Newbie - help me get started, please :)

[StalkerB]

Could go a lot further wrong than  the SEOmoz beginners guide.

However your question is very broad. Perhaps you have a specific thing you would like to achieve first?

[dan1el]

I guess I would like to start ranking for popular search terms for my industry, how do I find out what keywords to build around my home page.

How do I find out what most users type, and how should I target those keywords.

Organic beauty products & natural beauty products would be the most logical keyphrases I guess?

[dan1el]

I have used the Google keyword tool and discovered the the key phrases;

Organic beauty products has 1,300 local monthly searches

and

Natural beauty products has 1,900 local monthly searches

Should I target both of those key words or just go for one?

The competition is high for both, but I don't think there is any other search term that best describes my homepage and the products/service we offer!

[dogflog]

Hi dan1el,

I'm not surprised you're not getting more action with this question!

Far too broad and an impossible question to answer with the info given. I was in your shoes 1.25 years ago and it is a long windy road to this Holy Grail, I believe it is one of those journeys that never actually ends.

I would take the suggestion of the gentlemen above and read through SEOMoz Guide to SEO, I guess that will set you in the right direction.

But, as far as your search terms, there are a number of things you could do with the very terms you have listed. I wouldn't go after more than one on your home page, try at first going after one for each page/post.

best organic beauty products,  organic health and beauty products,  organic beauty product reviews,  certified organic beauty products,  all natural beauty products,  organic natural beauty products,  online organic beauty products

My point there is that those are all unique keywords that are simple and common variations of your two main KW's. Each one of them should be considered for targeting, assuming they get any traffic at all I haven't checked.

Don't be a snob about choosing KWs at this point in your young career that only have thousands of searches, master the easy ones and then you can go take on the big boys once your link profile exists.

Do you have a blogging platform integrated in your ecommerce site? If the answer is no, then go and rethink your strategy. A blog will be a must.

If you don't have words on your page, Google has no idea what you are talking about, it's smart but not that smart. By words I mean a lot of words.

My first order of business when I got started was testing my willingness to write content. If you can't / or won't write content then you are dead right here, unless you have a budget for PPC advertising or professional writers.

It sounds like you are passionate about the topic so my guess is, you'll be ok.

My suggestion as an initial exercise would be to pick a keyword from the list and see if you can bang out 600++ words on the topic without sounding repetitive or like you're wondering.

I'm not going to suggest how you write it, if your goal is SEO, then write a post or a page and run it through the On Page Scorecard in SEOMoz when you're done.

The scorecard will tell you where you blew it and will provide a baseline from which to begin learning what you can do on page to begin getting found.

Keep writing content and back checking against the score card until you are good.

The point is if you can't write content there is no point to study off page seo or link building or local or anything. Just write it!

That is phase 1 and if anyone has a different suggestion that our friend will understand please, do share!

[Miranda.Rensch]

Oops, I guess my endorsement got cut off. I was going to say next you can check the on-page issues for your tracked keywords and see if you can optimize the content any further. Hope that helps!

[Miranda.Rensch]

Also, if you do better with visual information, its a great idea to watch the whiteboard friday posts on the blog. They're really helpful!

[dan1el]

Hi Dogflog,

This was exactly the kind of answer is was after, with out knowing it!  Thanks so much for a great response.

At the current time my e-commerce software does not have a blog, but it does have a news section, the software company are planing an overhaul so it has more blog features, i.e. categories, user comments etc..

I have blogger set up on a sub domain, but from what I can make out this not not going to be much benefit for me as search engines see it as a separate domain.

From everything I have read so far, it seems best if I post my content to my news section on my own domain targeting the selected keyword.

One thing I am not 100% clear on, lets say I write a 600+ word article on "Natural Beauty Products" do I include a keyword phrase link to my homepage & optimize my homepage for that selected keyword, as I understand it I do, however if I am mistaken please correct me.

Thanks again for such a great response

[dan1el]

Thanks Miranda,

I will be watching whiteboard Friday, and I have reserved my spot for the upcoming webinars

[dogflog]

Hey dan1el,

Publishing content in your news area may work. No clue what type of platform you're using?

You may have the ability to establish a Wordpress Blog in a sub-directory, check with host. Being new, I would say that WP is the way to go, many simple plugins for SEO and just about everything else.

But, the important thing to understand is this:

The KW = Natural Beauty Products - should have its own page dedicated to it.

The KW = Organic Beauty Products - should have its own page dedicated to it

The KW = Organic Beauty Product Reviews - should have its own

If you have optimized your home page for the term "Natural Beauty Products" then on the different page that targets "Organic Beauty Products" should have a link within the content in anchor text "Natural Beauty Products" that points to the home page that is optimized for the term in the anchor text.

With one caveat, customarily, the home page will not have a ton of resource value to visitors and links should be partly for link structure and MOSTLY for editorial value to the reader.

It is very rare that you will find any major sites, blogs, or whatever that have links within the body of text that aim at the home page.

As a matter of fact, I can't even think of an instance where I have ever done it or would? It just seems weird?

But, yes the anchor text of the link should be the keyword that is targeted on the destination page.

Hope that helps, even though I wandered off a bit!!!

Good Luck!

As a newbie, I would seriously consider making use of Wordpress, in my opinion you will be at a significant SEO disadvantage not using WP. That may get some argument from the community but...look at the profiles of the guys that know their stuff in this forum and you will find their own sites are built on WP.

[dan1el]

Hello dogflog,

Once again thanks for your reply

I have asked my e-commerce provider if I can install WP on a sub folder, however this is something that they are not happy to do!  They are planing an overhaul of the news system to work more like a blog, thus taking away the need for any 3rd party blog integration.

On your second note....

_  " The KW = Natural Beauty Products - should have its own page dedicated to it._

_     The KW = Organic Beauty Products - should have its own page dedicated to it_

_     The KW = Organic Beauty Product Reviews - should have its own"_

I have optimized my homepage (using page grader) for the keyword "natural beauty products"  my competitors have either used this keyword or "organic beauty products" for their homepage.

My point is, and please correct me if I am wrong, If I create a page after my domain "/natural-beauty-products"  this is going to be an article and is going to receive more "bounces" as people are searching for products not info!

Sorry if I seem like I am not quite getting it, I am trying honest  I just like to be 100% sure moving fwd.

And your last point, regarding linking to pages, that makes sense that not many people really create content linking to homepage. I understand that creating great copy  i.e. "Natural moisturises boosts skin radiance"  and then using anchor text links to my natural moisturiser category would be useful, as the users is reading the information and I have provided a link to view a range of natural moisturises, correct?

[dogflog]

Hello dan1el,

If you were to lay out your page correctly, you should easily be able to use a content rich, search grabbing page as a great way to minimize your bounce rate.

They land on an article and you have a very well placed: "VIEW ALL OF OUR AWESOME NATURAL BEAUTY PRODUCTS HERE" button, image, text add, whatever, they will click it, if that's what they're looking for.

I use this all the time, I build entire ecommerce sites in Wordpress.

To your last question: Absolutely.

[dan1el]

Thanks dogflog,

I have got it now  thanks again for your great responses.

Have a great day

Daniel

[StalkerB]

Hi Daniel, you're getting a lot of good advice in this thread and I know it's a lot to take in at first.

I've never worked in beauty so don't know off the top of my head but the beginners guide does have a section on keyword research.

And here's a timely post on simplifying keyword research which gives a brief introduction to some of the tools you have at your disposal from SEOmoz.