Don’t ever write a press release for SEO. That’s just shooting yourself in the head. In fact, you deserve to be shot in the head if you ever say “press release for SEO” again. Michael Martinez – Director of Search Strategies for 1st Query

A key element in getting links back to your site and improving your traffic is understand where your target audience and circles of influence get their information and be there.

Obviously our goal with this site is to learn SEO and how to get positioned in the top spots for our target keywords. But the question remains, “What do you do to get people to your site now?” An even more important question is, “What can I do today to get people to come and link to my site?”

The press release can be a powerful tool for people who know how to use it effectively. If you have a gift for communication and you know how to properly distribute a press release, it can help you reach influential people, consumers, bloggers and important minds in your niche. If you can do this, your traffic will grow and your inbound links will increase. Ultimately, (in an indirect way) the press release is another great SEO tool.

That said, a press release is not the ultimate, secret magic trick. Press releases have become a huge source of search spam lately and you have to realize that if you’re going to take the time to write a press release it better be damn good and highly newsworthy. If it’s not, you’re just wasting your time.

Here are 10 tips on how to use a press release to further your SEO efforts. We’ll also look at what you need to do to fully distribute your work so your efforts provide you with the greatest benefit possible.

If you haven’t reviewed my basic intro to writing a press release, please do so now before continuing.

1. Focus on your angle and your target audience

The first thing you need to do when writing a press release is figure out how to appeal to your target audience. Your press release should appeal to them immediately and make them want to read on, visit your site and possibly write about what you have to say and then (in a perfect world) link back to you in some way.

If you don’t write compelling content for real people then you’re just spamming. You should only write a press release if there’s a real need and if you can do a good job at selling what you have to say. Don’t focus on SEO techniques before spending a lot of time on how you’re approching the reader. Remember: “Humans First” and you’ve mastered the first step of optimizing your press release for SEO. I know it’s a weird concept but SEO is becoming more and more about appealing to people and getting them to link, bookmark, talk and spread your content. It’s less about using the right keywords (although still very important) so if you can’t write, find someone who can.

2. Treat it link a web page

Without disrupting the readability of your page you should think about ways to appeal to the reader. To do this, your press release needs to be more like a mini web page than an old fashioned press release. Include your logo and spice up the design with relevent and useful photos, graphs and graphics that further enhance your goals. Think about making it a useful and informative resource for people to use and talk about. Video is another option and if you host your media on an external site there are added benefits. Read on for more about this.

3. Use external multimedia content

When you include images and multimedia in your press release, consider uploading the images to a service like YouTube.com or Flickr.com where you can tag them with keywords and more information. Not all newswire services allow this but you should give it a shot if possible. Remember, YouTube is currently the third largest search engine on the net so don’t neglect an opportunity to reach out in a different way.

4. Get to the point fast and be concise

Part of effective writing involves knowing when to shut up. Google News gets 100,000 articles a day and includes them for 30 days. That creates an index of 3 million articles per month that don’t stick around very long. That’s a lot of content my friend and people don’t have a lot of time to read. Your challenge is getting to the top of that list and getting people to read what you have to say. If you jabber on for 10 paragraphs before you get to the good stuff you’ve probably already lost them.

Consider writing in pyramid style and this will help. Basically this invoves giving the reader the golden nugget right out of the gate and as they read on, the information becomes less important and the subject matter more broad.

When you’re writing a press release, don’t be a poet. Write for people that are looking for information. Make your press release short, compelling and infomative and you’ll hit a home run.

5. Linking

One of the unique and useful aspects of writing press releases on the web is your ability to include links. Links should be included in all the obvious places like your company information in the footer but you should also link to a relevant pages on your site from within the first paragraph of your press release.

As mentioned in the previous point, you want to hit them over the head with everything you got in the first paragraph before they move on to another article.

When they click they should immediately land on a page that supports the information they’re looking for. Don’t link to your homepage and make them hunt for it.

When linking, use your most important keywords as the link text as this will be an added SEO benefit if your press release gets distributed to more sites.

Also, reach out to important and influential people by linking to them. If they’re savvy they’ll see that you’re linking to them and they may link back or help to return the favor in some way; ideally by distributing your press release on your site or part of your relevant news.

6. Keywords

This is an obvious one but very important. Optimizing a press release is not much different than optimizing a standard page or blog post on your site.

Focus your press release on a keyword phrase that ties in to the product or service you are promoting and that people actually search for. Don’t stuff your press release with keywords but write naturally and focus in on 2-3 variations of the same phrase if possible.

So, what to do? Write a plain jane release that does not stand out, or stuff that sucker like a turkey with keywords galore? A talented writer should be able to incorporate keywords into a press release as well as satisfy any creative requirements for a compelling read. This is the “art” of press release optimization and also of web page optimization. - Lee Odden, Top Rank Blog

Here’s a basic, quick reminder on how to use your keywords in your content:

1. Research keywords that fit your target audience and support your decision to use those keywords with real world data

2. Add keywords throughout the press release and write naturally

3. Add keywords to your H1 header tag

4. Add keywords within your external links

5. Make sure your keywords are in your first paragraph of text.

7. Make your press release viral

This is not a post about how to make your content viral. What you need to consider though is what you can do to get others to pass on your content. You want people to talk, forward, link and create buzz so investigate the ways to accomplish that. We’ll talk more about this in the future.

Essentially you want someone to look at another person and say “Read this because I think it’s great and useful.”

Start the process by posting the press release on your own site and sending it out through your RSS feed.

Bookmark the page with Del.icio.us and other social and viral sites like Stumble Upon. This can only start people talking if you’ve done your job with creating effective and compelling content.

8. Go door to door in the digital world; focus on people who will redistribute your release

If you’re operating in a niche where you know influential people by name, contact them. It’s as simple as that. Do you know an influential blogger or have access to a journalist at a newspaper or publication? Write them a short, personal note via email and include an invitation to visit your site for more information. (Where you’ve posted your press release)

Don’t just send them the press release via email because people hate that. Remember, you need to stand out among the crowd so if you really have something to say that’s newsworthy, people will listen if you approach them with respect and just ask.

Many websites will republish press releases, or at the least, they’ll publish important parts or quotes from your press release; so consider seeking out people who are major players in your target niche and approach them directly. You want to make sure that the press release that you toiled over actually gets in front of the right people. If you have some manners and time to do it right, you’ll be surprised at your success.

