In the past I had a great working simple traffic tracker on my site that started stated someone visited my site by typing in ‘online editor flash sites’ into Yahoo! .   I went to Yahoo! And typed in the keyword phrase and found out I hit #1 out of 1, 040, 000 hits!   Two weeks later I dropped to #2 and found out that my other site took #1.   Now I had the #1 and #2 position in Yahoo! .   My world changed forever and at that moment and never will go back.   Today I have more sophisticated software, charts, data, articles, and trends referenced for my webs posted on the wall.   I maintain contact with forum discussions and receive up-to-date news in my email telling me of changes taking place.   I have achieved the top 10 list in the top 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo! , and MSN) and wish to educate you on how to do the same.

Part One:   Keywords and Keyword Phrases

SEO- search engine optimization; the process of designing your site to achieve high rankings in the search engine

                      Picking the right keywords is essential.   Step into your customer’s shoes and think of what keywords they would use to find the information on your site and write them down in a list.   Get your friends and others with different opinions and ask them what they would type to find the information that is located on your site.   Add these keywords and phrases to your list.   Now check your competitors’ sites that have reached #1 status in the search engines.   (Careful don’t pick sponsored sites located at the top or side, they got there by using a PPC (pay per click) ad campaign.   You want the non-sponsored sites.   Right click anywhere on the page and select view source to see the site in html format.   Under the header tag called < META name=" keywords" content=" keywords are here” you will find the keywords that the site used to get to the top.   Add these keywords to your list.

                      Now you should have about 40 to 50 keywords and keyword phrases in your list to research.   (By the way 2 or 3 word keyword phrases are used the most today, when only a few months ago 1 word keywords were used. )  Just following one of these three avenues (your list, your friends list, and view source) will not get you to the top, you must use all three and research the 40-50 words to get to the top.

                      Now take these 40-50 keywords to the search engines and type them in.   Do the results pertain to the information on your site?   If not, cross them off.   You should have about 40 keywords left.

                      Here is a good SEO (search engine optimization) secret!   Visit these sites:   (http://excite.com, http://teoma.com/index.asp, http://www.lycos.com/, http://www.webcrawler.com/info. wbcrwl/, and http://www.bos2. alltheweb.com/ and reenter your 40 keywords and you’ll find a list of keywords under the heading, “Did you mean . . . , Other users typed in . . . , and  Related links . . . ”  Using these search engines is an untapped resource that should not be overlooked.   The list of keywords listed here are the ones that Joe Q. Public used to find the information you’re looking for.   The average of all opinions of all the people browsing the internet looking for the information you want them to find on your site.   Adding the relevant keywords from these lists will improve your chances of getting to the top immensely.   There is free keyword generators located on the internet to help you add to your list.   The top two are Google Keywords (https: //adwords. google.com/select/main? cmd=KeywordSandbox ) and Overture Tools (http://www.content. overture.com/d/USm/ac/index. jhtml  Click keyword selector tool.   Overture will tell you how many times that keyword was type in during the last month.   Find these tools on the internet and type in your keywords to see how they rank, and cross off the ones that don’t generate much traffic.   And guess what?   You get a list of more keywords that will help your goal to get to #1!   They show up in the order from most used to least used.   Add the relevant keywords to your list.

                      You should now have a list of about 75 or more keywords.   Remember:   The more research you do, the better your chances will be to getting to #1.   What do you do with this large list of keywords now?   Determine how often they are used by Joe Q. Public and relate it to how many of your competitors use this keyword in optimizing their site.   This will give you something called a KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index; compares the Daily World Searches with the number of competing Web pages to pinpoint exactly which keywords are good enough so you can use them while optimizing your site) rating.

                      Part two of this article will show you how to narrow your list to 10 of the most powerful keywords in the market to raise your ranking in the search engines.   Be sure to look for part two coming soon . . .

Copyright © Michael Rock

Web development contractor (Web Design and Hosting)

Internet Presence