Social Media Consulting • Lead Generation • Social Networks • Blogs

Should You Use Keywords in Your New Domain for SEO?

The question is "How would you explain the power of keyword domains for someone looking to make a decision [as to] what type of domain to go for?" In other words, is it important when registering a new domain that you consider having keywords in it for SEO? 

According to Matt Cutts it is possible to succeed without any keywords in your domain. He points out Facebook, Twitter and other brandable names that are not keyword  laden domains. It's a bit hard if you have keywords in your domain that have a lot of competition.

According to Matti, Google has looked at ranking and weights that are givent to keyword domains. Because people have complained about this, they are looking at changing the rankings for keyword laden domains. Lots to think about if you are considering using your domain name for a somewhat SEO tool. 

Looking for keywords? Here's a previous blog entry I created on tools for finding keywords. 

Is Article Marketing Good for SEO? Matt Cutts Says No

Article Marketing Promotions - Are they worth the time? Not according to Matt Cutts of Google.

The question in this video posed to Matt Cutts is: Is article marketing good for SEO (search engine optimization) and how are the backlinks treated when other websites republish the same article? According to Matt, the sites that normally republish the articles are not the highest quality, nor are the articles high quality. Matt suggests publishing great content and using good social media to spread your original articles so that people are linking to your content  organically.  It is not an "incredible value add" . What do you think? Have you written articles to be used for article marketing? What kind of results have you seen?

 

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Free Keyword Search Tools - Pump Up Your SEO

One of the most important things when creating an online marketing strategy for your company are coming up with a list of keywords to use in your copy, website, blogs, etc. If you build it, will they come? Perhaps, but not as fast as if you devote some time to developing your keyword list and paying attention to the competition. You want keywords that have low competition but still rank high as far as traffic. And you normally want keyword phrases - not one word keywords.

Search engine optimization is an art and a real specialty. Many years ago I paid a company a nice chunk of change to do keyword research for me. Guarantee top 10 - yes on some obscure search engines. Waste of money. I received more hits to my website from my blogging - and yes, I was very strategic with using and picking my keywords. So educate yourself a bit if you decide to hire someone to help you with your keyword strategy.

Here are a couple of places to look for keywords that can give you a better idea on what keywords to use.

Both Wordtracker and Google have free keyword research tools. And here are the links for both:

1. Wordtracker: https://freekeywords.wordtracker.com. Update, Wordtracker gives  you a seven day free trial. 

2. Google keyword search tool: Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Keep an excel spreadsheet with your list and pay attention to the competition. There are a lot of other tools as well that you can use. Some paid, some not. Which ones have you had success with?

Create Your Social Media Marketing Plan

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of small business owners sponsored by the Denver Business Journal. Kelly Stangel did a great job of showing us how to use the Journal to help our businesses succeed. In this economy, we really have to do things differntly and connect with others in new ways - or perhaps the old fashioned way. DBJ has an excellent online publication - very impressive.

Here is my presentation on Create Your Social Media Marketing Plan. When I work with clients to look at their small business plans, we look at the whole picture often implementing free and low-cost internet marketing and traditional marketing strategies. This presentation will get you started on your online marketing efforts. Download your free E-book on Creating Your Social Media Marketing plan. 

Also, if you are in the Denver area, please join our new Social Media Marketing Club on Meetup.

Create Your Social Media Marketing Plan for Small Business

View more presentations from Your Marketing Gal.

Free February Networking & Education Meeting: Denver Entrepreneurs

Optimize Your Bottom Line Through Search Engine Optimization

Please join the Denver Entrepreneurs for our February meeting including power networking and education. Mike Belasco, a local Search Engine Optimization expert, will be sharing some great information that can help all of us optimize our websites, blogs, social media platforms, press releases, etc., to get even more traffic, prospects and customers. Meeting is Thursday, February 25 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

Google and other search engines work on algorithms to rank your site that are often secret. Mike Belasco has obviously broken the code helping scores of companies be ranked on the first page of Google. Founder of SEO Overflow, Mike will be talking to us about search engine optimization and why it is so important. Make sure you have the right keywords in the right places on your website, blog, social media profile, etc, Want to find out where to do keyword research? Are the meta tags still important? Your web designer may say they do SEO, but in reality do they? 

Mike will answer these questions and more to make sure you know the basics of SEO and what it takes have a successful website that is truly optimized for search engines. The next time someone says they know SEO and wants to optimize your website, you'll be able to ask them the right questions. RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/Denver-Entrepreneurs/calendar/12484995. Admisstion $0.00 - yes free!

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking

Recently we received some questions about how Google uses (or more accurately, doesn't use) the "keywords" meta tag in ranking web search results. Suppose you have two website owners, Alice and Bob. Alice runs a company called AliceCo and Bob runs BobCo. One day while looking at Bob's site, Alice notices that Bob has copied some of the words that she uses in her "keywords" meta tag. Even more interesting, Bob has added the words "AliceCo" to his "keywords" meta tag. Should Alice be concerned?

via googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com

Wondering about the "keywords" meta tag ranking on your website and whether this is important? Read this great article from Google's blog on this. We've heard for years how important your meta tags are. And although other search engines use this, according to this article, Google does not pay attention to meta tags. It is still considered "best practices" to include this since other search engines do pay attention to this. Let me know what you think.