9. Know where to distribute your press release

When you distribute your press release, don’t focus on just any ol’ service just because it’s free. Save your time and hassle and spend a few bucks to do it right through one of the top services. If a wire service allows and sends out a lot of press release spam, do you really want to be associated with that?

Here is a short list of outlets to consider:

www.free-press-release.comwww.e-xl.com

www.inthepress.ruwww.pressbox.co.uk

www.press-world.com/add

www.prweb.com

www.prleap.com

www.i-newswire.com

www.webwire.com

www.pressbox.co.uk

www.24-7pressrelease.com

www.clickpress.com

www.przoom.com

www.pr.com

www.marketwire.com

www.prnewswire.com

www.businesswire.com

10. Send your press releases at the right times

When do you have time to stop and read? Do you find that you have more time on Monday mornings or Friday afternoons? Maybe it’s somewhere in between? Research has shown that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days for getting optimized press releases to the top of the pile.

Journalists can typically be found searching for story ideas on those days as well.

11. BONUS: Basic things you can do to optimize your press release

Research your keywords
Use headings with your target keywords
Use your keywords at the beginning of your content; spread words throughout in creative ways
Consider using some bold text but limit this practice to your most important keywords
Link to your own website content with keyword rich link text
Link out to other sites
Include quotes from influential people and give them credit with a link
Focus on readability
Focus on humans
Write natural
Keep it short
Double check your spelling and punctuation
Speak w authority

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You see, there’s truth and there’s reality.

The TRUTH is that PageRank alone does not DIRECTLY influence your rankings and you shouldn’t spend all your time obsessing over it. It’s just a small part of many elements that go into the algorithms that decide who ranks for what.

The REALITY is that PageRank can indirectly influence your rankings in many ways. It can be used as a general score to be applied for the credibility of your site and–let it be said–Not everyone can get a high PageRank score overnight. This statement can’t be disputed. So, if a site does have a high PR score, it is a loose measure of it’s quality and respect on the web.

Below are some reasons that you should pay attention to your PageRank score. Again, I don’t recommend that you obsess over this score (for the reasons I’ve mentioned previously). Treat it like you do your investments. Make good decisions and forget about it for about 3-6 months and then check back in to measure your progress. If necessary, make some changes.

1. Your PageRank score can add some weight and authority to your site.

There is one rule about PageRank and that is that it’s hard to achieve a high PageRank score. It takes a long time and it’s becoming harder and harder to fool Google with paid links and other illegitimate methods. Google wants their results to be pure and high quality so they’ll continue to make it hard for anyone other than a quality site to rank well in their listings.

2. PageRank is a basic measure of popularity

PageRank measures links to your site so in some way it is a crude measure of your popularity. Right or wrong, people do notice your PR score and associate it with popularity. The theory holds that if you have a lot of links to your site, someone must be reading your content and it must be valuable because they’re linking to it. If they’re reading and linking, then others will read and link and your traffic will ultimately increase. What you need to know is that PageRank is no substitute for hard traffic numbers and analysis though.

3. Indicator of Natural Linking and the amount of links to your site

PageRank is a lose indication of links into your site. As stated above, links usually mean traffic. Links also mean that someone has found your content valuable enough to link to it from their site. What’s most important to realize though is that a high PR score does not come about by deceptive methods. If you have a high PR it usually means that you have high quality, valuable links going to your site from other high quality sites. This is the value of PR in a nutshell and what Google has based their ranking algorithm on.

4. Google spiders will visit the site more often

The higher your PageRank, the more often Google will return to index your content. Google likes sites that are updated frequently so they do use your PR score as a way to flag high quality sites that need to be indexed as often as possible. This is good for you because your most recent content will appear and influence your rankings more regularly. This is especially important in SEO if you are making frequent changes and tweaks to your content so you rank better.

5. People will pay to be on a site with a high PageRank.

You may agree with the logic or you might not, but people do purchase ads based on a site’s PageRank score. If you sell advertising on your site in the form of paid links, banner ads, or other spots; the price of your ads can be determined largely in part by your site’s PR score.

Website advertisers look for hard data to help decide where they should spend their money. Currently, PageRank and Alexa rank are two of the biggest metrics. They provide hard numbers that help to measure the quality of a website. Until someone uncovers a better way to do it, PageRank will matter when discussing advertising.

6. A high PageRank score will attract links.

Another indirect benefit of having a high PR score is it’s ability to attract attention and links. As you see your score rise over time, you’ll be happy to see an increase in requests for link exchanges from high quality sites, offers to contribute to your site in some way, and in general, an increase in incoming links to your site from around the web. Plus, people that pay attention to PageRank as they go from site to site are commonly thought leaders who influence others. Chances are, they’ll be attracted because of your PageRank score and if they like what you have to offer, they’ll link to you and talk about you so other’s that respect them will also visit and link as well.

7. A high PR score commands respect and credibitliy

Like it or not, people will use your PageRank score as they’re first impression of your site. Not everyone does this of course, but when you’re trying to get links from other prominent sites and blogs related to your site, it’s a good bet that the leaders in your web community know about PR.

Before they even read one word, they might see that you have a high PR and they’ll instantly decide that this is a site that matters. You might have the best site in the land, but without a decent PageRank score people may judge you negatively as a site that’s just started out or someone that they don’t trust.

It’s like driving through a neighborhood and looking at some old, rundown looking houses. Some of these houses might have beautiful hardwood floors, marble counter tops and gold leaf accents throughout. But it doesn’t matter to anyone until the curb appeal of the home is improved.

People want to get links from high PageRank sites too so you’ll find that people are more motivated and receptive to your requests for correspondence, partnerships and reciprocal links when your site has “PR cred”. It might not be fair, but it’s reality.

8. It’s a general personal measure of your quality and progress

As a site owner, you can sum up your PR score like this: Your PageRank score is a rough measure of your site’s quality. Nobody can get a high PR out o the gate and it can’t be bought. So, if you have a high PR, you can feel pretty confident that you’ve done a good job presenting your content, services or products to the world. People have come and they’ve voted with their links and Google has been a witness; you’ve done a good job.

On this same note, you can feel pretty good that you’ve made some good progress with your site and your business. You’re doing something right if you have a high PR. People like you and respect you in the web community and chances are, you’ve been dedicated for a period of time. That shows that you’re committed and you’ll be around for some time.

