Using Keywords on Your Website
Keywords are vectors on your website pages. Do you remember learning the difference between speed and velocity? Speed is a scalar quantity, which means it is simply a measure of how fast something is going; how many miles per hour. Unlike vector quantities, such as velocity, speed does not include direction of travel. With velocity we can work out how long it takes to travel from A to B because we know the direction.
Keywords do two things; explain what the page is about and increase traffic to your site. The ways in which they increase traffic has undergone recent major changes. These mean you can use keywords to tell visitors what your site is about and not worry about search engines.
They say, if you want search engines to find your site you need to find keywords for each page. I’ll discuss the need to court search engines in later posts; the point is you need keywords to communicate with your visitors.
Keywords and Relevance
Consider this: how long do you stay on a new site when you visit it? It depends upon whether the site is relevant to your search. Occasionally you might be distracted by something you’re not looking for. Usually you have a goal in mind and will stay if the site seems relevant.
As a site owner, you want people to stay who are looking for what you offer.
So, when your page opens, it needs to say clearly what it is about. This helps visitors who arrive by mistake to go their way. People actively interested in your site stay and enter into a long-term relationship.
When we get onto search engines I’ll write more about how keywords help people find your site but for now, once they arrive they expect to see the keywords they used to find you!
So, if someone concerned about a plague of frogs, arrives at your site and reads “If you’re experiencing the current plague of frogs this site will give you all the answers you’re looking for …” the chances are that visitor will read on.
They may be seeking frog poison. If your site advocates building ponds for them, your visitor might be convinced by your copy – so long as it looks as if it’s going to be relevant when the visitor first arrives.
You might like to go to a favourite website and try to find the keywords, perhaps the words that helped you on your first visit to the site. If you do, add the url and keywords you have identified as a comment and share them with the other readers.