Creating and implementing a keyphrase strategy is both the most complex and important part of the search engine optimization process.  An effective keyphrase strategy will elevate website traffic and conversions if applicable.  However, search engine optimization techniques that ignore keyphrase strategy or implement a weak strategy can be a waste of resources and even harm a website’s popularity and brand reputation.

But what is a keyphrase strategy anyway?  When using a search engine, you find what you are looking for by typing in keywords, a group of keywords makes up a keyphrase.  The end goal is to “rank” for your keyphrases.  The better your rank, the more visible you will be in the results for a specific keyphrase search.  A successful keyphrase strategy compiles a list of several keyphrases that are used by potential consumers when searching for a specific product, service, or company.  For example, if you own a website that sells boats online, prospective keyphrases could be “boat sales”, ” buy sail boats”, “used power boats”, etc, depending on the specifics of your company’s offerings.  However, it’s not quite that simple, some keyphrases are better than others.

What makes a great keyphrase?  Or more importantly, what makes a bad keyphrase?  When creating a keyphrase strategy there are several elements to keep in mind.  If a keyphrase is too broad, it will be difficult to gain an edge on competitors who are an authority on the subject already.  If you own a local computer repair shop in Boston, it would be next to impossible to rank for a keyphrase such as “computers” or “computer sales.”  However, it may be more realistic to choose a more specific keyphrase such as “Boston computer sales.”  Still, it is important not too chose keyphrases which are too specific or too broad, because although you may rank well for a specific keyphrase such as “small Boston computer repair shop that has a red roof” how many consumers will actually search for that?

Although there are several daunting obstacles surrounding SEO strategy, creating a keyphrase strategy that is not too broad or specific and still yields high search volumes will result in a successful SEO engagement.

                During the late 90’s it may have seemed as if the market was already flooded with search engines.  Still, two graduate students from Stanford University thought their idea would help retrieve relevant information from searches better than any of the existing technologies.

                The idea behind their search engine algorithm reflected an essential element in any academic paper, citation notation.  The more citations a paper has, the more reputable it is.  More importantly, the more reputable the citations are, the more reputable that paper is.  Google took this concept and applied it online, considering links to be citations.  If website X is linking to website Y, website X must consider Y to be a reputable site.  Each link counts as a “vote” to Google, some votes are worth more than others depending on their reputability.  These votes are calculated to formulate what Google calls a PageRank.  This PageRank is what determines the position a website will get on a list of results when its content is searched for.   

                The two Google founders and developers shopped this PageRank technology around to several potential buyers, but none were interested for the time being.  However, it took less than a year for Google to receive a $100,000 in seed funding.  And the next year, they received $25 million in capital.  Word spread quickly of the budding search engine, and Yahoo and AOL took notice, choosing Google as their search partner.