Keyword nightmare

Everybody is trying to scare me. How do you rank with Google? Are your keywords doing any work for you or maybe on contrary causing Google to punish you? Have you done proper keyword optimisation? How do you stand with SEO?

I have learned that having a proper web site and setting some common sense keywords for the site is not enough. Unless I rank in the first several out of thousands, it is not good enough. If I am not there I don’t exist!

Here is the statistics:

A web site that is the first on the search results receives 42% of users’ clicks. 42 per cent! I can draw from that one of the two conclusions:

• People are either spoilt and lazy to look further, or
• Google does a damn good job and gives them the first time exactly what they wanted.

The second in the list gets 12% clicks. The third 8% and all the others share the rest including those listed on all other pages of results that exist.

So, in reality if I want anybody to click and come to my site I have to be on the first page and not only that, I have to be the first on the list! And this is really scary, because what I have learned so far it is almost impossible to be the first on the list.

Now, we are missing here some basics that makes all this even more complicated. Here are some examples:

Let’s say I put the keyword ‘software’ on my web site, expecting that someone will find me by searching  this word. What are my chances of being found?  The chances are none! There are millions of sites with the same keyword. I definitely have to have something that others don’t.

It looks that I have to try with a phrase instead of single word. So what about putting “we do custom software development”?  Looks long enough? So, what I am expecting here is that someone is going to type this phrase and with that come to our site. What is are the chances of someone typing this? None again! They may be searching for a software development company and not advertising one.  I have to put myself in their shoes and use their words.

What about “I need custom software development”? This looks more like a phrase that someone may type. So if they type this phrase I may eventually show on their search result. I may even be the first on the list. Have in mind that this will happen only if they type that exact phrase! If they type something else or just change a word, I won’t show there. It’s every phrase on its own!

Notice that here we are not talking about keywords any more. It has never been about keywords at all. It is phrases that we are dealing with.

So when we talk about getting on the first page we are talking of one particular phrase only! If I find another good phrase that works, I may end up on the search results for that phrase as well.

Is one good phrase enough to herald my presence on the net? What if this phrase only brings me 500 clicks every day?

Can I know in advance how many clicks is this phrase going to bring me? How can I find a good phrase in the first place? What about knowing what are intentions of those that find me, click and come to my web site? Are they just looking or plan to buy?  

There are many questions we can ask. Where to find the answers? You guessed already: in Google’s databases.  For that, you need tools, serious tools. This is now science by itself and is called Keyword Analysis.

More, in the next post