Keywords are the fuel that drives web pages to the top on search engines. Here's how to turbocharge yours by using your keywords in all the right places.
A search engine's main concern is to give its users what they want so it looks for "relevance" and the keywords on a site are a big indicator if a site is relevant to what the person who's searching on it wants or not.
To get their sites found, unscrupulous site owners used to stuff their sites full of nothing but keywords, and to you or I, the sites would read like worthless "mumbo jumbo." It took a little while but the search engines caught on. Now the sophisticated algorithms they use can tell if a site is just a keyword farm, like those, or a useful site that has a purpose.
So... if you want your web page to get found, you have to fill it with the right balance of keywords and text to make the search engines happy. Here's how...
In case you're not sure how to find the right keywords for your site, blog or lens, click here to read How to Choose the Best Keywords.
Use Keywords in Your Domain Name
You score points with search engines when you have a keyword (or a few) in your site's domain, or dot com, name. If you have a website or a blog, and it doesn't have keywords in its domain name, consider giving it another one and using that one instead. It's $10 or less per year and will pay for itself by making your site or blog come up higher on search engines.
Use Keywords in Your Page URLs
Just like with domain names, search engines love to see keywords in page names.
TIP:
Search engines see hyphens as spaces so use 'em to your advantage. That's why I named this page, "20-Smart-Ways-To-Use-Keywords" — to score points with the search engines. 
So, let's say Jane Doe is selling a number of ebooks and trying to build name recognition in other people's minds. Instead of having a "Contact.html" page on her site, she'd want the page's URL to say "Contact-Jane-Doe.html."
Use Keywords in Your Page Titles
The blue bar across the top of every window is called the page's "title" and it's a great place to put keywords.
Your page's title is important because:
1. The words in it will appear in someone's "Bookmarks" if they bookmark your page, and
2. When your web page appears in the search results on Google, it's what people will see.
If you were using Google, which one would you rather click on?
Squidoo Tricks
...or...
Fun & Easy Ways to Make Money on Squidoo
Use your keywords to give your pages descriptive titles that'll make people want to click on them.
On Squidoo, the title you gave your lens automatically becomes your page's title.
On your website, the HTML code would look like this:
<title>Your title with keywords in it here</title>
...and you'd place it in the source code at the top of the page in between the <head> and </head> tags.
Use Keywords in Your Description META Tag
Some search engines, and lots of RSS feeds, use your web page's Description META tag so others will know what it's about so craft a good, keyword-filled description.
Need ideas? Here's Squidoo's:
"Squidoo. The popular (free) site for creating single webpages on your interests and recommendations. Even earn money for charity or yourself."
And Amazon's:
"Online shopping from the earth's biggest selection of books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software, apparel & accessories, shoes, jewelry, tools & hardware, housewares, furniture, sporting goods, beauty & personal care, broadband & dsl, gourmet food & just about anything else."
Here's the HTML code you need for your site:
<META name="Description" CONTENT="Put a brief description of your site here.">
...and you'd place it in the source code at the top of the page in between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags.
How to Add a Description META Tag to Your Blog:
While submitting my blog's RSS feed to various feed sites today, one site had a problem because it couldn't find my blog's description. I quickly learned that there's a plug-in for my WordPress blog called "Meta Tag Manager" that would let me fill in META tags for my blog's description and keywords.
If you have a WordPress blog, go to your blog's dashboard and add that plug-in.
If you use a different blog and need to add a similar plug-in, search for one that will work for yours.
Use Your Keyword META Tag
Just like with the Description META tag, use a Keyword META tag on every page of your website and on your blog. [See the instructions above on how to add them to your blog]
Since each page of your site is different, each will have its own keywords so take the time to create the right Keyword META tag for each page.
Here's the HTML code for your site:
[Make sure you enter your keywords exactly like you see below with no spaces after the commas]
<META name="Keywords" CONTENT="keyword1,keyword2,this is a keyword phrase,keyword3,this is another keyword phrase,keyword4,">
You'll place it in the source code at the top of the page in between the <head> and </head> tags with your other META tags.
You'll lose points with search engines if you have keywords in your META tag but not on your web page so find ways to use all the keywords in your META tag throughout the page.
Use Keywords in Your Squidoo Tags
Each time you start building a lens, Squidoo asks you for one important tag (your main keyword(s)) and three more tags for your lens, but the Squidoo pros will tell you if you want your lens to rank high on Google, you need 10 - 15 tags on each of your lenses, so load 'em up.
