How do I get my site on page 1? Part II

h2 style=margin: 16pt 0pt 0pt;Conquering Search Engines – Section 2br /strongnbsp;/strong/h2
h2 style=margin: 16pt 0pt 0pt;strongKeyword Selection/strong/h2
p style=margin: 0pt; OK, you have your goals, the next step is to select keywords.nbsp; This is the most nuanced, challenging, complex and, for me, most exciting and fun part of the job.nbsp;/p
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p style=margin: 0pt;Most people use the term ldquo;keywordrdquo; and ldquo;keyword phraserdquo; interchangeably, so we will as well ./p
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p style=margin: 0pt; Additionally , Irsquo;ll use the terms ldquo;search enginerdquo; and ldquo;Googlerdquo; interchangeably.nbsp; As Google has so much more market share than its nearest competitor (between 63% and 71% according to recent studies), Google is the search engine on which you should be focusing. The next closest is Yahoo! with less than 15%.nbsp; If you could open a restaurant for the same rent on Broadway in New York City as you could on Oak Street in Millvale , which would you do?nbsp;/p
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p style=margin: 0pt;The most common mistake people make is to be too vague . Continuing with our example, if we tried to use the keyword ldquo;therapist ,rdquo; we will fail.nbsp; There simply is too much competition for such general words.nbsp; Moreover, you donrsquo;t have any desire for folks in Iowa to be contacting you (assuming you donrsquo;t do telephone counseling)./p
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p style=margin: 0pt;We might have a chance at some of the following keywords:/p
p style=margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 18pt;middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Pittsburgh lawyer /p
p style=margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 18pt;middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Plumber in Pittsburgh/p
p style=margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 18pt;middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Pittsburgh legal counseling/p
p style=margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 18pt;middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Pittsburgh clogged toiletnbsp;/p
p style=margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 18pt;middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Etc./p
p style=margin: 0pt;nbsp;/p
p style=margin: 0pt;Now we need to get some suggestions for other keywords , to build a long list.nbsp; I like using the widely available Keyword Tool.nbsp; You put in a few keywords, and it generates lots of synonyms .nbsp; Most of these will be worthless, but a few may be great, and/or spark other ideas for additional keywords./p
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p style=margin: 0pt;Googlersquo;s Keyword Tool is designed for Paid Search , but itrsquo;s still helpful for SEO .nbsp; It gives you a general idea of how many surfers are searching for that term.nbsp; And it also gives you a general idea of how competitive that term is by showing how many people are paying for that keyword./p
p style=margin: 0pt;nbsp;/p
p style=margin: 0pt;If a keyword looks very competitive, try a variation. You can try a plural, or even a misspelling.nbsp; I often transpose the w and y in ldquo;lawyer.rdquo;nbsp; Guess what?nbsp; Some 33,000 people search for those misspellings every month!/p
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p style=margin: 0pt;Once again, I go back to Branding and Marketing Positioning .nbsp; If yoursquo;ve got the wrong Marketing Positioning, or you are optimizing for keywords that donrsquo;t support your overall objective, your efforts will not produce the goals you desire./p
p style=margin: 0pt;nbsp;/p
p style=margin: 0pt;Once you get a long list of keywords, start to narrow them down.nbsp; Criteria can include relevance (of course), number of people that search for the term, and perceived competition for the term./p
p style=margin: 0pt;nbsp;/p
p style=margin: 0pt;You might want to start with a list of 10 or so keywords./p
p style=margin: 0pt;nbsp;/p
pNow that we have our keywords, letrsquo;s do some a title=Pittsburgh Search Engine Optimization href=http://www.pittsburgh-seo.net/ target=_blanksearch engine optimization, Pittsburgh style!/a./p
pStay tuned for our next article, Search Engine Optimization Part 3./p
pnbsp;/p
pInternet marketing specialist for a title=Pittsburgh SEO href=http://www.pittsburgh-seo.net/ target=_blankPittsburgh SEO/a amp; a href=http://www.pittsburgh-seo.net/blogs.htm target=_blankPittsburgh blogs/aa href=http://www.pittsburgh-seo.net/ target=_blankbr //a/p