, one of which is your choice
of keywords.

If you’re using Microsoft FrontPage or a similar software
package to create your web pages, guess what? Keywords,
page titles, descriptions, and META TAGS are NOT
automatically put on your pages. These important variables
may be missing from your pages unless you enter the
information yourself.

Even worse, if you’ve hired someone to design your site and
pages for you and they don’t know how important these
variables are and aren’t including them…no one will find you,
your services, your products…no sales, no business.

The key to STARTING your field of dreams is to determine
the keywords people are using to find your web site OR the
number one keywords that are getting your competitors the
top rankings in the search pages. Please remember, this is
just the beginning, you have a lot more to learn, such as
where to place the keywords on your web pages, how many,
and much much more.

In turn, each search engine has it's own set of criteria or
requirements to enable your web site to be ranked near the
top of the search pages. And some, you can even buy your
way to the top of the pages.

So, how do you determine what keywords you need on your
pages to make a home run?

Seven Homerun Keyword Strategies:

Game Plan: Write out a list of keywords and have your
friends, family, and client's review for suggestions. Select
two to three dozen that are the most important for your web
pages. (NOTE - Each page on your site should have it's own
keywords.) If you already have keywords - this is a good
time to * OverHall * them .

Batting Order: Put your most important keywords near the
beginning of your TAGS (more about TAGS next time) and
at the top of your page.

Field Position: Know where to place your keywords
throughout your pages.

Double Play: Look up your keywords in a Thesaurus, such
as Roget's Internet Thesaurus at (http://www.thesaurus.com) ,
and use some of the alternative words as your keywords.

Signals: Don't forget to check out and use regional
terminology and common misspelling of words.

Clean up: Keyword and Statistical Software can be
purchased to assist in choice of keywords and the weight
(sometimes referred to as keyword density) of your
keywords.

Stealing Bases: What are your competitor keywords that
are ranking at the top of the search engines?

I hope you can get a Grand Slam!

Smiles, not Piles,

Copyright (c) 2001 by OverHall Consulting
P.O. Box 263, Port Republic, MD 20676
All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce,
copy, or distribute this article so long as article is kept intact,
this copyright notice, and full information about the author is
attached.

[]bAbout the Author[/b]
Janet L. Hall is the owner of OverHall Consulting, an
organizing firm for office, home, computer clutter, and your
life. Visit her website at (http://www.overhall.com) and sign up for her FREE organizing newsletter, OverHall IT!
Phone consultations and coaching are available.