Do you spend time on keywords?

[Guard Dog]

This is a question I've always wondered about. What percentage of affiliates actually spend a great deal of time on keywords?

I ask because I always think about doing this, but never follow through with it. I tend to write pages for the user and not the search engines. Maybe it's not the best way to do it, but has always been the way I have done things.

How about you?

 

[CGP]

I do not focus intentionally on keywords when I write articles, news or casino reviews. Even when I outsource some of the content for my site, I always advise the writers that the quality of the content matters. It must be useful, authoritative and comprehensible for the visitor.

I do stress on keywords when it comes to titles, url structure and internal linking.

 

[TheGamblingGuru]

I get better results in the serps with the use of "buzzwords" vs "keywords"...been like that for the past six months anyway..
____
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[Engineer]

I'm in the "sometimes" category. For the most part, I write content for the end user. If the search engines like it, that's an added benefit.

 

[bonustreak]

I like keywords, long tailed keyword,buzzwords and jargons etc. Most of all I just like rich content.

 

[slotplayer]

I actually spend more time deliberately limiting certain words like "free" and "online" for example. But I'll add a keyword phrase if it fits naturally in the article or review.

 

[WCD Admin]

Depends on if I have time. I try to think about this, but struggle just getting programs to pay me and maintaining broken sites, scripts, etc. Also selling ads, getting paid for that, renewals, etc...

Is it time for me to have an assistant? I think so!

 

[Aussie-Dave]

Is it time for me to have an assistant? I think so!

I'm really pedantic (obsessive) when it comes to my sites. I totally understand where your coming from. However with 30 plus sites all my time was taken up with content, web dev ..ect..ect. The ranking them.

Honestly it got to the point where all I do is work.

So decided to take someone on to do my content.

Point is, you have to let go, otherwise, you run yourself into the ground.

The up side, it's one less thing on my plate. I've also in the last 12 months started using WordPress heavily. It's a great CMS and easy to just buy a professional theme and go from there.

It's ok if you only have a few sites but once you hit 5 or more I think hiring a content writer or someone to help you is a wise move.


Cheers



Dave

 

[tooluckynow]

Percentage of time spent on keywords

This is a great question and the anwers are very interesting. It seems that most people feel the content is more important. All the marketing gurus are pushing keywords as a major component of SEO success. I was wondering how this ties up with everybody's comments and expeience?

Also please tell me what the "buzzwords" are and why they seem to be so important.
Good quality, original content I can understand, but shouldn't it be laced with keywords, long-tail or otherwise to help with rankings.

Thanks

TooLuckyNow

 

[dfiocch]

Great question.
I tend to write good pages for users, and then, if possible, I optimize them for their "natural keywords".
This has always allowed for me good placement on search engines.

 

[lots0]

After years of writing for SEO... SEOed text is just the way I write now.;D

Keywords are the foundation, but the walls are Content. You gotta have them both to keep the roof up...

I'm just full of medifores today...

 

[Aussie-Dave]

Hi all,

As most of you know I own an SEO company which primarily has clients from the gaming industry. Although 100% of its work these days is spent managing my own sites.

With that said, I tend not to research as much these days. There is a base of keywords that your going to get traffic from if you can rank for them. It's not rocket science. I do believe too much emphasis is given to this that or the other, when your far better writing content for your visitors than to impress the SE's.

Of course the longer your site is up and the more "fresh" content you have, the more long tails you'll achieve. I think it should be noted that "long tail" SERPS can deliver far more traffic than your generic keyword phrases.

I also believe Google & their SLI technology has helped reinforce relationships between niche keywords, that may otherwise (before SLI) have been disregarded.

Over and above this, I still believe that coding lay-out and using H tags, alt descriptions and everything else at your disposal is just as important. So too are quality links. But that's another topic ;D


Cheers



Dave

 

[dfiocch]

I think it should be noted that "long tail" SERPS can deliver far more traffic than your generic keyword phrases.

Yeah! Correct!
90% of my google visitors comes from "long tail" keywords (keyphrases).