Be proud of your PageRank score and wear it like a badge of honor when it matters. But don’t take yourself or your PR too seriously. As I’ve said, PageRank is only a small part of a very large picture that determines your rank in the SERPs. So keep tabs on your PR but spend your time on the fundamentals. Create great content, offer great products and services, interact in your web community and do your best; you’re golden PR will come.

photo credit: hfabulous

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1. Google needs a way to attach a value (or score) to your site that’s based solely on a system of volunteer voting by your peers.
2. Google (actually Larry Page) decided that links are a great form of voting because they show that someone likes your content enough to link to it from their site.
3. Google invents and patents the PageRank algorithm which tracks relevant, high quality incoming links to your site and assigns a value to the site that’s linking because–as they soon find out–not all links are created equal.
4. On the Google search results pages, the PageRank algorithm helps to determine your page’s position in the SERPs. A page that is linked to by many highly valued pages with high PageRank receives a high score itself.
5. Google updates their PageRank continuously.
6. Your site then rises or falls in the search listings because of the combination of your current PageRank AND hundreds of other factors.

Your PageRank score is important on some level (and we’ll address why in an upcoming post), but here are some myths related to PageRank and why you shouldn’t take it too seriously.

PageRank Myths:

1. The PageRank score that you see is an accurate number. False.

Your Pagerank score can be seen via the Google Toolbar but the number that you see is NOT an accurate number and should not be taken very seriously.

First off, it’s updated about every 3-4 months so what you see there is completely outdated. I saw a great quote here that sums this up: “If you only consider how a PageRank shift will negatively affect you after it has happened, you’re already screwed.”

2. PageRank is calculated on a scale from 1 to 10: True but mostly false where it matters.

The number you see in the toolbar is a rounded estimate of your real page rank. The Google PageRank algorithm is far more precise and complex and it’s updated continuously. You won’t see this number anywhere. As Matt Cutts says:

“Certainly our internal PageRank computations have many more degrees of resolution than the 0-10 values shown in the toolbar.”

He continues:

I believe that I’ve said before that PageRank is computed continuously; there are machines that take inputs to the PageRank algorithm at Google and compute the resulting PageRanks. So at any given time, a url in Google’s system has up-to-date PageRank as a result of running the computation with the inputs to the algorithm. From time-to-time, that internal PageRank value is exported so that it’s visible to Google Toolbar users.

3. A high PageRank is necessary to rank high in the SERPs. False.

A high PageRank alone will not help your rankings. Yes, links are important but your PageRank score is just a part of hundreds of criteria that Google uses to rank your site. Do NOT obsess over your PR and focus on the important things like building amazingly useful content. I have personally ranked very well for important key phrases from a site with a low PR.

4. PageRank is an excellent indicator of the value of your site. False.

PageRank is not the best indicator of the value of your site or how much traffic you have. PageRank simply shows how many people are linking to your site. Plus, you need to be aware that every page on your site has it’s own PageRank number attached to it.

5. PageRank tells you if a site has a lot of traffic. False.

Yes, Pagerank does give you an indication of your incoming links. It also gives you an idea of the potential traffic that your site can generate. What it does not do is tell you if you’re getting steady, reliable traffic that means anything to you and your advertisers.

I’ve heard of advertisers spending big money to be on a site just because they have a high PageRank. This is a huge mistake. Focus less on PageRank and focus more on real traffic analysis and reporting. Focus on building links from sites that actually mean something. Focus on your CONTENT!

If you’re worried about losing money because your PageRank dropped then you’re doing something wrong. You could have the highest PageRank possible but if people don’t come, bookmark, link, subscribe, buy and LOVE your HIGHLY VALUABLE content, services and products, then your obsessing about your PR has been a big waste of time.

I’ll let Matt Cutts close this one out with his wise words of advice about PageRank. This question was in regards to the exact day that the PageRank score was captured and published.

Really, I wouldn’t worry about it–I’m not even sure myself. At some point we take our internal PageRanks, put them on a 0-10 scale, and export them so that they’re visible to Google Toolbar users. If you’re splitting hairs about the exact date that backlinks were taken from, you’re probably suffering from “B.O.” (backlink obsession) and should stop and go do something else for a bit until the backlink obsession passes. I highly recommend keyword analysis, looking at server logs to figure out new content to add, thinking of new hooks to make your site attract more word-of-mouth buzz, pondering how to improve conversion once visitors land on your site, etc.

So, in summary, what you need to know about PageRank is this: The PageRank algorithm is very important because at some level it figures into how your site ranks in the Google results. (Again, we’ll talk more about this in another post) The PageRank score that you see in the Google Toolbar is not so important and you should not stress and obsess over it on a daily–or even monthly–basis. It’s outdated and it’s a very loose indication of the value of your site.

You absolutely should spend your time creating the best content that you can–and in the end my friends–the links will come and the PR will rise and all will be right with the world.

Ready to write off your PageRank score as useless? Don’t be so hasty. Read on about why PageRank can make a difference (like it or not).

photo credit: Matt Stratton

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“Pretend… that a single visitor could make the difference between success and failure for your business. She has no time to waste poking around your site trying to figure out what you’re all about… What do you tell her? You’d likely explain by giving her the essential information about how you can help, and why you perfectly meet her needs, right? And I’m betting you’d want to explain it in the most compelling fashion you could, given what’s riding on the deal. In a nutshell, that’s what Google wants you to do with the content on your site.”
Brian Clark – Copyblogger.com

Copywriting for SEO is evolving into a highly skilled talent that goes way beyond just blindly stuffing your pages full of keywords. Readers are expecting more, it’s becoming harder to attract readers and the search engines are getting smarter; they know when they spider pages if it’s properly written and if it “reads” appropriately. Most importantly, search engines like links. Without highly useful, compelling, relevant content, you simply won’t get links; you simply won’t rank in the search engines. Because of this we need to know how to effectively write for SEO. Today I would almost suggest that the business of SEO is copywriting. Without a talent for writing your site will simply die. Period.

SEO Copywriting 1.0:

Back in the day, all you had to do when creating a new page on your website was to stuff it full of keywords. If you wanted to rank well for the words “video game”, you simply repeated these words as many times as possible on the the page and in your HTML code. For obvious reasons the search engines quickly changed their algorithms to become more intelligent.

In the beginning it was easy to fool the search engines with “black hat” tactics and tricks because they were downright ignorant. The architects of early search engines had the difficult task of trying to teach a computer to decide what’s relevant and what wasn’t. Words were everything in the beginning but the landscape was soon to change.

