A Talk About Keywords

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Okay, so I think I found a crux to selling I didn't realize with the new system. I took one of my articles and placed only 2-3 keywords in the keywords box. I tried to find my article using those keywords, and yes it did pop. I then tried using organic keywords to my article, such as phrases in the body, and guess what? It didn't pop. I also found customer searches here are "exact" matches, so a keyword of computer versus computers would get you different article results (possibly omitting articles that didn't include the plural or singular form of the word in the keywords section).

Here is what I learned:
The search box will show your article if a search term is used that is in your title. It doesn't matter if there is a plural form "Short Sale Benefits" pops with both short sale and short sales (regardless of if it was a keyword in the article submission box).

You can place unrelated search terms in your keyword box and your article will pop. I placed "umbrella" in an article about natural disaster relief, and it was the number one article over an insurance article and then an article on parasols. Umbrellas resulted in no articles found because no one has that in their title I guess or used it in a keyword box.

I'm not encouraging abuse of the keyword box, it doesn't serve you to just place the top search terms in your keyword box so more people see your article. Just because "wedding" is a hot topic, your article on running shoes probably won't sell because the audience isn't looking for that type of article. However, you might want to think about stretch categories for your articles, such as "finance" in an article about coupon cutting. Why? Because people looking for finance articles are often looking for money saving tips etc. Oh and include saving tips too, just for good measure! You get the idea.

[Lysis]

Yeah, I kinda figured it was an exact match thing. That's why I do something like "websites" and "website" in my keywords.

[eek]

Thanks for those tips, Elizabeth, they were helpful. I assumed that if the singular were listed, the plural would pop. It will be interesting to see if there is a difference in sales, or at least views.

[Sharion]

(Runs off to check keywords... huffing and puffing... did I include both singular and plural?)

[Antonia]

Thanks for sharing your research, Elizabeth. I always include a ton of keywords with my articles just in case, but never bothered to figure out whether it was actually helping or not! Reassuring to know that the keywords do get factored in. I'll be sure to include the plurals from now on...as well as all variations; for example, an article about commuting might include not just the keyword "commuting," but also "commuter," "commuters," commute," "commuted" and so on.

The other day, just on a whim, I included a common misspelling of a keyword thinking that it was likely for a customer to misspell the keyword, which seems in retrospect to have been not a bad idea.

[rohishetty]

Thanks Elizabeth.