Why Keywords Are Important To Your Online Marketing Efforts

Friday, Mar. 18th 2011

Every culture has a certain lingo associated with it, but not everyone understands it—especially those who are new to the culture. For example, the words “keyword,” “keywords” and “keyword phrases” are thrown around the internet marketing world, but not everyone understands what they mean, more less how they work. If you’re a newbie to the Internet marketing world, read along as we discuss these important words and why they’re crucial to your online marketing efforts.

What Are They?

A keyword is a word, or phrase in the case of keyword phrase, that an Internet surfer uses to find specific information on the web. For instance, if they were looking for web sites that sold “beds” they might type that word into Google, or one of the many other search engines, and a list of sites that used the word “beds” in their content would appear. If that same surfer were searching for a “tall pine bed with steps,” and typed it into a search engine, they would be searching for web sites using a keyword phrase.

How Do They Work?

Search engines can’t “read” web site content, but they can look for patterns. For example, in the above scenario, when the person typed “beds” into a search engine, it would go looking for patterns in all the available text, and when it found a match, that site would come up on the listings. The search engine will rank the listings in order, and that’s determined by how many times the keyword is used on the sites text, and how user-friendly the site is. If it appears to be an important part of the text, the search engine will list it in the results.

How Can I Make It Work For Me?

As you can see, having your site come up on the rankings list is important for the financial success of your business, but the process of getting it done can be complicated and time consuming. Luckily, there are companies that are designed to help web site owners select the most commonly used keywords, and then position the content on their site so that they will show up in the results.

Whether you decide to learn the ins and outs of online marketing yourself, or hire an expert to do it for you, the important thing is that you get the right keywords in your content so Internet users will be able to find you. After all, you could have the greatest product in the world, but if you can’t be found, you’ll likely languish in the world of search engines.