How to Use Keywords to Build Web Site Traffic

Good keyword use helps users to find your website when searching online.

Increasing traffic to their sites is usually a major goal of website owners, especially if the website features advertising or offers products for sale. Proper keyword use for search engine optimization or SEO can increase website traffic without the expense of advertising. It is important not to overuse keywords, however; improper search engine optimization of a website can actually hurt search engine rankings, causing traffic levels to fall instead of rise.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Knowledge of Keyword Use
• Internet Access
• Word Processor

1. Create keyword phrases that describe your website as a whole or the specific page you want to increase traffic to. Create phrases that are at least two words long and which describe your site well without being generic. Use "Louisville Kentucky house painting" or "certified house painter" instead of just "house painter" if you have a website about a house painting business, for example.

2. Place your keyword in the title tag for the web page you want to increase the traffic of. If you are optimizing your entire website, place the keyword in the title tag of the index page and any other pages where it is relevant. Do not use the same title for each page and make sure that the keyword reads naturally in the titles you create.

3. Place your keyword phrase near the top of your index page, including it near the beginning of the first paragraph on the page if possible. If you use heading tags to create headings and subheadings on your pages make sure that the keyword phrase is included in the main heading and any relevant subheadings as well.

4. Add your keyword phrase in a few other locations on the page. Always make sure that the phrase fits naturally into the surrounding text and that the phrase isn't added simply to have more instances of your keyword on the page. Awkward wording or difficulty understanding the page due to bad keyword placement can turn off visitors and may also result in lower search engine rankings.

5. Use descriptive link text when linking to other pages on your website or pages on other sites. Include your keyword phrase in the link text if possible. Avoid generic link text such as "Click Here" as it doesn't benefit the keyword optimization of your site.

6. Submit your website to popular search engines such as Google, Bing and Ask.com if it has not already been submitted. The search engines will periodically check your site using an automated program that scans the site's content for keyword relevance and ranking purposes.

Tips & Warnings

• Placing your keyword phrase in your website's metadata may improve traffic from some sources, but meta tags are ignored by some search engines such as Google.

• Do not make excessive use of graphics on your website's pages, especially graphics that contain text. Search engines scan the text appearing on a page, and any text that appears in an image cannot be read. If you do place text in images, include the text in written form as alt text in your image tags so that it can still be detected by search engines.

References

• Microsoft: Microsoft Office - Build High-Impact Websites and Drive Traffic to Them
• SmallBusinessComputing.com: SEO Tips - How to Increase Traffic With Keywords; Martin, James; Oct 2009

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish