Search Engine Optimization: For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Chapter 5. Picking Powerful Keywords

In This Chapter

• Thinking up keyword phrases

• Using a free keyword tool

• Using Wordtracker

• Sifting for the right keywords

I was talking with a client some time ago who wanted to have his site rank well in the search engines. The client is a company with annual revenues in the millions of dollars, in the business of, oh, I don't know . . . staging rodent-racing events. (I've changed the details of this story a tad to protect the client's privacy.)

I did a little research and found that most people searching for rodent-racing events use the keywords rodent racing. (Big surprise, huh?) I took a look at the client's Web site and discovered that the words rodent racing didn't appear anywhere on the site's Web pages.

"You have a little problem," I said. "Your site doesn't use the words rodent racing, so it's unlikely that any search engine will find your site when people search for that."

"Oh, well," was the client's reply. "Our marketing department objects to the term. We have a company policy to use the term furry friend events. The term rodent is too demeaning, and if we say we're racing them, the animal rights people will get upset."

This is a true story; well, except for the bit about rodent racing and the furry friends thing. But, in principle, it happened. This company had a policy not to use the words that most of its potential clients were using to search for it.

You may be asking yourself how it's possible that a company can build a Web site only to discover ...