For SEO, Select Your Nouns Carefully
If words are the currency of the Internet, nouns are the highest denomination bills. When it comes to search engine optimization, they prove their value, because people tend to search for nouns. Keyword research I’m doing for a client right now illustrates the point. These search phrases came up among the most popular for a certain geographic region –
- basement refinishing
- basement remodeling
- basement finishing
- basement additions
- basement finishing
- refinish basement
- remodel basement
- finish basement
- finished basement
Lots of nouns, a several verbs, and one adjective (finished) sneaking in there at the end. One noun, “basement”, is pretty much a given. But the other word requires thought. Depending on what geography you’re marketing to, one search phrase might be more popular than another. Regardless of geography, you can’t always rely on your own experience to guide you to the “right” word combination. Fortunately there are a number of tools you can use to check you intuition and see which terms are most commonly used.
Another term we are looking at is “windows replacement” or variations on that theme. Here, the generic word “windows” may be too broad. Other possibilities could be –
- energy efficient windows replacement
- casement windows replacement
- skylight windows replacement
(Now, some may say “energy efficient” and so forth are adjectives, but I think these entire expressions are compound nouns.) Anyway, the point is, determining how broad or narrow the nouns in your search phrase is critical. A big budget and broad product line might support “windows replacement”. A smaller budget and/or a niche product line might be best served by “casement windows replacement” or even “french casement windows replacement.”
How’s Your SEO?
What search phrase best describes your business? Do you use that term consciously on your blog?
Maybe you and I can introduce UK slang to Chicago. Brad...
My SEO is terrible! I’ll happily take writing lessons from you on this one.
Joanna Youngs last blog post..3rd Annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest
Yeah, it’s such a delicate line between targeting a narrow phrase that you could capture pretty easily and targeting a broader phrase that would bring more traffic but would also be much harder to rank for. I like to start narrow and then broaden as our rankings grow.
Shanes last blog post..Free Business Ideas
Joanna, SEO is complicated, but you probably are doing better than you think anyway. WordPress has many good SEO features built in.
Shane, Thanks for visiting Word Sell. The idea of starting narrow and broadening sounds like the right approach for this particular client. Appreciate the help!
Brad Shorrs last blog post..For SEO, Select Your Nouns Carefully
Hi Brad - I’ve been quite lazy about SEO, although I have been trying to improve lately. I haven’t a specific keyphrase for my blog, asI really need to change the tagline etc anyway.
I do optimise some pages but not all. And unfortunately, some of my most popular phrases are ones I don’t want to be found for. This month I’m getting a lot of results for “sex on a plane”.
Cath Lawsons last blog post..Grilled Frog On Toast Anyone?
Brad, I have been doing some behind the scenes work on SEO with WordPress and the all in one plug-in but I’m still not entirely sure I know what I’m trying to achieve!
Cath - that’s funny. I’d say it’s worthy of a blog post but then you’d be deluged with even more hits!
Joanna Youngs last blog post..3rd Annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest
Cath, Sex sells, that’s for sure, but it draws lots of “unqualified traffic” as we say. I did a post a while back titled “Financial Pornography” and got similar results.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..Reflections on a Sinking Economy
Joanna and I obviously have one thing in common.
My core topic is business ethics, and it has occurred to me that I hardly, if ever, use either of those words in my posts. Moreover, I don’t make a great deal of use of other related words. Perhaps that’s why I fail to see my blog a whole lot when searching Google for blogs related to my area.
Personally, I have not in the past been overly concerned about the use of keywords in my posts. My primary concern has been using words which I feel ‘fit together,’ in such a way as to help me communicate in the most effective manner possible.
Perhaps I should be more conscious about sneaking a few keywords in there in the near future.
Andrew, there is a school of thought that says if bloggers simply concentrate on quality content, keyword phrases will populate the text naturally. Your blog certainly falls into that category. However, I think a little conscious effort pays off. If you put keyword phrases in your category names, post titles, and anchor text, for example, it’ll help over time. Your blog is pretty new, so I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..Reflections on a Sinking Economy
Thanks for the tip, Brad.
Andrews last blog post..Fixed term contracts and ethics part 2 - employee’s viewpoint
Hi Brad, nouns are truly valuable for SEO searches and we need to keep that in mind as we select tags for our posts. I noted what you listed. I read once that it’s important to use your tag words in the message of your post as well. Do you generally make sure you do that as well?
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Robyn, Good question about tags. If you’re talking about meta tags, then I’d say it’s very important for SEO purposes to include your tagged words (keyword phrases) in the page content. If you’re talking about tags used for bookmarking, I’m not sure what if any connection there is to SEO. That kind of tagging is still a bit of a mystery to me.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..Guest Post on Wired PR Works - Why No Humor?
Some very intresting ideas and comments. I came across this page whilst looking for cheaper energy prices http://cheaperenergy.wordpress.com My bills haven risen by 35% this year and am now facing yet another increase by these greedy energy companies. (Thankfully I only rent so don’t have to worry about a mortgage as well.) Has anyone tried this green and cheap renewable energy? If so, be intrested to know how it worked for you.
Hi Geof, Godd luck with your blog - Hopefully we’ll see those bills drop, just like the price of gasoline.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..The Cure for Our Economy
SEO is complicated but not difficult. Once you come to know the pros and cons of SEO, then it becomes very easy to handle the situation.
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