Before you start a blog, build a website, or buy a domain read this

by Nick Stewart on December 7, 2009

Introduction

I frequently get e-mails from individuals asking me to analyze their website and tell them how they can rank high in the search engines. I reply to their e-mails and ask them what kind of keywords they want their site to rank high for.

Sometimes they respond that they don’t know what keywords they should rank high for but they just know they want to rank high in the search engines.

Other people know what keywords they wish to rank for but they do a terrible job of optimizing their site for these keywords.

For example they may want to rank high in Google for “fuzzy red sweaters” and they buy a domain that has none of their keywords in it like MarysClothes.com. They also don’t put their keywords in their title tags or their h1 tags or in their image names.

They want to rank for a specific keyword but have done nothing to tell Google that their website should rank for this keyword.

So do us all a big favor and do a little keyword research before you buy a domain or start a blog. Figure out what keywords you really want to rank for. Only then should you buy a domain.

I have written several posts and recorded a few videos covering keyword research in the past. Instead of me reiterating all that information here, I am going to link to those previous posts.

What do you think?

I would love to hear your thoughts so leave a comment below!

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Tagged as: keywords

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

Online Profits December 11, 2009 at 9:12 pm

Absolutely right…
It all starts with keyword research… I found out the hard way!
Having keywords in all the relevant places is a fundamental step and one that should be at the base of any campaign.
When I started out I didn’t realize just how much time effort and money I was about to waste by missing this fundamental…
Chasing highly competitive keywords can also cost… slightly off point, but I think it’s also worth remembering that choosing less fiercely contended keywords can mean ranking higher with fewer back links and sooner…
I wish I had discovered this site back in the day…

Nick Stewart December 12, 2009 at 5:03 pm

Good point.

Arlen G Fleisher December 23, 2009 at 6:00 am

I appreciate your efforts to help us, who want to build a site for our business establishments. Thanks for the help you provide us through your blog.

Nick Stewart December 31, 2009 at 12:52 pm: Glad to help.

Reply

Ruben | OurBlogLog January 5, 2010 at 7:41 pm

I made this mistake with my first 2 websites , I learned from that and started using spyfu.com for keyword research and now anytime I start a new project.(be it a domain and blog or website)

Turning Winds January 13, 2010 at 1:09 am

This is a big help for me before I’m not familiar with the internal use of my site. I can’t even fix it. I’ve let somebody fix it for me. I just do is post and post and post…. But eventually I am constantly learning on it. Have been encountering mistakes on some of my sites but it is a learning process.

Thank you for this tips and to-do’s for me to gather up more information to know. Great insights you have.