saturation and the number of inbound links
Finding Appropriate Keywords
There are various methods of finding keywords. They vary from asking customers,
asking colleagues or even asking friends and relatives.
A more systematic approach is to find out how many searches actually occur for each
search term. Two global systems are Word Tracker and Overture keyword suggestion
tool.
Word Tracker takes a large sample of searches across a number of search engine
networks from around the world. Overture provides a precise picture of the volume of
searches from the previous month on each of its national networks. The Overture tool is
free and can be accessed directly by clicking on the hyperlink below:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/.
Word Tracker is a proprietary programme and costs money to license. However a
summary of both Word Tracker and Overture search volumes can be accessed for free at
www.digitalpoint.com. You need to select a word or phrase that generates sufficient
search volumes but one that is relevant to your site. A two, three or four word search term
is generally more useful than a single word term. However, beyond four words and the
numbers of searches tends to drop dramatically.
As explained, Word Tracker is a world wide sample. And it typically includes a number
of spelling variations for different English speaking countries. Ensure that the spelling
variation you are checking is relevant to your geographic target.
Overture covers all the searches received on its network from whatever country you
select. It differs from Word Tracker in that it tends not to distinguish between singular
and plural forms or words and may also show some duplicated rather than discrete
searches.
Determining the Number of Inbound Links
There are two ways of checking the presence of an inbound link. The first approach is to
check the back links record held by the search engines. Go to the search box of Google,
Yahoo or MSN and type “link:yoururl.com”*. A word of caution is that Google only
shows a sample of the inbound links and that typically you will get much higher numbers
for Yahoo and MSN links. Essentially you can use this approach to gather link
information about any other web site. The results page for this query will provide the
number of links and a list of sites. Some of the links will almost certainly be internal, i.e.
from other pages within the same web site.
The second approach is to inspect the search engine’s index of the link’s originating site.
This can be done for each of the major engines by using the following term
“site:yoururl.com*”.
In each case enter the actual URL.
As with keyword density there are a number of SEO tools that can be accessed for free.
Google Toolbar
A particularly useful and widely used tool is the Google Toolbar. The toolbar can be
accessed at:
http://www.toolbar.google.com/
The toolbar includes a tool displaying PageRank of any site visited.
Determining Keyword Saturation
I tend to use the SEO tools of the large SEO companies many provide free tools including
keyword saturation or density.
A general purpose SEO tool
An excellent general purpose tool that I find extremely useful is called SEO Open. It is an
extension to the Firefox browser. The tool can provide a complete range of on and off
page data and is available to download from:
suseroot.com/seopen/index.php .
The SEO Open service can provide a whole range of information regarding a site. This
includes Google PageRank, Inbound links recorded and the pages that have been indexed
by Google, Yahoo and MSN. A keyword density checker. An internal link analyser. An
HTML validator.
The Cache Information
To see what a spider can read try making a search and clicking on the cache hyperlink.
Each of the major search engines provides this information. Google and MSN will even
tell when the site was crawled. The Google cache allows you to see the “cached text”
only. This will take you to a page without images. It shows the exact content information
gathered by the Google spider including the alt text gathered from images.
The major engines have a facility whereby in response to a keyword search the target web
page can be shown with the search keywords highlighted.
Another approach is to click on a text part of a website, click right and “view source”.
This will show the web page in HTML text format. The text shows both the meta tag and body text.