Choose Search WordsCan my site can ever be number one in search engines?Your site's visibility in search engines depends not only on the search-engine-friendliness of your site, but also on how much competition you have and their efforts to get listed on Google and Yahoo . Deciding what terms you want to be found for is key to quantifying your site's success As you might guess, coming up number one for “Microsoft” isn’t too likely, because there’s a huge company called “Microsoft” and lots of products for sale on the internet with that word in their name, not to mention all the web pages people have written about Microsoft. But if you want to come up number one for “orange striped octopus," assuming you have something to write about the topic, you could easily meet that goal. You can see from these examples, deciding what terms you want your site to be found for is going to be key to defining and quantifying your success. Reducing competition: Geotargeting Geotargeting adds a geographic location to the search phrase Geotargeting is a popular strategy for reducing your competition. For example, if you were a tax accountant you would want to be found for the term “tax accountant." But how many other tax accountants are trying to be found for this term? This keyword phrase puts you in competition with tax accountants all over the US. What does your site have to make it more relevant for the “tax accountant” search? Probably nothing. In a sea of qualified tax accountant sites, you can’t expect your site will make it to number one. Geo targeting would add your geographic location to the search word phrase. If you hypothetically live in San Jose “tax accountant San Jose” limits your competition to San Jose tax accountants. You could even take it a step further and work with smaller geographic areas within San Jose. Reducing competition: Non-industry termsUse the words non-professionals use to reach the general public Another strategy for limiting your competition is to find non-industry words that people are using to find your service or product. Typically site-owners are experts in their fields and they use the terms that experts use. For example a person who teaches singing is called a “vocal coach." But amateur singers don’t necessarily know this term, so they search for “singing teacher." You can see how a vocal coach might get a lot more visitors on their site if it is found for the search “singing teacher” instead of “vocal coach." A good way to generate ideas is to try some searches and see what sites come up and what vocabulary they use. FAQ’s are often posted on websites which can give you clues about what words people are using to describe the information they are seeking. You can also talk to people not in your field and ask them what words they might use to describe what you offer. Researching termsThe best way to decide which terms you want your site to be found for is to think like the person you imagine is out there trying to find your product or service. Brainstorm terms you think people might be searching for. Once you’ve brainstormed a long list of possibilities, check the terms in Yahoo's Keyword Selector tool. Are people really searching for the terms you think they are? Strategize which terms are do-able and which have too much competition Should you go for the terms that are searched for frequently, or are terms with smaller search volumes better? Well, it depends. How tough is your competition? Sometimes you might go for a term with a smaller search volume because the main terms relevant to your site are too well covered by larger established sites. It’s better to be on page one in Google search results for a term that is searched for 100 times a day than to be on page ten for a term searched for 1000 times a day. On the other hand, as in the example of “singing teacher” versus “vocal coach," sometimes your competition is using the wrong words! The goal of researching terms is to find terms people are using to search for your product or service which don’t have too much competition from larger established websites. Defining successOnce you’ve established what terms you’d like your site to be found for, with some data to back them up, you have some basis to analyze whether your site is doing well or not. If your site is not coming up for the terms you’d like it to, it’s time to investigate why not. 
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