SEO Keyword Research & Development - The Life Force of Your SEO Strategy

SEO keyword research and development is absolutely necessary for the following situations:

• Establishing a domain name for your new website
• Creating a new website
• Updating an existing website
• Meta data completion
• Starting a blog
• Posting to a blog
• Developing a social networking presence
• Maintaining a social network presence
• Posting a video to social media sites
• Tweeting
• Writing online press releases
• Writing online syndicated articles
• Updating website content
• Updating a social networking profile
• Building inbound links
• Fill in the blank...

But, (you observe) Search Engine Optimization is not on the list! Actually, all of the above is all about SEO.   Everything in the list, above, contributes to the success of your SEO Strategy - if - you know the most powerful keywords to use and how to use them.  

Keyword research and development isn't really very exciting but do you ever look at breathing in and out as exciting? You should!  Keyword Development is as necessary and life sustaining to your SEO Strategy as breathing in and out is to your body.  I find that to be very exciting!

Top 10 SEO To Dos for 2011

For those of you who are easily intimidated by a full-blown SEO Strategy for advanced search engine rankings, expanded brand recognition, enhanced reputation management, and improved business development here is our Top 10 Checklist of Search Engine Optimization “must dos”:

1. Have a professional complete keyword research and development. The established keywords can be used in your website content, social media posts, and search engine marketing.  Make sure to take advantage of geo-targeted keywords for Local Search if applicable.
2. Review your website keyword usage and adjust according to an updated keyword R&D.
3. Schedule monthly (at least) reviews of your website analytics or web logs. Look for trends that are bringing the best results (such as the keywords getting the most referrals).
4. Add new pages to your website:  find new topics (and keywords) of interest to your audience for the focus of your new pages. 
5. Post updated content on your web pages with the correct use of strong keywords.
6. Research and implement new ways to get free, high quality, inbound links. Use keywords in text inbound links when possible.
7. Find out the inbound links your competitors are getting and try to get the same links that they have – as long as they’re free and of high quality. 
8. Complete regularly scheduled competitive analyses.
9. Check out your web logs and review your site logs and in Google Webmaster Tools to identify the 404 error pages that are showing up. Correct those errors.
10. Update your copyright notice.

Did you notice that the majority of the above recommendations included keywords usage? That’s no accident. Many website owners aren’t getting the best results possible because they don’t understand or pay attention to the power of keywords. Keywords are our SEO friends.

Got any good keyword stories? Please share – we’d love to hear about your good (or bad) experiences with keywords.

Carole