Fredrick went on to offer these guidelines on keyword selection:

"Most people target the wrong keywords. No client has ever presented us with a thorough keyword universe upon initiating their engagement. Invariably, the keyword list supplied by the client includes keywords that are too broad, or not specifically relevant to the content of their site."

Marckini recounted an interesting anecdote surrounding the keyword selection process:

"The most senior executive at a major business publisher complained to me in a meeting before they engaged our firm that their site could not be found on searches for the keyword phrase, 'small business.'"

"He asked our help in getting their site found on this all important keyword. You could have heard a pin drop in the room when I retorted, 'Good! I'm glad that your site is not found on searches for 'small business...' I explained that I was once the quintessential small business owner and I've never, ever, performed a search for the keyword phrase 'small business' that describes the demographic category that he felt I fell into."

I continued, "I may, however, search for 'small business advice' or 'small business software,' but I do not think of myself in terms of the demographic group that others think I represent."

"Really, when you think about it, people search the Internet to solve a problem." Marckini suggested that as you evaluate a particular keyword phrase you should ask yourself these questions:

"What is the intent of this query?"

If you cannot determine what problem the searcher is trying to solve in performing that query, you should not be targeting that keyword or phrase.

Next, if your Web site does not "satisfy the intent of that query," unequivocally, you should not target that phrase.

"Your job in optimizing your Web site is to help the searcher complete his or her search mission and thereby add value to the search engine's index. If you do not add value in this way, the searcher will click one maybe two pages deep in your Web site and then click the back button and find a Web site that does solve their search problem."

"The answer to this next question should be intuitive: 'Why invest your time and energy targeting a keyword phrase that will not attract someone interested in what you have to offer? The beauty of visitors coming from the search engines are that they are all well-qualified prospects being far more likely to make a purchase than someone clicking on a banner ad out of curiosity."

"If someone is actively searching for what you have, they are much more likely to be a serious buyer. Therefore, even if you generated fewer overall visitors from search engines than from your other advertising sources, you'll find a much greater percentage of those visitors will convert to actual sales."

Here are some keyword selection tips offered by iProspect.com that should benefit everyone in their search engine positioning efforts:

1. Identify the core problems and concepts that your Web site addresses.
2. List each core problem separately and then think of all of the ways that someone might compose a keyword or phrase search to get at each concept or problem, e.g., if you sell golf shoes, the words 'golf shoes' should not be your only nor most important keyword phrase. Consider also, 'buying golf shoes' and 'brand golf shoes' (the word 'brand' to represent any number of brands that your Web site might sell), 'shoes for golf' and 'online golf shoe stores.' Any keyword or phrase that you miss will be traffic and prospective customers that visit your competitor. Don't miss any. There are usually 50 to 100 ways that different people will compose a query hoping to find the same thing - identify them all.
3. "Visit your competitors' Web sites and view their keyword meta tags for any that you hadn't considered - you'd be amazed at the good and bad keywords they're targeting."
4. "Review the copy on the pages of your Web site for keyword phrases that you use in describing your offerings. You will be surprised at how many keywords are overlooked that are right there in front of you on your own Web pages."
5. "Consider using one of the many keyword databases such as GoTo.com's keyword suggestion tool. A nice interface to their service can be found at:

   http://www.marketposition.com/keywordgenerator.htm

   You'll find valuable glimpses into actual keyword query frequency and search phrase combinations that you might have overlooked. You can also confirm that your phrase is in fact searched on by a reasonable number of visitors.
   

6. "Do not fall in love with keywords because they are queried with higher frequency than others. Always discriminate first on relevance to your site, not potential traffic. Less traffic that buys more product is often better than more traffic that buys far less product. Get it?"
   
7. "Once you've amassed your final keyword and phrase list, start pairing it down. Remove words, lots of words. Remove any word or phrase that doesn't EXACTLY describe what someone will find when they come to your Web site. Again, less traffic that buys more is better than more traffic that buys far less. Always think about satisfying the intent of the query, nothing else matters."
   
8. Remember, that beginners will always have better luck with longer keyword phrases. Even seasoned veterans have difficulty with single word phrases and very popular phrases - but don't worry, with experience and with the help of WebPosition Gold you can attain rankings on many if not most of the keywords you decide to target.
   

In closing, while iProspect.com has provided their services to many select smaller companies, they focus almost entirely on Fortune 1000 accounts and the more successful dot-com companies. I have personally visited their corporate offices in Boston and can tell you that they have one of the most sophisticated processes for search engine marketing of any consulting services company I've encountered.

For example, I found their office walls covered with charts and graphs representing how many rankings and visitors they'd achieved for each of their clients, progress reports, etc. In one office, I saw an impressive thirty-page analysis of a Web site they had generated in large part by importing data from WebPosition Gold and then formatting it in Excel.

If you work for a fortune 1000 company or other large business looking for the cadillac of search engine positioning companies, check them out at http://www.iprospect.com.

For smaller companies with more modest budgets, I continue to recommend people take a look at http://www.coastalsites.com. They have a lower minimum fee while still providing excellent performance guarantees. There are certainly many other great positioning companies out there that also deserve a serious look. Most use WebPosition Gold and should do a good job if you're careful to check their references and work contract.

Some people ask me why we don't recommend a wider range of companies. Frankly, I've recommended other companies in the past and have been burned by their poor service or performance over time. Therefore, although I'm sure there's many good services out there, I shy away from specifically recommending companies when I don't have a long track record with them.

Or for the "do-it-yourself" folks, WebPosition remains the lowest cost and easiest way to tap into the power of the search engines.

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