SEO Copywriting 2.0:

Copywriting soon began to evolve and search engines required more by introducing the value of the link. Google was the pioneer with this requirement and it became the cornerstone of their algorithm; it still is. It was no longer acceptable to just “stuff” your page with your keywords–in fact–Google started penalizing sites for repeating the same words too many times and in too many places. To the Googlebot this tactic was potential spam and not to be trusted.

As mentioned, Google realized the value of the link. A link was essentially a “vote” for your content and–coupled with the proper keywords–the more links you had from related, high quality sites, the more Google had confidence that you were providing relevant content.

This was a groundbreaking discovery and it helped the ignorant computers at Google become much smarter. Through this tactic, Google forced copywriters to actually create valuable content that was useful to humans.

Alas, as humans quickly discovered the value of the link, we started to go down the road of more black hat tricks. Link farms, link exchanges, link building software, sites devoted to linking on a massive scale, spam attacks on forums and blogs, and hundreds of additional techniques took hold of the landscape. The practice of getting links became all the rage and it degraded Google’s brilliant maneuver to put a human in the position of content judge.

SEO Copywriting 3.0:

Today we’re at a turning point for SEO copywriters. Long gone are the days of stuffing your page with keywords. Long gone are terms like “keyword density” and “link exchanges” (Just to name a few). Google is a lean, mean and smart animal and it demands quality. Today Google knows if a page “reads” like a human wrote it. It knows if the sentence structure is proper. It knows if your words are spelled correctly and it definitely knows if you are writing for humans instead of just stuffing your pages with keywords.

What’s important to note with SEO copywriting 3.0 is to realize that your job is not JUST about writing. It’s about having the talent to create compelling content that people want to read, share, link to, quote and admire.

This is important because–in addition to creating something useful– the goal of an SEO copywriter these days is ultimately ALL about getting the elusive link. It’s easy to write content with the appropriate keywords–and this is still important–but what’s hard, is getting links (the votes) from well respected sites.

For the most part, getting links is the hardest part of SEO and without a doubt, the job is mostly left to the SEO copywriter to get the job done. It takes talent and it’s hard work getting those links. Your content has to be GREAT to stand out in the crowd and get links; especially from other high quality sites. This is what Google wants because–in the end–their search results will ultimately be filled with highly relevant and useful content.

In my next post I’ll publish a list of the 10 golden rules of SEO copywriting 3.0. We’ll obviously touch on some of the “classic” requirements and then move on to discuss some of the more recent concepts you should understand to effectively write for SEO.

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Fortunately, with the issue of page titles you can make changes and have them corrected or improved fairly quickly. That’s no excuse not to get it right the first time though. Below are some items that you should combine with my previous summary about how to write great page titles.

Hopefully this information does not surprise you in the least but acts as a quick reminder as to what you should stay away from or where you need to make minor corrections in your past work.

Just say “no” to Untitled documents

The biggest mistake that virgin site owners make when building their first site is to skip the title tag all together. This is a HUGE mistake as the page will appear as an “Untitled document”. This will seriously devalue your site and content and should be avoided at all costs. I always find it interesting to do a search for “Untitled document” see how many people have made this mistake.

Never place your site name by itself or at the beginning of your title

I’ve seen many sites–heck, I used to do this myself for years–title every page on their site with the domain name alone. This does nothing to improve your rankings or anything on your site except for a search for your domain name. Focus on including words that encompass the meaning of your page first and then brand your page.

Also, if you’re going to brand your site with your company name or URL, list it last in your title. Something like this is a pretty good practice: “How to construct wickedly amazing page titles | QuickStartSEO.com”.

Always omit unnecessary words

A common mistake is being way too wordy in your titles. You should cut out unnecessary words that don’t further your mission. In our previous post about page title best practices, we mentioned how you can cut out “stop words” and replace them with symbols like the pipe bar. I believe you can find ways to go one step further and cut your title down to the bar minimum at times. The more words you have in your title, the less relevant each one will be. So as a best practice you should learn to simplify.

Do not use ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’

Again, without going into detail about this again, you should try to cut out unnecessary words whenever possible. If it makes sense, keep the words in. The last you want to do is break up a statement that requires a “stop word”. In general though I believe these words can be deleted. You can easily say “A primer on the subject of writing good title tags” or you could say “HTML Title tag primer”. Which one would be the best solution?

Never include the kitchen sink

When I first started out, I used to stuff my title tag with long descriptions, every keyword I could think of, and generally make a mess of the whole process. This is called a kitchen sink title. Try not to apply a long winded title to your page that includes many keywords and phrases. Decide on the best words that summarize what you’re trying to accomplish on the page by performing solid research and then decide on the ideal page title.

Do not spam with your title

This goes along with the previous statements about simplifying and reducing the number of words in your title. This one should be pointed out though because if you stuff your title with every combination of word and phase that applies to your subject you’ll get dinged as “spam”. Google is smart and their spiders know what’s legit content and what’s blatantly constructed to fool or artificially improve rankings. Don’t do it.

Do not use the same title for all your web pages.

When I first started designing web sites and I got past the huge mistake of skipping my title tag all together, I started including the URL of my site as the title tag along with a short summary. The problem is that I used the same title tag on every page. This is called “title cloning” and it will seriously decrease the relevancy of your pages. Don’t do it.

Do not SCREAM

When you use uppercase letters, it’s usually understood to mean that you’re screaming. Some people use uppercase to draw attention (as in the example shown here: “I HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY!”), but this is a bad strategy. Page titles written in CAPS are hard to read and people can actually get irritated because they feel that they’re being yelled at.

Closing

If you’re interested in ranking well, you absolutely have to know how to write a proper, uniquely crafted page title for every page you create. It’s one of the best places to spend your time when you’re building your site. Speaking from experience–as someone who has made all the mistakes–it will take you a long way if you learn to do it right from the start.

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A well crafted page title will not only increase your position in the search results, but it will give the searcher a better
understanding of what your page is about at a glance. There are many important parts to effective SEO but learning how to write better web page titles ranks up at the top (no pun intended). It’s a place that you should spend a lot of time and energy. I hope this guide serves you well.

What is a web page title tag?

