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Keywords are the words or phrases that we type into the search engines looking for a specific product, information or service.  So, when I say keywords, I could be referring to a search term like “Cellular Phone” or “Cheap cellular phone service”.  Now that we know what I am referring to, let’s get down to business!

Keywords are one of the most important parts of building your website.  Think about it this way.  You wouldn’t build a retail store around a subject that nobody was looking for… right?  The same works online; you don’t want to build a site, or a single page on that site, around a keyword that isn’t being searched for.    So, it is important that you spend the time in the beginning and do the research on the keywords being searched for in your market.

The first step is to understand how to do the research.  I recommend that you use a keyword tool.  There are many keyword tools out there, simply go to a Search Engine and look.  Some are free and some are paid.  You don’t need anything fancy in the beginning; the free ones will work fine.  Remember, this is just to give you an idea.

You can then start by typing a generic phrase into the keyword tool.  For example, if we are selling “Computer Headsets”, we would probably start the search for “Headsets”.  I would then place any keywords that relate to our specific topic into a spreadsheet or word processing document.  “Computer Headsets” should be one of the phrases listed in your search.  I then look at the bottom of the list and find out what the bottom number is.  You can then click on “Computer Headsets” and it will start a more detailed search with that exact phrase.  You can now go through this list and take any of the words that have hits lower than the bottom number in your previous search.  This is because you will already have the ones in this list above that number in your spreadsheet or word processing document. This will take time, but it will be worth it! 

Your list should consist of at least 200 words.  If it is less, you need to broaden the focus of your keywords.  For example, I have a student that sells Tree Faces, which is a garden décor product.  Unfortunately, there are not too many people online searching for a Tree Face.  Because of this, my student ventured into writing information about taking care of or planting trees.  So, she uses more keywords in the tree care industry than the Tree Face industry.

Now that you have your list, it is time to decide what keywords to use.  I recommend that to save time you simply choose keywords that don’t have too much traffic because there will be heavy competition, and don’t choose keywords that have very little traffic because it won’t be worth your time.  Too little traffic depends on how specific the keyword is and how closely related it is to your subject.  For example, if you are selling a “Green acrylic fountain pen” and there are only 15 people a month typing that phrase in, it might be worth the time as you can assume that those 15 people are good targeted hits.  But, I wouldn’t go after a phrase like “how to make an Acrylic Fountain Pen”, because these are information seekers, not potential buyers.