Have you optimized your web pages in order to receive traffic from the major search engines (SE) like Google, Yahoo or Msn?

If you have, then I'll show you a simple method you can use to increase your traffic further by up to 50 or 100%!

With "keyword" we mean the search phrase.

The most common practice is to optimize each page with one keyword. The reason for this is that in order to be rated high in the SE, the keyword needs to be found in the page's title, in the headlines and to be included a number of times in the main text.

You can have maximum two relevant but different keywords included in the title. If you include more than that the optimization for those additional keywords will dilute your result.

This is because the optimal length of the title is limited only to a few words for effective SE optimization.

The best option is to optimize for just one keyword per page.

The two most useful tools for keyword research are http://WordTracker.com and Overture keyword inventory tool http://inventory.overture.com.

Both will give you an estimate on how many searches there are made on keywords on the Web.

WordTracker is a pay service which also measures the number of competing web sites for keywords. Overture's inventory tool is a free service. The main purpose is to give bidders a way to measure how many times each

keyword is being searched. Overture is the leading pay per click search engine. Its keyword inventory tool is not made for SE optimization research.

However, that is what a lot of people use it for. WordTracker keyword statistics are better than Overture's. Overture uses an aggregation from Overture's partners and often the traffic statistics are diluted by automatic queries.

If you take full advantage of Overture's and WordTracker's keyword statistics you can increase the traffic you receive from the SE substantially.

Here is how!

Let's take an example!

In this case we want a web page to be optimized for the keyword "backup program"!

Here are the numbers taken from Overture

999 backup program
178 backup free program
83 backup make program thoughtfully
70 backup computer program
69 backup dvd program
54 backup program xxasdf
53 add backup program remove
47 backup dvd program xxasdf
38 backup free program ware
37 backup software program
35 backup data program
30 backup drive hard program
30 backup program window xp
29 cd backup program
29 backup program window
26 best backup program
25 backup dvd free program

Here are the numbers taken from WordTracker

52 backup programs
49 backup program
17 free backup programs
16 windows nt 4.0 backup recovery disk programs
11 free backup program
11 backup installed programs
9 windows xp home edition backup programs
8 how do you backup installed programs
7 free outlook express backup programs
7 mac backup programs
5 win2k freeware backup programs
5 cd backup program
5 database backup programs

Of course the statistics from Overture and WordTracker are not always accurate. What is important is that from these tools you can extract a lot of extra words so the exact number is not so important. Use them together with your main keyword or spread them out throughout your page.

Any combination of your main keyword together with one of the extra words will give you boost in ranking. This is because you have already optimized your page for the main term "backup program".

If someone search for "best backup program" and you have included "best" in front of "backup program" only once in the text you will show up high in the result. You will also probably show up high even if you the word "best" is not next to "backup program".

Extra words as candidates to include on our case are:
Free, computer, dvd, add, remove, software, data, drive hard, windows xp, cd, windows, recovery disk, installed, home edition, outlook express, backup, win2k and database.

Special note on Overture's tool:

The number of searches for "backup program" is 999. This number also includes "backup program", "backup programs", "program backup" and "program backups". Both in singular and plural.

This gives a somewhat misleading figure for the keyword, especially for searches that includes many individual words.

Which of the word combination have the highest number of searches?

You just don't know! You have to use your common sense.

Overture often lists the different words in alphabetical orders which give misleading information. For example people don't usually search for "backup drive hard program". They are much more likely doing searches for "hard drive backup programs". Or "backup programs for hard drives". Word like to, for, on are ignored by the SE.

This method to include extra words works best if the page contains at least 400 - 500 words. A page that contains more words is better.

If you sprinkle the text with some of the suggested words on your page you will increase the number of visitors you get from the SE substantially.

This does not mean that you should sacrifice the quality.
Don't use it for keyword stuffing.

Include words that fit in natural on your page.

The advantage for doing this for the less searched
phrases are:

1. There is less competition for these keywords.

2. Searches for the keywords are more specific, which means a more precise search. Visitors are more likely to click on your link and also to respond positive to your message.

3. Web users are more likely to look beyond the first search page. This is because the searches are more specific and other results on the list are more likely to be of target.

Recently in November 2003 and January 2004 Google made changes on how it value web pages. Small web site and web sites with few inbound links was hit hard. Many websites lost good ranking or worse disappeared all together for important keywords.

What disappeared from the SE results were in most cases only the primary keywords for each page. In our case that would have been "backup program".

By adding your related keyword combinations together with you primary keyword you will still be found in Google's search for a large number of keyword combinations. For example in our case we could be found for "best backup program".

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Per Strandberg work as software designer and Internet marketer! Learn the latest in niche marketing! Subscribe to The Niche Exploration Newsletter!
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