A title tag is a small bit of HTML that appears in the “head” element at the top of your HTML code and it’s an absolute necessity, requirement, imperative–whatever you want to call it–when building your pages. The title tag is the code that creates the text that appears at the top of your web browser when you’re viewing a page. See below for a visual example:

Below is the specific code that you should use and where it’s placed in your code hierarchy. NOTE: The meta description tag is used for the text that shows up under your link in the search results. So spend some time on this too. NOTE: For Wordpress users, you should use the “Optional Excerpt” area for this purpose. The limit for this text should be 160 characters or less.

Use your best, most targeted keywords in your page title

It may be obvious but your title needs to contain your target keywords that summarize the content of the page. Nothing will improve your rankings more than to take the time to research what people are searching for and then place those keywords into your title tag.

Your page title is what shows in the search results

Your page title is what shows when your page appears in the search results so it should be meaningful, yet meet your SEO goals at the same time. Limit your title to somewhere below 65 characters whenever possible; it’s always better to keep it short and to the point as you’ll see as your read on. See below for an example:

Page titles are the default label for browser bookmarks and history lists

Keep in mind that your title tag also acts as the text that appears by default when someone bookmarks your site. It should be descriptive so they know what they bookmarked at a later date. You can reword your bookmarks yourself but don’t expect most users to do this. The title text also shows up in the browser’s history list so design your titles to be short, relevant and descriptive whenever possible.

Repeat your title as the headline

A good way to strengthen the meaning of your page and drive home the subject to the search engines is to repeat your title tag words as your page headline. This is not necessary, but it will help if it makes sense to do so. Actually, if you use Wordpress like I do, the headline of your post is automatically made into your title tag.

Use your title tag as a call to action

Since your title tag is a highly visible part of your page or post you shouldn’t miss an opportunity to be persuasive. Use it as a call to action to click, buy or commit in some way. Use it to clearly describe what they’ll get on the other side so there is no guessing. Try to be unique but if your goal is to get positioned for your targeted keywords, adding extra words into the mix dilutes your message. Just stick with your best words and call it a day.

Keep your titles short

The title of your web page should be short and easy to scan at a glance. Long titles get truncated in the search results and people may skip over them as their eye scans their search results. A good tactic to get your text to stand out is to use mixed case letters. “Buy Your Hot Dog Buns Here For Less” is better than “buy your hot dog buns here for less”.

Write descriptive titles

Write descriptive titles but remember that the title tag is not a wordy description. Use your description meta tag or “Optional Excerpt” in Wordpress for this. The last thing you want to do is list off a long winded description as your page title. The fewer words you use in your title, the higher their relative value so keep it simple and targeted. Choose the most relevant words that summarize your entire page or article. If you feel like you’ve just written a sentence, step back and cut, cut, cut down to the bare minimum whenever possible.

Choosing the right key phrases; sometimes longer is better

As a general practice, longer key phrases convert better. This is not a contradiction to the previous statement about keeping things brief. You just need to know that a page title like “how to optimize web pages” will convert better than the words “optimize web site”. This is a case where you want to write a slightly longer title instead of just focusing on the keywords by themselves. The results will be more targeted and when a searcher sees the words in their search results it will be a good bet that it will catch their eye and they’ll click. In general, longer, more descriptive key phrase combinations have shown to convert better. Just restrain yourself and say what you need to say with the least amount of words possible.

Write in plain language

You might think it’s cool if you dig through the thesaurus and dictionary to find words that make you sound hip and studious, but in reality using these words will only limit your potential. I could have titled this post “Through what tactics do you formulate HTML titles competently”. Not only will this title make me sound like a pompous ass, but nobody will ever use these words to search for what I’m talking about here. Even if you’re lucky to show up in a relevant search, people probably won’t know what you’re talking about.

In general, your titles should be meaningful and easy to understand. Avoid clutter and frilly words and never use clever language that might confuse the searcher. You should always assume that your readers won’t “get” it.

Be consistent and brand your traffic

Branding is important so decide on the best way to present your information in your title tags and stick with it. People will come to expect your site to be presented in a certain, reliable format as you grow in popularity in the search engines. You should also brand your traffic by including the tile of your website or your URL in the second part of your title so people know where they are and where to come back. If you use Wordpress like I do, you should check out the following seo plugin that will help you brand your title properly.

Place your keywords at the beginning of your title tag

If you brand your website with your site name, make sure to list your important keywords and phrases first. Never construct your title tag like this: “QuickstartSEO.com – SE0 Training | Post Title Appears Here”. The search engines will rank your page based on the first terms they see; these terms are the most relevant in their eyes and you’ll end up ranking better for your site title and URL before you rank for your targeted terms. Unless you’re extremely popular already, nobody will be searching for your URL or site title anyway. So make sure to make your important words more relevant by placing them first.

Use separators instead of words like “and” or “also”.

As I’ve shown in the previous paragraph, you can separate elements of your title without getting wordy or even using one word. Search engines generally ignore words that they consider to be “stop words”. “Stop Words” are meaningless to searchers or extremely overused in searches. Words like “and”, “also”, “the”, “a” and “or” should be left out whenever possible.

Instead of using these “stop words” you can use simple separators that include “|”, “>”, “:”, “-” and others. Generally “the pipe bar” is the most popular and one of my favorites. (|) To me it represents a wall and is a clear visual separator. It’s also possible to use multiple separators in your title if there’s a need. For example, if you’re trying to relate one term to another as in the following treatment: “How to paint > choosing the right brush | ArtSupplies.com”.

Break up long posts so you can have multiple title combinations

If you have a long post that’s about the same topic, consider breaking it up into multiple pages. This will allow you to utilize multiple keyword combinations and thus rank for multiple phrases. For example, I could break this post up into three pages. The first one could say “Page Titles (Pt. 1) > What is a title tag”, the second could say “Page Titles (Pt. 2) > Best Practices” and the third section could be Page Titles (Pt. 3) > What not to do”. Obviously I didn’t research these terms but you get the idea. Breaking up long posts will also help your readers digest and deal with a lot of content all at once without wading through 500 lines of text.

On that note, we’ll refer you to part two of this post! (Coming Soon)

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The same thing would hold true for the keywords that I used, the articles that I wrote, or the links that I received from other sites. I simply had no sane system in place to manage my SEO work.

Let me say from experience that you need a system in place. It doesn’t have to be complicated; in fact I’m a big fan of the word “simple”: Simple systems, simple checklists, simple reminders, a simple life. So, planning ahead, developing a system and relying on a few best practices will take you far.

To keep with this theme, I’ve provided a simple list of best practices that you can utilize to help you stay organized and conduct a more thorough and successful SEO campaign.

