Keyword Basics For Ecommerce Websites

Recent search engine algorithm updates have caused a stir in the SEO world, especially as they apply to keywords in general. ?It would seem that Google, Bing, and Yahoo are placing quite a bit less emphasis on keywords alone, preferring to rank sites that are more relevant to user search queries, listing them in the search engine results pages (SERPs) according to their quality.

Does that mean that a keyword-rich site isn?t relevant anymore? ?Of course not! ?Should you give up on keywords? ?Nope! ?Should you abandon all hope when constructing your site?s category and product pages? ?No way! ?Don?t be intimidated by the recent updates. ?Keywords are still very important and still a huge ranking factor. ?In fact, when used properly, they are still the building blocks of a website.

A lot of the following ideas and recommendations for keywords work well on many types of websites, however, they work really well on Ecommerce sites and sites that sell lots of products:

* Be sure your homepage title tag (<title>) uses your 3 most important keywords (sometimes 2 plus your company or site name).

* Choose 3 keyword phrases to focus on per category page (sometimes 2 if it?s very focused), and use those in your title as well.

* Make your top keyword for each page the first word in your title tag (<title>) for all category pages.

* Customize your product page titles to include the actual product keyword.

* Format your titles for clicks as well as relevance (this is the ?call to action? part).

?* Use keyword-rich page names and create URLs that separate words with dashes (dashes are seen as spaces by search engines).

Of course, this is just the start of how to construct your website using keywords. ?It may be a bit tedious, but it?s definitely worth it. ?No matter what search engines tell you, keywords are still the backbone of a website and need to be utilized properly.