Could someone explain what I'm doing

I have a client that does Website development and SEO. I usually just handle the simplier tasks - calandar & email management and so forth. But, here lately he has been sending over projects related to SEO (I think).. My question is...What the heck am I exactly doing, lol.

He has tons of websites he is looking to add more valuable content to these sites...so he gives the me the URL and I use adwords.google.com and using their keyword tool, I type in an item/phrase and get keyword ideas. Put them in an excel spreadsheet accordingly and then create 3-4 sub-phrases to go with the Phrase. I gather 5 phrases for each topic he usually request 50 and when I send an updated version is always pleased with the work and tells me to keep on Rockin!!! I would just like to know what I'm doing, lol? I've been winging this so far...but I must find out exactly what I'm doing and why?? Is this SEO? Sounds like a really dump question, I know, but I'm beginning to like these newer request and want to learn as much as I can about what I'm doing.

Did this make any sense?

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Kena~
Everyone smiles in the same language

It sounds like you're doing keyword development, which is a phase of SEO but not the whole shebang, if that makes any sense. But I'm definitely no SEO expert, so I'd love to hear other opinions on this!

I take it since you like it, you want to add this service to your service offerings and want to know what to call it...? Maybe one of our SEO savvy VAs (Tess??) can help you out!

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Tammi Metzler ~ The Write Associate
Free call: "How to Write Email Subject Lines That Grab Attention!"

Oh, Kena, I feel your pain! Having once just done simple website designs it was a frightening step to start learning about SEO. But I had to, as more and more clients wanted it as part of the package.

There is a great, FREE service called Traffic Travis that really helps teach about SEO and gives you tools to test your site and others. There are even video tutorials that help teach you about SEO. http://www.traffictravis.com

Hope this helps as a first step!
Michele

LOL! Yup, something like that. Thanks Tammi -

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Kena~
Everyone smiles in the same language

What a neat little tool, Michelle! I'm going to download it when I get a chance and take it for a test ride. Thanks for sharing!

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Tammi Metzler ~ The Write Associate
Free call: "How to Write Email Subject Lines That Grab Attention!"

Thank You, Michelle! That is a very neat tool! Just wish I knew for sure what I was doing with it

Has anyone else done a project for a client just by winging it, and then wanted to learn as much about it as you could?

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Kena~
Everyone smiles in the same language

It sounds very much like what we learned as part of the Internet Marketing course at VAClassroom. It was called "keyword research" and was used for content purposes (to see what people were searching for - so they could write about it), for SEO purposes (they would make sure the keywords were part of the title/article/pagename/etc for search engines to find), and probably for other things. It's definitely part of SEO.

Deb

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Deb at Ivy Freelance
Metrics, Marketing and Macros

I don't know if this would work for you, but one thing I like to use that software for is looking at competion sites to see if there are words I'm missing. I don't know if you get that detailed with your client, but I use it to see if there are keywords they are using that I have forgotten. With the upgraded software I think you can even track how effective keywords are for other sites, as well as what they are paying for submission to PPC sites. Watching the videos that come with the software might open up other avenues of revenue with this client. That would be great!

Hi Kena,
Yes, like Deb & Tammi said, he's having you do keyword research. The Google keyword tool breaks it down to show what words & phrases people are being entered into the search engine when seeking a specific topic. The keywords/phrases that show the highest searches are the most competition. For instance, if you enter "virtual assistant" into the keyword tool, "virtual assistant" was searched approximately 110,000 times in December alone! But, it is very broad and listed as one of the most competitive phrases. If you use some of the less searched keyword phrases with less competition, then you would be more likely to rank higher on those specific keywords.

Keywords are very important for search engine optimization (whether it be websites, blogs, articles and so forth). We all generally want people to find our content easily, higher Google rankings and a lot of website traffic. Therefore we want to use specific keyword rich phrases in our content to make it easier for people to land on our sites.


Does that make sense? Gosh it sounds confusing when trying to explain it. LOL

Dawn

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Dawn Lawson | At Your Service
http://freelanceadminsupport.com

Good explanation, Dawn! I find it helps to think of it kind of like a good old fashioned library. If you don't know the author or title, you have to search the card catalog by subject. You have to pick words that are 'key' to whatever topic you're researching. On the other side, when a book is being cataloged, certain 'key' terms are applied as referencing the subject matter. So it's all really not a new concept. Online, you 'tag' content (whether it's text, podcasts, video) so that people and search engines will be able to find it. Keywords are the linking mechanism between the content and the person searching for that content.

The manipulation of keywords can make all the difference to a business' success with online marketing.

It's also a bit counter-intuitive: when coming up with keywords for a business, you have to consider NOT words that describe you but words that people might input in a Google search. There's a fine difference.

Pretty interesting stuff!

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com