Keyword suggestion tools
The purpose of using keyword suggestion tools is to optimize the match
between your page content and what people are searching for which is extremely
difficult to achieve until you know what words and phrases people use in their
searches. This is where keyword suggestion tools come in very handy.
When surfing the net for information on a topic a common starting point is
searching on relevant words or phrases. The search engine will display sites
with content matching the search criteria. There could be thousands of
sites in the displayed results but you’re unlikely to look at anything beyond
those appearing on the first few pages of results.
If you have a website you obviously want it as close to the top of the
results listing as possible. This depends to a large extent on having good
quality, relevant content. Remember that search engines also need traffic
to stay in business and if as a web surfer you are not happy with the quality of
results returned by a search engine you’re unlikely to use that search engine
again. The closer you can match your page content to words or phrases people are
using in their searches the more likely you are to achieve a good search engine
ranking and ultimately a top 10 or 20 position in the results listing. Keyword
suggestion tools will help you to know what words people use for their searches.
You need to find a happy medium between the demand for a keyword ie how
many people are searching using those terms and how many existing websites
already provide matching content for the keyword or phrase. There needs to be a
judgment call as to whether its worth trying to compete with existing sites. On
really common popular terms you probably don’t stand much chance unless you can
come up with a new angle or something the others don’t have. Keyword suggestion
tools provide alternative words or phrases that people search on but are not
necessarily popular enough to squeeze you out altogether.
How do you know what keywords people are using in their searches? You can get
an idea of the supply side of the equation by typing keywords or phrases into
Google or Yahoo and seeing how many results are returned but to get the demand
side is rather more difficult. This is one area in which keyword suggestion
tools or keyword research tools can be a great help. However bear in mind that
keywords suggestion tools are only guides. The results can show trends or show
keywords and phrases in order of popularity but the figures shown are estimates
rather than absolute.