To add more tags to your lenses, go to each lens's workshop and click on 'Tags' on the right side under 'Reorder Modules.'
Use Keywords in Your Headlines
Since search engines look at a page's headline to see what the page is about, make sure you have keywords in your headline on your blog, Squidoo lenses, articles, and on every page of your site.
Better yet... Use a keyword phrase people often search for in your headline. For example, "find your page rank" could easily become a headline that says, "How to Find Your Page Rank," for an article, blog post, lens, or a on a web site.
Use Keywords in Your Sub-Headings
Just like with your headlines, use keywords in the sub-headings on your web pages, too.
Use Keywords in Your Module Titles
Since your module titles are sub-headings, make sure you're using keywords in them.
Use Keywords in Your Module Subtitles
Don't forget about the module subtitles. They're a great place to squeeze in a few more keywords.
Use Keywords Throughout Your Text
Use keywords and phrases throughout your copy (the text) on your web pages.
Don't forget!
Search engines will penalize you if you have keywords in your Keyword META tag but not on your site so find ways to sprinkle them throughout each page.
Use Keywords in Your Anchor Text (links)
Google doesn't like to see a link that says, "Click here." It wants to see descriptive links that tell people where the link will take them, like this:
Click here to see our huge selection of black velvet Elvis paintings
Rewrite the links on your site using keywords to make them more descriptive.
Once you come up with a good link for your site, use it every chance you get — on online directories, link exchanges, etc. — to score points with search engines.
Use Keywords in Image Captions
What a great idea!
Putting a caption under images is a slick way to sneak in a few extra keywords.
Here's the code I used for that 'Idea Squid' image:
<p style="float:right; width: 150px; padding:10px;"><img src="http://www.MySite.com/Images/NameOfImage.jpg" />What a great idea!</p>
You probably have images you wouldn't want to add a caption under, like your site's header image, but consider adding them under other images.
Use Keywords in Your Image ALT Tags
An image's ALT tag, or alternative text, appears when the image doesn't so filling them in is a good habit to get into. And they're a good place to add a couple keywords. Plus, visually-impaired people use the Internet, too, and they count on the ALT tag to tell them what is there.
Here's the code to add the ALT tag to your images:
<img src="http://www.YourSite.com/YourImage.jpg" alt="Your keywords describing your image.">
Use Keywords in Your Forum Posts
Have you ever used Google and found what you're looking for in a forum post?
Let other people find you by using keywords (or keyword phrases!) in the title of your thread and in the body of your posts.
Use Keywords in Your Forum Signature
When you join a forum, like Squidoo's, you get to create a signature that'll appear every time you post in it so use your keywords to craft descriptive links to your lenses, blog or sites for yours.
Use Keywords on Anything You Want People to Find
Like most people, you're probably on FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube,... But are you using keywords so other people will find you there?
Log in to your accounts on those sites and add your keywords in all the right places to help people find your pages there as well.
And for online business owners...
Use Keywords on Your 'Affiliates' Page
When affiliates are looking for a specific kind of product to work with, they'll enter something like this:
[niche] + ebook + affiliate
...into a search engine.
Make sure they'll find yours by adding the right keywords to your site, and especially to your 'Affiliates' page.
Don't have an 'Affiliates' page? You're missing out!
Click here to learn how to build the kind of page affiliates want you to have.
Use Keywords in Your Graphic Ads
Let's say you have a product that affiliates love and they've put your graphic ads on their blogs, sites, Squidoo lenses... Your ads are EVERYWHERE!
And let's say you were smart and loaded your ads' ALT tags with your website's URL and a great keyword phrase. Search engines would see them everywhere and you'd score huge points towards your site's page rank.
All because you put a few little words in the ALT tags on your ads. 
Don't have graphic ads?
Click here to read Create Ads That'll Drive Traffic to Your Site
Use Keywords in Your PPC Ads
This one is pretty obvious since it's the keywords that make your ads appear in the first place. Just make sure you're using the right ones.
If you really want people to find you online, you want:
- Most Searched Keywords
- Rank Improving Keywords
- Low Competition Keywords
- LSI Keywords (a.k.a. "synonyms")
- Long tail Keywords
- Misspelled Keywords
- Competitor's Converting Keywords
... and more.
Keyword Country will give you all that and more. It's the best keyword tool available.
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by DianeSays
Diane Sayer is a writer, Internet marketer, and a dreamer who's been neglecting her blog (among other things) since she made her it her personal missi... more »
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