Keywords are The Key to Easy Search Engine Optimization

                                        Image via CrunchBase

                     After being in school as long as I was, it has taken me a while to really understand the importance of keywords for successful search engine optimization.  When you are a student, people are FORCED to read your work.  Now in the real world you have to actually have an audience in mind and figure out how to attract them to your site or blog. 


That's where keywords come in! Keywords are the words people use to search for something they are looking for.  So here are some ways I am personally working on my own search engine optimization:

1. Like anything worth doing, you have to do your research.  There are sites that can tell you what keywords are most possible like:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

http://www.selfseo.com/keyword_suggestion_tool.php

http://www.submitexpress.com/keytracker.php

http://www.wordtracker.com/

http://www.freewebsubmission.com/keyword-popularity.html


      2.  Use your keyword(s) in your post title. From left to right, the closer to the left your keyword is,
           the greater value it is given for SEO.  Remember to make it something that will catch peoples' 
           attention.



      3.  Create an SEO friendly permalink. Hopefully you’re using custom permalinks in Wordpress. If not, 
      don’t. If so, make it your title minus the fluff words (and, the, if, etc) with dashes (not underscores) 
      between each word.


     4.    Use your keyword(s) as tags or labels in blogger. Use no more than 2 tags per post. Use your tags 
        as file folders for your content topics. Don’t spam tags for all your posts.

     5.    Use your keyword(s) in your first and last paragraph, or a restatement of your title. As well, make 
         sure to use your keyword(s) throughout your copy when applicable.


     6.    Bold your keyword(s) and relevant statements/words throughout copy. Format for SEO
          (bold/emphasize) the first and last instances or reasonably throughout your copy.


     7.    Use your keyword(s) in the ALT text of every image on the post. ALT text is entered when you
           insert an image. Make sure you use a descriptive, short sentence similar to your title that includes your
           keyword(s).


     8.   Link to relevant content.  Create internal links within your own blog to posts you have written on 
          similar topics,  Create external links to relevant sources outside of your blog with your keyword(s) as 
          part of the anchor text in the link.

The SEO Importance of KEYWORDS!!

When it comes to internet writing, blogging, marketing, etc., KEYWORDS are extremely important.

Keywords are basically the words in your copy that match what people are searching.  As you know, millions of searches are conducted each day on popular search engines by people all around the world.

Fortunately for you, most major search engines provide a way to glimpse into the web's query stream to discover the most popular search keywords or topics. These are just a few:

• Ask IQ: See top searches at Ask.
   
• Dogpile SearchSpy: Choose to see either a filtered or non-filtered sample of top, real-time search terms from this popular meta search service. Sister site MetaCrawler offers a similar MetaCrawler MetaSpy service.
   
• Google Trends: Allows you to tap into Google's database of searches, to determine what's popular. View the volume of queries over time, by city, regions, languages and so on. Compare multiple terms, as well. See our review: Google Trends: Peer Into Google's Database Of Searches.
   
• Google Zeitgeist: What people are searching for at Google and its associated specialty services in a variety of categories. There are versions for various countries, as well.
   
• Lycos 50: Long-standing service showing top searches at Lycos each week.
   
• Yahoo Buzz Index: Shows you what's hot and what's not in terms of search topics at Yahoo.

 
 It is important to actually search a couple of these sites before even starting a new blog post or whatever copy you are planning on doing.  That way you can ensure you are writing about something current and interesting in the minds of the majority of people.

DOING THIS COULD EVEN SUPPLY YOU WITH SOME INSPIRATION! YAY!

I also found this GREAT site http://www.seomoz.org which has some very helpful SEO resources you might want to check out as well. 

This particular page is actually telling you where the search engines are "crawling" or searching for keywords the most, which is basically where you want to focus your keyword attention on. 

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#on-page-keyword-specific-ranking-factors