A major topic of our upcoming BrightDoor INSIGHT event in Charlotte, NC (May 21st - Register Today!) involves search engine optimization and it’s vital role in improving your online lead generation. So many of our customers invest major dollars in the development of beautiful, interactive web experiences. However, without a strong plan for optimizing the site for search engines, those enticing shots of the golf course and dramatic mountain vistas will remain hidden in the vast internet jungle. Your ally in this battle for qualified leads - KEYWORDS.

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN utilize a variety of methods in determining rankings. Keywords are a major factor in determining these rankings. The right keywords should be relevant to your community (location, amenities, etc) and are popular with searchers. So, how do you know what keywords people are searching with? For one, try to place yourself in your ideal customer’s shoes. What keywords would you use to try to discover your community? Try it out and see what results you get. Observe the characteristics of your search results and see if you can uncover some hidden gems that you can use for your keywords.

When it comes to looking for help online, we recommend you take advantage of online sites such as KeywordDiscovery.com and WordTracker.com. These tools contain historical archives of past searches and their data is from a large sample of internet searches. Both are paid services, but can be invaluable in helping uncover the right mix of keywords and keyword phrases. Keyword selection isn’t an exact science but these sites can increase your odds of making the right choices. Once you’ve created the best set of keywords, those are delivered to your web development partner for implementing in your web site’s “title headers” and “meta-tags”.

At our INSIGHT event, we’ll cover more on keywords during our “The Seven Steps to Higher Rankings” discussion. If you’re in the Charlotte area and you haven’t signed up for the event, I highly encourage you to Register Today. The information will be invaluable and, hey, the price is right (as in FREE)!