 

[tooluckynow]

Long Tail SERPS

I'm following this discussion carefully, but to be honest, as someone new, I am not sure where you distinguish "long tail" from keywords and why as AussieDave says
"I think it should be noted that "long tail" SERPS can deliver far more traffic than your generic keyword phrases."
It is pretty important to me that I add content that is relevant and SE driven (Iguess). Could someone explain this concept of long tail SERPS and both why it is important and how to work towards it.

I will be grateful.
Many thanks
TooLuckyNow

 

[Aussie-Dave]

Could someone explain this concept of long tail SERPS

Lets say you have a site and its niche is Widgets.

Sub niches of this maybe:
Black Widgets
White Widgets
Square Widgets
Round Widgets

From writing content based on the above, you would target the your relevant keywords and phrases within this sites content and linking system.

Because of this you are going to achieve SERPS (Search Engine Page Results) for your targeted keywords and phrases.

However in addition to these keywords and phrases, over time you'll also receive what called "long tails" SERPS.

In basic terms, the content on this site although includes Widgets will also include other words. These words although not targeted "Keywords" & "Phrases" will be indexed by SE's.


As an example, someone may search for in Google:

2" widget with rounded black corners

Even though you have not specifically targeted this "phrase" on site, it has a SERP and has sent you a site visitor.

Lets say for argument sake the above "long tail" terms is search for 3 times a month. From that you'll get 3 extra site visitors.

However, lets expand that into 1000 different "long tail" terms are being used in search queries, which are sending traffic to your site.

That's 3,000 extra visitors you have coming to your site from SE's, just on "long tail" search queries.

NB - Even though each "long tail" may only deliver 1 or 2 visitors per month, it's the sheer number of "long tail" searches that can dramatically increase your traffic per month.

The longer the web site is up and the more fresh content added, the more "long tails" you will produce.

NB - Probably not the best explanation because frankly I suck at explaining this in simple terms. But I hope you at least get an idea from what I spoken about.



Cheers



Dave

 

[Guard Dog]

I thought it was a good explanation I understood exactly what you meant.

 

[tooluckynow]

Re Do you spend time on keywords,

Well AussieDave,
I also think that was a pretty good explanation. Thanks

So in essence it means focusing on the keywords as you would anyway and as the Serps come in you would get better hits for your long tail keywords.

I wonder whether if you use a keyphrase in your content if this helps advance the long tail effect as well.
Let's say the keyword is online casino, then would play now at online casino, online casino for poker, etc be of any use?

 

[dfiocch]

Well AussieDave,
I also think that was a pretty good explanation. Thanks

So in essence it means focusing on the keywords as you would anyway and as the Serps come in you would get better hits for your long tail keywords.

I wonder whether if you use a keyphrase in your content if this helps advance the long tail effect as well.
Let's say the keyword is online casino, then would play now at online casino, online casino for poker, etc be of any use?

Sorry Aussie for this reply.

For example: I see on my stats a lot of visit related to "long tail" casino keyword.

1. Online casino bonuses
2. Online casino no deposit bonus
3. *Casino Name* bonus
4. *Casino Name* %percenage% bonus
5. *Casino Name* no deposit bonus

etc...

Gambing searchers tend to research specific phrases for their specific gaming requirements.

How many aff sites are using keyword "casino"? Millions!
How many aff sites has "specific" keyphrase "*Casino Name* %percentage% bonus"? Only few hundreds!

So you have a better chance that your site is found compared to a more general keyword "casino".

I hope that this little explanation is clear.

 

[tooluckynow]

Thanks for this as well.
It seems to me that using specific word groups will provide more targeted searches and with less competition, but also "generically" using keywords with good content will help with SERPS as well.
Does this seem a reasonable surmise?
Thanks to you guys for taking the trouble to explain.
Now into the writing for the site!!!

TooLuckyNow

 

[triple777s]

Exactly! Keywords whether long tail or single words are great only if they are natural to the subject title. Writing for the reader is the only way to have good content. If you write for rank and load your articles with keywords but the content is all over the place and has no depth, it won't matter how many keywords you jam into the article it wont help your site. So when writing content, always write your story first, then look it over for keywords you may have wrote naturally, if there is not enough, place them strategically and carefully in appropriate areas for best results.