BlogWorks: “Nomen est omen” for search traffic

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May 11, 2007

“Nomen est omen” for search traffic

By Kai Blum

The Romans already knew that “name is destiny,” and when it comes to search engine rankings and traffic, this is so obvious that I almost don’t want to write about it. But I still come across cases where web site owners are complaining about the lack of traffic they receive through search engines, without realizing that their misfortune already began when they misnamed their site.

Without proper keyword research you may just as well not put up a web site at all. You can bet that at least some of your competitors did their SEO homework, and they will outrank you forever if you don’t do the same.

So, do yourself a favor and:

Create a list of keyword phrases that search engine users will most likely use to find your content.
Use Google’s keyword tool and check for variations of your keyword phrases and for their search volume.
Create a new list that contains the keyword phrases with the most search volume.
Check out your competition: Who is top-ranked for the keyword phrases on your list? What have they done to optimize their pages for the particular keyword phrase? Could you do better? Who is linking to them? Could you get more and better links?

When you use a tool like Backlinkwatch, you will notice that the link text for each link is listed. You will also notice that often the keywords, for which the particular site is top-ranked in Google, are used to link to that site. But how do you make sure that sites that you want to link to your site use your keywords in their link text? Simple: Give your site a name that contains your desired keyword phrase!

Let me summarize: Select the right keyword phrase, name your site accordingly, follow basic on-page optimization rules, do the proper link building… your site will be top-ranked in Google.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at May 11, 2007 02:46 PM