Site Review: not getting my keywords across

[sarahk]

My stats show that most visitors who come to our site http://www.propertyinvestor.info (http://www.propertyinvestor.info/) have searched on

property
investment
nz
but I need to look further to see exact combinations. one day...

Currently we don't make Google's top 100 (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=property+investment+nz) for those keywords, although our purchase page does: #97 :cool:

The front page was initially optimised for "Andrew King Coach" as his first book had been launched and his name had a high media profile. We're consistently in the top 5 for that.

Now we want to catch the casual surfer who is looking for information on property investment in nz.

At the bottom of the page I have 4 ads and I'm planning to make them smaller with the bulk of the information on the pages they link to. I'm not altogether happy with the design but it's the SEO I'm interested in.

Any recommendations for changes to hit my market?

thanks

Sarah

[JamesW]

Have you properly researched and re-evaluated your keywords?

Cheers

James

[sarahk]

Hi James

I'm just going on the successful search terms that people use when they enter my site.

then by reviewing http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/?keywords=nz+property and http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/?keywords=property+nz it seems to be good.

I've used the tool at http://www.ranks.nl/cgi-bin/ranksnl/spider/spider.cgi

property has density: 5.02 and prominence: 47.09
investment has density: 1.98 and prominence: 63.99
nz isn't measured, probably too short

property investment has density 3.04 and prominence 67.05 while
investment property doesn't rate.

One of the key issues is that it's not listed in DMOZ and is not likely to be anytime soon as the category is severly underresourced and not an area of interest to the editors (and I have way too many conflicts to do it myself).

The site does, however have PR5 and inbound links from a PR6 site.

both are equally important.

Now, this isn't a doorway page so I can't litter it with too many repeat phrases. The words are long so they stand out if used too often and make the page hard to digest - which is why I thought I'd cut the text of the ads to make the main part stand out.

I was at a big expo (http://www.propertyandinvestmentexpo.co.nz) at the weekend and the wording on the stands etc made it clear that I've got the right focus, just need to get them working.

Sarah

[JamesW]

When you're choosing your keywords I believe that you should use your logs to help you decide. Who are using what to find your web site? Do more people convert having used a particular term? Use your existing (practical) stats that actually show you what's making money and what isn't.

However, you've got to balance this against the fact that you won't receive visitors on terms that you DON'T target (as a general rule in a competitive field). This is where your keyword research and analysis comes in.

Good keyword research will generally involve comparing the following:

Estimated search counts - you need visitors
Relevancy - you need relevant visitors
Competition - you're better to be top 10 on a reasonably competitive term as opposed to #98 on a highly competitive term

From looking at the 'property investment' keyword this seems a little unspecific in my opinion. What percentage of people searching for 'property investment' will be interested in your services (think geographically, financially, etc.)? Generally, I would be choosing phrases that were more targeted.

Cheers

James

Personally I'm not a fan of keyword density - it usually ends up affecting your web site's copy (and thus your visitors/customers).

[sarahk]

Thanks James

I'm not a big fan of these either but thought I'd take a look.

"property investment" might seem vague but it's the buzz word down here guaranteed to get attention. Few people think they need a coach, we're just trying to get in their faces enough times so that when they realise they need help they know where to go.

If you know you need a coach (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=property+coach+), we're right up there.
If you know you want andrew king you can find him if you put any of the key words after his name. The books (1 (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=complete+guide+to+residential+property+investment+in+new+zealand) & 2 (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=planning+for+property+success)) are rating ok by name. A major competitor puts up adwords on andrew's name - trying to get their name infront of people searching for him. It's relatively cut throat.

So the key now is getting awareness in the general industry - being seen as a player and not getting lost.

[JamesW]

How did you formulate your target keywords?

Cheers

James

[sarahk]

How did you formulate your target keywords?Not sure what you mean, sorry.

[sarahk]

James and I ended up taking the thread onto Instant messaging, here's a transcript...

PCPMSupport: sorry if I was being thick about formulating the keywords.
PCPMSupport: I figured I'd explained it all so when you asked I guessed that I was missing something.
t34WRJ: Not at all
t34WRJ: I've come across lots of web sites that don't properly target their keywords
t34WRJ: (not that I'm saying you haven't!)
PCPMSupport: :) atleast I've thought about them!
PCPMSupport: struggle with keyword relevancy when the target audience needs diff. content from the engines - I refuse to cloak
t34WRJ: what do you mean?
PCPMSupport: well, to get the page well ranked I should have "property investment" in every paragraph. but the users know from the first heading that that's the subject and so don't need the repetition, it adds no value to human readers.
PCPMSupport: for other sites you can repeat "viagra" or toyota or barbie in every sentence because it makes sense
t34WRJ: I understand. Then IMO you're targeting the wrong keywords
t34WRJ: I'm surprised you're not using advice/information/etc added on
t34WRJ: having researched it of course
PCPMSupport: people aren't searching using those words
PCPMSupport: if anything they tack on "responsibilities" "tenants" etc but we do ok on that too.
PCPMSupport: we actually have higher PR than our major competitor so we're doing something right I guess
PCPMSupport: We review our logs frequently, including whole phrases.
t34WRJ: Have you good regional results?
PCPMSupport: traffic or ranking?
t34WRJ: ranking
PCPMSupport: ok on most things.
t34WRJ: and much traffic from these?
PCPMSupport: I tend to use google.com rather than google.co.nz because our other business is international.
PCPMSupport: We get good google traffic, and a surprising amount from other engines - people are using them!
t34WRJ: IMO you have three basic options:
t34WRJ: 1. Build a good web site with good information and target the right keywords
t34WRJ: 2. Build a good web site with good information and target the popular keywords (and spend an eternity on link popularity)
t34WRJ: 3. Build the best site in your industry
PCPMSupport: thanks. #1 is where we're at. Don't have the resources to do #3
t34WRJ: are you targeting the right keywords, or just the popular (but related) ones?
PCPMSupport: I guess we have to keep looking at what the "right" words are, playing around etc.

[JamesW]

So you really want to know why your web site isn't higher for 'property investment'?

Cheers

James

[sarahk]

A result

We're now at #80 for nz property investment

and a pathetic #223 for property investment nz

so I'll wait and see if there is an improvement. I've made a few changes to the headings etc. Hopefully subtle that won't put humans off but get the right message accross to the bots.

Sarah