Do You Control Your Keywords?

Are your keywords correct for your Web site What happens when you put your Web site in the hands of someone you trust to maintain the site in your best interest?

I’m sure that most web designers do the right thing, but this weekend I saw something quite disturbing that all marketers must learn about and watch closely even if web maintenance isn’t your strength.

I visited a message board to read the latest postings in one of the niche industries I follow.

“When is the conference to be held?”

“It’s in August. Here’s the Web site.”

One click took me to a site I hadn’t seen in a while, especially when placing the niche’s term into a search engine. I wondered why the site never showed up. Clicking my right mouse button, I opened the site’s source code to view the keywords.

Every keyword was adult site language, the type you see in your Email to enlarge this and grow that.

I don’t understand why a web designer would add keywords about adult entertainment to a site that has nothing to do with that industry, and I won’t spend time trying to uncover the reasons.

What I do know is that it’s critical to maintain your education about overall business, on and off the Web, especially where marketing plays an important role to bring visitors to your virtual door. How successful can a site become when keywords not only don’t match but are purposely botched?

If I ever hand over the keys to my Web site, there are three things I’d still review on a monthly basis.

1. Statistics. This tells me which keywords visitors use to locate my site, and it also informs me of what words I must consider adding to increase content and sales.

2. Social Marketing Tools. Which ones are other marketers raving about, and which are important for participation and tracking?

3. Spin Offs. What site topics are accessed so much (according to statistics and print articles) that they’re candidates for a site of their own?

Outsourcing makes sense, but not when it’s counterproductive to marketing. Know which words and phrases are associated with your site and update them periodically. The best interest of your Web site is squarely in your own hands.

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