Perhaps the most common myth regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the use of web page keywords and key phrases.  Many website owners have spent countless hours typing key words and phrases for their web pages only to find their search engine ranking go nowhere, diminish, or even to discover that their site has been banned for "spamming." Several years ago, it may have been true that using more keywords generated better search result positioning, but that’s not the case anymore.

Click here to see a short video on how to edit keywords on your web pages

When you see how easily someone can edit or add keywords to a web page, even words that are irrelevant to the content of the page, it’s easy to see why.  Today, search engines are relying less on keywords for search engine placement, and more on content within the website itself.

That doesn't mean that keywords aren't important though.  They still play a vital role in SEO, if used correctly.  Their true use is to help you accurately target the search words that you want to be found in.  If your niche market is luxury homes, then by all means, "luxury homes" should be a keyword on your page, and used throughout that page’s content.  But remember, if a search engine sees your site with tons of irrelevant keywords, they’ll think you’re trying to trick them.  The results of overloading keywords, a practice called "stuffing," can be disastrous, and may result in reduced page rank, or even removal from a search engine's index. 

Search engines focus on one thing:  relevance.  By selecting a few keywords or phrases that are related to the content of that particular page, and using them repeatedly throughout the page content and page title, your website will be more search engine friendly, and more likely to generate positive SEO results.

From "My Office", click the XSites icon in the tool bar at the top of the screen and then click "My Content" on the left side of the page. Select the page content page that you’d like to add keywords to by clicking on the blue link in the content grid. Scroll down the page until you get to the "Page Options" section.  You’ll see that we’ve included some keywords for you.  But if you’ve edited the content, you can change them to anything that’s relevant.  Just add a comma between the keywords you want to use, and hit save when you’re done.

Giving you the ability to easily edit your keywords is just one of the many ways that XSites help you optimize your site for a better search engine ranking.  If you want to learn more about search engine optimization, check out our pre-recorded webinar class, "Driving Traffic to Your XSite".  You can view it from our online webinar page.  From this same location, you can register for any of our other webinar classes related to Appraiser XSites, WinTOTAL, Apex, etc.  They're free for our Elite and Platinum Partnership customers and just $29 per class for everyone else.