Make your system easy to use

Whenever you develop a system for getting things done, it needs to be simple. If it can’t be simple, it at least has to be easy to use. If you’re a fan of David Allen you might have some experience with GTD systems. In my opinion the David Allen system is a little bit too complex for me but I’ve found ways to make it work for me by removing or modifying things that stood as roadblocks. Your system should be easy for you and come naturally. If there are ANY steps in the process that take extra effort then you won’t stick with it.

All info in one place

Decide on a system where you keep all your info in one place. This might be an Excel document for each project, a file folder or even an an online software solution for managing SEO. Whatever it is, make sure that you decide on one central place to get it all done.

Create lists

I love lists and I’m not sure there’s a better way to go through a routine project–or any project for that matter–that shouldn’t have a list attached to it. We’ll continue to provide checklists here at QuickStartSEO.com for your ongoing use. As a general best practice you should develop a list for managing a SEO campaign from start to finish and then manage various sub-lists as needed as you go through the steps in your campaign.

Create routines

As you do more and more SEO work you’ll start to build a system that you go through each time. What do you do first, what comes next and what can do you while you’re waiting for something else.

Document as you go

As you go thorugh your lists and routines, make sure to document everything in your trusted system. Continue to update and refine your lists and your routines. Making sure you know exactly what you’ve done so far and what you need to do next is a very important part of SEO.

A simple system for pending items

Make sure you know at a glance what you need to do to complete your work on the campaign, what you should be doing ongoing and what your next actions are. This one goes along with the concept of managing lists and documenting as you go through your campaign. The most important thing to do is to make sure you have a clear system so you know what you need to do next at a glance.

Delegate

As you go through your lists and processes, define items that you can delegate out at the start or when the time arrives. Copywriting, manipulation of code, linking, research and submission to relevant sites and directories can all be delegated or outsourced as needed. Make sure that you provide specific instructions and don’t let just anyone handle items like linking and submission of your site. It will be very hard to undo low quality work.

Follow through

If you have a trusted system you’ll be much better at follow through. Make sure you know who you’ve requested links from, who you need to follow up with to confirm a link, where you made comments on sites and forums, who is currently linking to you, which pages on your site are currently optimized, etc.

Keep your goals in mind

SEO is all about reaching goals. If your goal is to be positioned in the top 10 for your top 20 keywords then spend all your time on these keywords and do what’s specifically necessary to reach these positions. Depending on the target market that might mean a different approach for each SEO campaign. Don’t get distracted with all the new sites, gadgets, plugins, strategies, theories, and voodoo concepts if your goal is to just get listed in the top 10 for local grocery stores. In other word, keep it simple. SEO is not hard but you do need to stay orgainized and plan out a reliable process that works for you.

For those who need a robust online system for managing SEO that’s accessible from anywhere, please check out Solo SEO. We’ll be reviewing this application here soon.

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Consider bookmarking this list as we continue to add to this post as we go forward.

Quick Start Keyword Research Checklist:

1) Before you start; research:
a) Before you even start an online business, take some time and research what people are searching for. This research will help you decide if your online business idea is truly a good one. Review the numbers because the numbers don’t lie.

b) Perform extensive research before you build your website. Using keywords throughout your site navigation, HTML code and other elements will greatly help with SEO.

c) This is an obvious one but something, that sadly, has to be said; Perform extensive keyword research BEFORE you start optimizing your site for SEO. You might think you know what people are searching for but the honest truth is that you probably don’t. Word combinations are endless and you might be surprised what you find.

2) Decide what you do and state your core purpose. Begin by writing down a short description of your business and state your core purpose. This exercise will help you define specifically what you do and who’s your target audience.

3) Start a spreadsheet: I’d recommend using Microsoft Excel or–even better–the free Google docs to manage your research. This practice will allow you to keep things straight and sort your data in future steps.

4) Decide on the one core key phrase that sums up what you do: Based on the description and your core purpose that you crafted in a previous step, decide on one core phrase that specifically encompasses what you do. This is the seed that all future key phrases will sprout from.

5) List all your core keywords: Discover all your core keywords. I should remind you that “core” keywords are different than “key phrases”. Your core keywords are broad words like “artist canvas” and “artist paints”. Key phrases grow from these core words; phrases like “buy affordable artist canvases” and “Windsor Newton paint supplier” are examples of key phrases that may have grown from the previously mentioned core keywords.

6) Research your competition: Take some time to study your competition. Perform some searches for your core keywords and see who comes up first. Study their websites, see what words they use, view their source code, see who they link to and find out who’s linking to them. Your goal here is to discover the words that they’ve used and piggy back on their successes.

7) Ask Questions: Ask yourself and others a series of questions about how you’d find your website and encourage others to contribute. Don’t think that you know everything. Even if you’ve been doing what you do for the last 50 years, you really have no idea what words people use when they search for you. You can surely guess but wouldn’t it be better to focus your efforts and base your work on concrete data?

Utilize your free tools. You can easily start your research with the many free SEO research tools available on the web. There are many more that we’ll mention at the end of this list.

9) Review your server logs and stats: Most hosting companies provide you with stats as part of your basic hosting package. If you’re not aware of this you should probably ask. The stats packages will usually provide basic data about the words that people have used to find you.

You should also consider signing up for a Google Webmaster account and I would highly recommend installing Google Analytics on your site if you haven’t already. Ideally you’ll have already installed this on your site if you have an existing site. Google Analytics will provide you with a wealth of information that you can use; specifically an extensive list of keywords that real world people have used to find your site on Google.

10) Research all your specific key phrases: Using powerful tools and accessing extensive databases of information is the best way to discover all your specific key phrases that you may have missed in all the previous steps. The Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery services are an excellent place to start.
These tools are usually affordable and worth every penny. I recommend Keyword Discovery.

Reminder: Don’t forget to target singular and plural forms of your words and phrases too!

11) Sort your key phrases: Cut excessive fat and narrow down your list so you have the perfect, targeted list to start your SEO campaign. Enough said.

Additional resources for research: (This will be continually updated)

Google Keyword Tool: Useful but does not provide specifics on search numbers.

Wordtracker (Free version): Keyword results from MSN only.

SEODigger.com: Detecting search keywords for which a site is ranked high.

Free keyword/key phrase generator: Enter keywords or modifiers in each box. Press generate to get results.

KWMap: Keyword relationship search

KeywordCountry.com: 6.5 million top paying Adsense keywords.

