When it comes to Search engine Optimization, the goal is to make a website rank higher in search results but for which queries? Which keywords?
Keywords are a combination of words or phrases that search engine users normally look for in their searches. In order to be able to rank high on search engine results, you ought to make that site well optimized based on keywords. Examples of keywords are make money online, recharge card, google adsense, mtn credit card, blogging in nigeria, web hosting, register a domain name. It could be just a single word or a combination of words and the more your site appears on the first page on Google. the more likely it will bring traffic to your website.
Search engines are a very important factor to consider when optimizing a site for higher ranking and professional SEOs keep on working to get their client's website have an edge over the competition. Not all SEOs would be willing to share their tips or techniques on how they achieved or will be achieving a particular success because of the competitive nature of the industry but it all boils down to one point for the website owner; to rank high in search engines, you would need to have you site optimized for particular keywords.
The Search engines and keywords
Google: This is the world's largest search engine as it is the most dynamic and trafficked. For a site to dominate on a particular keyword on Google, it would need to have sufficient page content based on that query as well as have the subject matter or keyword(s) as it's focus. Many SEOs tend to cheat by filling up a page with repetitive keywords and while this may help in the short tun, it would soon be discovered by Google - a smart search engine, and be penalized. The other thing that Google considers is the age of that website as well as the incoming links from other keyword related websites. Incoming links helps but the most important is the page content. The more the page content the more it is likely to rank high in Google's search results.
Yahoo: Yahoo is not exactly as fast as Google but it is much faster than other search engines. What I've notices about Yahoo is that it ranks domain names higher as long as they contain the keyword(s) being mentioned. For instance, to rank high on Yahoo for a keyword like web hosting nigeria, if you register and SEO domain like webhostingnigeria.com and add some articles on it, it would ranking almost number 1 on Yahoo, unless there's a very strong competition for that same keyword. Yahoo also uses page content but doesn't update as fast as Yahoo index. You can rank high too by submitting your site to Yahoo using their webmaster programme and also getting incoming links to your site.
Bing: Formerly called MSN search and it is also a search engine that relies on content based keywords. It recognises keywords in links, titles and domain names too. There are not too many people using Bing like they do with Yahoo or Google but the thing is that most internet explorers use bing as the default search engines assuming users just queries by searching for keywords on the address bar.
Dominating Keywords in Nigeria
To be a good SEO, you would need to be able to search for important or beneficial keywords and dominate it. If your SEO skills are good, you should be able to dominate that keyword or at least appear on the first page of search results. You could rank as number one on Yahoo, but not on Google. or number one on Google but just number 5 on Bing. If your work hard on dominating a particular keyword, you could start having results in as fast as two weeks if it is not a new site, if it is new, it may take 2 months due to the fact that you have to make Search engines trust your more.
In Nigeria, there are still a lot of untapped keywords dues to the fact that there is virtually little or no Nigerian content on for eg Google's index. Keywords are like a goldmine and the more you find and dominate quickly, the more money you are likely to make. I wouldn't advise you to focus on dominating on lowly searched keywords but rather on highly searched ones due to the fact that they could become a viable source for online advertising income.
So don't just focus on any keyword but look for the ones that are important and a part of everyday like in Nigeria before trying to dominate it. So here is what I suggest: