Keywords and other things.

So I've spent the last few days (well 2) learning about keywords. I mean we all have a vague idea of what they are. We type a few choice words into a search engine, and voila. If we are lucky, a bunch of links leading us to where we want to go appear.

So I caught myself wondering how exactly this all works. Since I do have a blog and so forth, I've of course plunked in some keywords at random, but never really paid attention to the science of it all.

And by god, it's quite a science in fact.

The first thing you learn, is before you spend hours building your blog, or website. Is keyword research! There are several good programs out there, that allow you to work out what keywords are popular, which not so much, and sometimes a new twist on a keyword phrase can produce some impressive results.

Wordstream provides a free keyword niche finding tool. I found it okay to use, but it didn't knock my socks off.
Another is the Google tool (also free)
One that appears to be pretty popular is the one built by the Affilorama guys, called Traffic Travis. It has a free version which isn't bad. As well they have a paid version that of course has more bells and whistles.

What most of this boils down to, is the neat useful stuff I learned. And how much knowledge is available out there.

A few examples of what I learned, in respect to a blog.
1. That your keyword niche you choose should also be your URL
- ie, id I was talking about chess. I'd want not only to title my blog Chess. but I'ld work really hard to get that keyword in my blog's URL (Chessmoves. blog.com etcetc)
-of course of you check this blog, you'll see that hasn't happened. But this is my personal space, so I care a bit less about that.

2. When making a post, under the title, there is room for a link. I never knew what it was for really. Guess what! You are supposed to put the link to your blog in there. For redirection. Neat.

3. keywords. - back to the original reason for this post. When writing, you are supposed to aim for about 2 to 3%. Meaning, in a 100 word article, your keyword should appear at least 2 or 3 times. This one is easy for me on this post, keyword well.. I'm counting that word a lot right now!
Neat stuff.
-does a happy dance-