Thesaurus.com: A Classic.

Related Posts: Read Part 1 | Read Part 2 | Read Part 3a | Read Part 3b

Technorati Tags: keyword, research, checklist, seo, online marketing, search, engine, optimization, sem, marketing, search

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Keyword relevancy–or weighted popularity–as some call it, is the practice of deciding “yes” or “no” regarding the question of “if” a key phrase is truly a real world search by someone who’s looking for you or your services. This is the first step in the key phrase sorting process. Essentially we need to determine if our key phrase is truly relevant based on nothing more than our ability to examine and deconstruct the term. We do this by going through our list and examining each of the key phrases; during this process we need to ask ourselves one simple question “Was the person who typed these words looking for me?”

The process of sorting keywords and assigning relevance is not an exact science. There is no way for you to officially know “what” a person was searching for. It would be great if Google could record a person’s thoughts and motives as they type in their search quary–but alas–it’s currently not possible. (Thank God)

What you need to do at this point is to be brutally honest with yourself and assign a percentage grade to each term that represents potential relevancy. For example, one term might be rated at 100% if you’re completely convinced that this person is searching for what you do or sell. Another term might be rated as 50% because the decision could go either way.

To illustrate this point let’s consider a key phrase list from a car dealership. The dealer might have a phrase on their list that says “Buy 2008 Ford Mustang Convertible”. Well, I’m not sure that anything could be more specific. This term would obviously get a 90-100% relevancy rating. They might have another term that says “Current pricing Mustang Convertible”. This term could be someone looking to buy a car or they might be researching the current street value of the classic 69′ mustang sitting in their garage. This person might have no intention to buy or sell. At the same time, this term could actually be someone that’s looking to buy a brand new mustang but we have no way of knowing. So the relevancy of this term would probably rank somewhere around 50-60% overall since their intent is unknowable.

Using our art supply business as an example, you might have the words “canvas”, “painter’s canvas”, “paint canvas” and “artist canvas” on your list. The first three words on the list would not rank with a relevant percentage of 100% because the person searching for the item might be looking to buy a canvas to cover their furniture while they’re painting their ceiling. The last term “artist canvas” is more specific and probably one that we can confidently rate at 100% if you sell canvases for artists to paint on.

Hopefully this illustration is clear and we can now move on to assigning a relevancy rating to our key phrases. This will be a fairly time consuming process if you have hundreds or even thousands of key phrases. The work will be worth it though because you’ll end up with a tightly refined list of key phrases that you can sort by relevancy. This is the first step toward building a perfectly targeted SEO campaign.

Quickstart Tip: It might be prudent to remind you that the best terms are not always the one’s with the largest search volume. One word phrases tend to garner the largest volume of searches but (as we’ve shown in the past) broad phrases are not targeted phrases and they’re usually hard to rank for. Studies have shown that multiple word key phrases are searched more overall and the more “targeted” the key phrase, the more chance the inquiry is from someone that’s interested in buying. Targeted key phrases with at least 3 or more terms produce highly qualified traffic; this is the traffic that we want and these are the key phrases you should target. A term like “art” is a general term and should receive a relevancy rank of somewhere around 20%. A key phrase like “buy art supplies” should receive a 100% relevancy score.

Search volume:

The second step in the sorting process should involve reviewing your words by search volume. My mother always told me to keep the volume down on my stereo. My wife is still telling me the same thing since we have a new baby in the house. This isn’t the type of “volume” that we need to address though. We want the volume to be as high as possible on our website.

Search volume refers to the total quantity of search queries that are performed for a keyword. Other than finding relevant terms and phrases, this is the primary purpose of services like Wordtracker.com and KeywordDiscovery.com. You want to determine if a key phrase is worthy of your time; the easiest way to do that is to sort your key phrases by how many people are actually searching for them.

Competition

Analyzing the total competition for a key phrase should be your next step. A key phrase with a lot of competition (other sites that target the same key phrase) can be harder to rank for. Your goal is to determine which words are your best key phrases and then sort them by which phrases have the least amount of competition. Targeting these words first will jump start your campaign and help you reach the top of the search results faster.

It’s somewhat outside of the scope of this article right now but we’ll address how to measure your competition in another post here soon. In general you should consider the following: How many sites/pages are competing? How well linked are the top ranked sites? How much are people paying for PPC traffic?

Quickstart Tip: Have you ever noticed that Google returns a number at the top of the search results regarding the total available results returned? Something like “Results 1-10 of about 10,000,000″ is a pretty standard result. In general, this is a very bad way to measure results. Even the most obscure searches return thousands – most of the time – tens of thousands of results. What this means is that the words have been used in some way on the page. It definitely doesn’t mean that it’s relevant or that these pages will be hard to beat in the rankings.

Focus on what will convert

The next step in the process is to evaluate your keywords based on what you think will “convert” the easiest. In sales, the words “convert” and “conversion” refer to how we turn searches into customers or clients. We want profitable key phrases, not just high traffic (high volume) phrases. The practice of “converting” a search involves many things but the first step is to analyze the key phrase and ask yourself “Does this mean that the person searching wants to buy?”

Go through your list and review all your key phrases and ask yourself the previous question for each key phrase. Next to the key phrase in Excel you should create a column where you can enter a number from 1-10 that represents the likelihood that this is a keyword that will convert; the number 1 being most likely and the number 10 being highly unlikely. Through this practice you’ll have another means to sort your list further.

Remove the excess fat

After you’ve fully evaluated your list you should consider further removing some key phrases–or at least–consider shelving them until you’ve successfully ranked well for your best key phrases. I refer to this practice as “cutting the fat” and you should be brutal and honest with yourself as usual.

Evaluate your key phrases and look for information seekers. These are people that are looking for information on something and not looking to buy. If you go back to our art supply company example, someone might search for “properly mixing paints” or some version of a “how to” question. This would be someone looking to learn “how” to paint, not to “buy” painting supplies.

I recently worked with a client regarding SEO for their custom woodworking business. They provide high quality wood and lumber for all the beautiful wood finishing in your home. We were looking at various key phrases and our big dilemma was to decide whether a search was performed by someone’s wife looking for ideas to give their existing contractor or if it was a contractor looking to spend $10,000 on the spot. In general it was hard to narrow it down; in the end you may have no idea. The point here is to do your best to weed out obvious “shoppers” and “searchers” in favor of “buyers” if possible.

