Typically, we end up with anywhere from a few hundred to over a thousand search terms for each website we examine.

Simply looking at the most popular search terms is a mistake, though. We recommend an additional step of assessing how "relevant" each search term is. The result of this second step is a "weighted popularity" that will help identify the highest value search terms. A realistic estimate of relevance will bring the true value of highly competitive keywords into sharp focus.

Once you have identified the highest value search terms, you will need to assess the level of competition for each of them. If you can reasonably expect to gain a top ten ranking for a search term, with a high inherent value due to its popularity and relevance, then you have found a good target.

Rather than dig into a long explanation of keyword research, which would be redundant for some folks, I'll offer readers a free download of our quick tips guide. This guide is distilled from a longer document, but it explains the key concepts very clearly.

Appraising Your Content

If your site is lacking in content, you will need to take a realistic look at the cost of developing additional content, and decide how much content you want to create. If the new content serves a dual purpose, and makes the site more attractive to visitors, some of the costs may be offset by higher sales.

In most cases, there is already a substantial amount of information available. Some of this will be internal, such as FAQ's from customers. Some may come in the form of content that others have created – all it takes is the copyright holder's permission to add this to your site. Adding your own commentary to "guest content" can create a valuable and unique resource.

For a site that already has a substantial amount of content, it's possible that simply optimizing existing content, and making it easier for search engines to find, will deliver good results. Any unique page on your site could potentially be optimized to target many specific search terms.

We often encounter database-driven (dynamic) sites, where simply changing the underlying templates will create optimized content. In some cases, search engines can't index the site effectively, and further changes must be made to resolve this issue.

As a general rule for all sites, content should be within 2 clicks of the home page whenever possible, and any navigation scheme that requires cookies, JavaScript, or "session IDs" in the URL may create problems. A combination of techniques like URL rewriting and site maps may be needed to put all of the content within reach of search engines.

Accounting For Links

If your site is not already well linked from the rest of the web, especially within the community of related sites, it's worth the effort to improve this. Just as adding content to a "thin" site can make your site more effective, getting links from relevant sources will bring in targeted traffic by itself. In addition, many search engines will not bother to index a site that doesn't have plenty of incoming links.

Submitting to topical and general directories, asking consumer-focused sites for product reviews, and publishing "guest content" on other sites are all simple and effective methods of building links that will help your rankings, but also add to your site's traffic.

If your site is already well linked, you may gain more "bang for the buck" from a content strategy, but for highly competitive search terms, it's essential that you target the right websites and control the text of incoming links as much as possible.

A very detailed explanation of linking strategy and tactics is available in the fr'ee Linking Matters report, which I highly recommend.

Putting It All Together

Once you understand the issues, your strategy should be pretty clear. Focus on areas of weakness, especially if your site is highly deficient in one area or another.

If your site has almost no substantive incoming links, you must address this before you can expect anything else to matter. If you have neither links nor content, you may need to develop some content before a linking strategy will work.

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In the short term, if your site is well linked, a little effort on content can go a long way. However, if your highest value search terms are extremely competitive, you will need to place more emphasis on linking strategy.

My own SEO Research Labs site, for example, is pretty well linked, but our content is still thin. Our immediate focus is on building a better information resource to broaden our search engine exposure. In the long term, we will emphasize linking strategy to target more popular search terms.

About The Author
Dan Thies owns the SEO Research Labs, providing keyword research services to webmasters, site designers, and search engine (SEO/SEM) consultants. He offers coaching to web designers who want to "take the plunge" into offering SEO and SEM services, based on his top-selling e-book "Search Engine Optimization Fast Start," which is also available from his website.

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