An effective search engine optimisation (SEO) is the one that is able to attract the target audience. For making your SEO campaign effective, appropriate keywords need to be decided. Most of the online marketing firms know this fact, and accordingly devote a good amount of time and resource to find out the most relevant keywords for their client’s website. However, in the absence of an effective keyword targeting strategy, they may fail to generate quality traffic to the concerned website.

Devising an effective keyword targeting strategy is important also because of the reason that different categories of keywords need different strategy. As pointed out by Vikas Malhotra, a successful Internet Marketing Consultant and Director of Mosaic ITES Services Ltd, an SEO company, "Once the keywords have been decided for the site, one has to come up with a strategy to target those keywords across the site". This clearly states the importance of coming up with a relevant keyword targeting strategy.

The targeting strategy for the keywords that consist of only a single word is usually simple. Such keywords should be used more on the root level pages, also known as top level domain pages like the home page or the index page. This strategy helps in attracting general audience who are more inclined to go through the root pages of a website. The end result will be a rise in the ranking of your website.

If the keyword consists of multiple words, they should be used to attract the target audience. For this, the appropriate strategy would be to use these words on each page of the website in accordance with the subject of that particular page. To be more specific, a multiple-words keyword should find its place in title tags, meta tags, body tags, header tags, Alt tags, comment tags, and also in the url of the website. It is better to use underscore or hyphen to differentiate these keywords. Similarly, theme-based keywords can also be used to attract target audience and not the general traffic. These keywords fit better into directory or sub-directory level pages.

One more usage of keywords or keyphrases is the domain name. With growing popularity of Internet marketing, more and more number of firms believe in keyword specific domain name, instead of going for brand building domain name. However, even if the main domain name is built for creating a particular brand image, relevant keywords can always be used in their extensions. This helps in improving the rank significantly. But, it should be kept in mind that keywords used in domain name should be generic. Also, it is advisable to use hyphen or underscore between the main domain name and the search keyword. In case, you are more inclined to go for brand building domain name by using your company’s name into it, you should not forget to use the keywords at least in the directories and page names.

Keyword targeting strategy also includes decision regarding the keyword density. It is the proportion of the usage of the keyword in the total word count of a content piece. As long as spamming can be avoided, a higher keyword density may lead to a higher rank. Although, different search engines specify different keyword densities, an ideal number is supposed to be somewhere around 6%-8%. To achieve this target, you can use the keyword creatively in the title tag, body tag, paragraph tag, comment tag, anchor tag, and not to forget, in the domain name and directories.

Google has launched a new keyword tool for all who have been looking for something beyond the keyword tool currently under AdWords. Named as the “Search-based Keyword Tool”, this new tool is based on the actual Google queries. With this new tool, you can now find highly relevant keywords and landing page ideas specific to your website. In simple words, you can now get keywords that are highly specific to your website. This is where it scores above the keyword tool available under AdWords.

The most important feature of this new Search-based Keyword Tool is that it generates only those keywords which are not being currently used in your AdWords Account. This means, by using this tool, you are going to take the benefits of additional advertising opportunities. This is because, there may be many relevant keywords that you might have missed out during your current AdWords campaign. This new tool will help you identify those missed opportunities and accordingly, attract your target customers based on them.

The “Search-based Keyword Tool” follows a rational approach to generate relevant keywords for the success of your Internet marketing. It first, goes through your pages and then identifies keywords that potential online customers usually search on to find products and services identical to those offered by your website. Once you have found such keywords, you can use them on your landing pages to attract your target customers. This approach is in contrast to what you have been using until now with the help of the keyword tool under AdWords. Under AdWords, although you may get several keywords, but you may always remain confused regarding which keyword should be used on which landing page. This confusion can be avoided in case of the “Search-based Keyword Tool”.

Even if you do not have an AdWords account, you can use this “Search-based Keyword Tool”. Another advantage of this new tool is that it generates keywords in categories. By clicking on any category, you can view all the sub-categories, thus reaching the most relevant keywords specific to your website. Apart from giving the category information for each keyword, this new tool also provides other essential information such as suggested bid that may place the ad in the top three ranks of a search result page as well as ad/search share. Like in AdWords, here also you get the opportunity to browse through all keywords, across all categories. The data available provided in this new tool is updated every few weeks. This ensures you to find the keywords that have been most recently searched for.Â

There are however, two constraints that the “Search-based Keyword Tool” is currently facing. First, it is available in beta, and hence, there are not many features or functionality attached to it. Second, this new tool is currently available to the advertisers in the US and UK only. However, in the near future, you can expect this new tool with improved features, including additional languages. Google is also working with the objective of making this tool available in more countries. The day is not far away when the newly launched “Search-based Keyword Tool” will become a widely accepted trend worldwide.

20th Nov, 2008 is a day to remember as Google launched a highly user-friendly and interactive system for all its users. Named as “SearchWiki”, this new system will now allow you to get personal with Google search results.

Processing more than 60% of the search requests made around the world, Google introduced this new system to allow its users customise Google search results. This however, does not mean that there will be changes or any kind of revision in Google’s closely guarded algorithms for ranking websites. The formula for ranking websites will remain unchanged. It is only that with this new system, Google search results will become relevant to every individual user.

On the day of the launch of “SearchWiki”, Marissa Mayer who oversees Google’s search products says, “For now, Google simple wants to make specific set of results more useful to each individual that comes to its search engines. She also says, “It should make the search results more dynamic”.

Available only to signed-in Google users, “SearchWiki” will lead to a series of buttons below the links on the search result pages. These buttons will allow you to place your favourite websites on the top, while deleting the bad links or putting them at the bottom of the page. To be more specific, an arrow pointing upwards below a link, if clicked, will move that particular link to a higher rank. This new rank as assigned by you, will get displayed the next time you log on to Google for the same search. Similarly, the links removed by you by clicking on ‘X’ will not feature in your next search on the same subject. This is however, only one aspect of the story. This is because “SearchWiki” has been designed to offer you even more customisation options. For instance, you can now add a result (link) if it does not appear in the search result. This make the search results more relevant to you the next time you do the same search. That is not all. If you want to make some comments on particular search results for your future reference, this is also allowed under this new arrangement.

Although, “SearchWiki” has been introduced to meet the search objectives of the users on an individual level, you have the opportunity to share your insights with other searchers. By simply clicking on the “See all notes for this SearchWiki link”, you get a chance to see how other searchers have edited the search results. Your modifications can also be viewed by the other signed-in Google users.

It should always be remembered that every modification made by you will be recorded only in your Google account. This way, changes made by you will affect only your search results, and not of others. For your convenience, Google has also made an arrangement wherein your username will appear on the upper right-hand side of the page, every time, you have signed in.

For online marketing firms, “SearchWiki” may become an important issue for discussion. This is because, with this new system, Google users will have a say in deciding the ranks of the websites. Also, the frequency of search by an individual user on the same keyword will now be better known.

One thing that has come out of the whole situation is that “SearchWiki” is no less than a revolutionary step, capable of changing the entire face of online marketing.