Quickstart Tip: Not sure if a key phrase is a good one? A good way to determine if a key phrase is worthwile is to invest some money into PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. It’s an easy way to track your search volume and conversions before investing heavily in SEO. It’s not necessary to do this for all key phrases but with just a little bit of money you can garner a boat load of valuable information. Google provides you with “impression” data which essentially shows how many times your key phrase showed up in a search. If nobody clicks on your ad you still get an “impression” that you don’t have to pay for. This is just another affordable resource for measuring the quality of your search terms.

Misspellings. This is a tough one. It’s obvious that people misspell words all the time. (I’m probably a good example) So why not target these people if there is a significant amount of search volume for a misspelled word? The problem here is that you don’t want misspelled words mixed into your actual site content. It looks unprofessional and it will degrade the overall appeal and quality of your site. Make no mistake, people will make their decision based on this so it’s a good practice not to use misspellings in your actual content. Google is getting better and better at this as well and they may rank you lower if your site is full of misspelled words. It show that you’re serving up low quality content; something that Google doesn’t want in their results. You want to convey a sense of quality and present your self as a reputable business owner. If it appears that you can’t spell it might mean that you can provide a quality service or product as well.

Lastly, consider if your key phrase is seasonal. The last thing you want to do is start an SEO campaign for a term that’s related to the summer season at the end of summer. Put these key phrases aside for later and focus on your most immediate targets so you can quickly jump start your campaign out of the gate.

Read Part 1 | Read Part 2 | Read Part 3a | Read Part 3b | Keyword Research Checklist

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Now that we understand why we do keyword research and which basic seo tools to use, we moved on to define the core mission of our website and then to discover our “core” keywords. This is a strong foundation that allows us to confidently move to the next steps in the process.

Our specific search phrases are essentially the word combinations that are born from our core keywords. Our goal in this phase is to discover all the phrases that potential clients and customers actually use when searching; then we’ll continue to evaluate the phrases based on search volume, competition and other important variables.

In part one of this guide we introduced some basic “free” seo research tools. There are many more available but if you’re serious about SEO keyword research you’ll probably want to consider investing a few green backs to access a deeper pool of data. That’s where services like Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery come into the picture.

Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery are subscription based tools that allow you to easily access real world search data from a recent period of time. I can’t imagine a more valuable service. What’s even better is that the services are very affordable. Wordtracker can be had for around $300 a year or you can elect to purchase shorter subscription periods for less. Wordtracker also offers a free version of their service to anyone that wants to give it a spin. The free version only returns results from MSN though and the full version returns results from all the major players like Google, Yahoo and more. Consider this when using the free version but it’s still a decent tool to get a feel of an industry and to see which terms rank and which ones don’t.

Keyword Discovery is a little more pricey but they claim to have a much larger database of key phrase data to pull from. A recent Search Engine Watch review of Keyword Discovery said:

“Trellian’s Keyword Discovery recently took keyword database options to a new level by providing several databases with different sources. Their core is a default global database that collects data from a variety of sources including over 180 search engines worldwide. This includes search statistics from Google, Yahoo, MSN, Teoma and others.

The authors at SEW continue…

In addition to the original global database, Keyword Discovery now offers a premium database that is derived from user panel information and the toolbars of over 3.5-million users. The biggest advantage of the Premium database is its immunity to skewing problems that plague most other sources of data. Results are more accurate and offering search marketers greater confidence in making keyword decisions.”

If you have the money in your budget I believe Keyword Discovery is the best choice overall; feel free to use both services and combine the results with all the other free resources available to get a complete snapshot. The more data that you can gather, the more confident you’ll be in your final results.

Outside of the leading services there are many more excellent options like Wordze.com. Wordze.com will give you all the usual information about your keywords plus detailed information about your competition and your target industry. Wordze.com also provides deep historical data that can be useful for studying seasonal trends. This service has received many positive reviews and is an excellent addition to the leading services.

One additional benefit of Wordze.com and services like Wordtracker is that you can sign-up for one day if you’d like, use the service as needed, and then cancel your membership. It’s an excellent way to gather a mountain of data and invest next to nothing. Visit the site now to take a tour.

We’ll talk more about these services and many more as the days and months go by, but if you’d like to do more research on your own I would recommend starting with the recent poll that was completed by Top Rank Online Marketing. It provides results from reader votes plus direct links to many other quality resources for keyword research.

Gathering key phrases

Once you’ve made your decision regarding your SEO tool of choice and you have your paid subscription and tools in hand, the first thing you need to do is start typing in your core keywords so you can discover your key search phrases. A keyword search phrase or “key phrase” differs from a core term in that it’s essentially a “branch” from the core tree. When you type your core keywords into the software the magic begins and your investment is returned to you immediately. Typing in a core term will return all of the related key phrases and they’ll be sorted with the terms with the highest search volume at the top of the list. From this point, all you have to do is add your key phrases to your list and save them. Most of the top tools allow you to setup projects within the software and save your lists, but you can accomplish the same results by building a list in Excel or a simple Word doc if you have a short list of terms.

At this point in the process you need to quickly add all the results to your list. Don’t spend too much time analyzing the terms for relevancy (we’ll discuss this soon!) because it will make a long process even longer. Plan to add all the results and then get into the mindset of sorting later. In my experience I find it hard to pull key phrases from core keywords while also trying to determine if they’re truly relevant. Focus on gathering now and then focus on sorting in the next step. If you do see a phrase that is blatantly off topic you should feel free to remove it immediately for obvious reasons. There is no point in adding a key phrase like “world’s most famous artist” when your goal is to rank for “affordable artist supplies”.

Quickstart Tip: If one of your key phrase terms returns a large number of results (over 100 or more) I would recommend reviewing the terms to see if you can break the term into multiple key phrases. In the past we’ve used the example of an online art supply store where one of your core key phrases might be artist canvases. If you enter artist canvases into Wordtracker you might find that it returns a lot of results on stretched canvas and many more on board canvas. Since these terms could potentially target a completely different group of users and manufacturers, it might be a good idea to separate them into separate lists and target them separately.

After you complete the process of extracting key phrases from your core keywords and you’ve exhausted all your resources and tools, save your work and prepare for the next step in the process which is sorting. In our next post we’ll be discussing the issue of sorting your key phrases to determine which are the ideal candidates for your SEO campaign.

Read Part 1 | Read Part 2 | Read Part 3a | Read Part 3b | Keyword Research Checklist

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