Welcome back to SEO Help for Beginners. In the last article, we explained what SEO is and the importance of selecting "targeted keywords".

In this article, we'll provide some valuable resources for how to identify targeted keywords, and explain the key things search engines are looking for.

Let's get started. 

Remember that targeted keywords are keywords your target market would be looking for. Also recall that it's much better to use targeted keywords (vs. broader keywords) because 1) you'll have less competition; and 2) you're more likely to have conversion because you’re attracting people who are looking for what you have to offer.

So how do you identify targeted keywords?

There are a number of tools you can use for keyword research. Some are free and others you will have to pay for. Below ae some free tools you can get started with.

• Google Adwords Keyword Tool: Good basic research tool

• Key Word Discovery

• Wordtracker

• Good Keywords: Free software to help analyze keywords.

• Alexa: This is a great resources that gives a wealth of information on sites and trends, including rankings for any website

• Below is a great video that illustrates two additional SEO keyword tools, Spyfu and HitTail
  

There are two main factors that search engines use to determine how a page ranks in a search:

1. Keyword relevancy
2. Page importance or link popularity

When you do a search, the search engine gives you relevant pages that contain the keywords in your search. In addition to the keywords, the search engines also consider the importance of the page.

How do search engines determine the page importance? It is based on a the number and the qualify of external links pointing to a page. We will talk about this in greater detail in the next article, but in the meantime, here is a snapshot of what this means. 

One great example to illustrate this concept of external links is Google PankRank which counts the number of links pointing to one page from other sites. As Google puts it, a link to one of your pages from another site is considered a ‘vote’ in favour of that page.The higher the votes, the greater the perceived value of that page.

Google also takes into consideration the importance of the page that links to your page. If the page that links to you has a high importance or PageRank, then the link is given a greater weight.

You can find Google’s own explanation of PageRank here:

http://www.google.com/technology/

In the next article, we will take a closer look at the two types of SEO you will want to learn: on-page and off-page.

On-page refers to the actual code and content of your web pages. We’ll look at both. Off-page refers to factors that affect the ranking of your web pages that aren’t determined by the actual code of your web pages.

In the meantime, please add your comments, questions or feedback so we can all learn together. Thanks and best wishes!

Cindy Schulson is a coach for those who work from home or want to have a home business. Her focus is on working smart by helping you leverage the power of the Internet and attract qualified people to you. Visit her at Home Business Wins to book a free consultation and to receive a FREE copy of her ebook. You can contact her directly at cindy@homebusinesswins.com or call her at (619) 318-8688.