Keywords | Keyword phrases.

Correct use of keywords and keyword phrases will improve your ranking.

The key to the success of your online business, or any other business for that matter, is to attract targeted traffic to your business. One way of generating targeted traffic from the search engines is through the use of the "keyword" meta tag. This meta tag is used when your site is indexed by all the major search engines with the exception of Excite, Google, Lycos and Northern Light (but not directories like Yahoo), and is one of the elements taken into consideration when the engine decides how high or low your site will be listed.

Attract more traffic by careful selection of keywords | keyword phrases.

Deciding upon which actual keywords to use for your site will have a critical bearing not only on your position in the engines, but on the level and quality of visitors to your site. If you just guess them, the chances of generating the traffic you want are slim to zero.

So how do you decide what your keywords should be? Here are five steps you should take that will help you to pick the most appropriate words.

1. Use the keywords you would use if you were looking for yourself.

Imagine that you are a potential client trying to find your site. What words would they use in a search to find you? Think about it and make a list. Try and think beyond the obvious, consider using a Thesaurus to come up with slightly less common alternatives.

2. Do a search using the keyword or keywords you selected above.

Go to the search engines and do a search using the list you've just made. Do the sites that come up in the top thirty look like they are appealing to the audience you are trying to reach? If so, you're obviously on the right track. Look at the keywords these sites are using (use "view source" in your browser) and see if there are any keywords they are using that could be suitable for your own site. If so, add them to your list but don't just copy the keywords from the top couple of sites and use them for your own site, it's unlikely that you'll get the same results, not to mention that it's unethical.

3. Use keywords that you know people are searching for.

Make sure that you are using words that surfers are actually using. There are a number of companies that will provide you with details of the top 200 or so search words that are currently being used. Another source is Meta Spy. MetaSpy shows you in real time the searches actually being performed on MetaCrawler.

4. Using keyword phrases not just individual words.

A lot of web surfers don't just use one word, they use two or more words or phrases. An excellent source of the phrases used is the suggestion tool at Overture

As an example, here are some of the alternatives that Overture produced for the phrase "making money":

"making money on the Internet"
"money making"
"money making opportunity"
"making money at home"
"making money online"
"making money on the web"

5. Be very specific about the keywords | keyword phrases you use.

The more specific you are with your keywords or phrases, the better chance you have of a higher listing because there is less competition for your keyword. For example, suppose you are in the travel business, so you decide on "travel" as a keyword. If you used that search term on AltaVista, you would find that it would come up with 19,933,327 sites - that's a lot of competition.

Perhaps you only do flights - well "flights" would bring the number of sites down to 727,490 , still a lot but a step in the right direction. "Airfares" would bring it down again to 195,390. Are your flights cheap? If they are then "cheap flights" would have you competing with 7,692 sites, "cheap airfares" halves that again to 2,943.

Do you specialize in flights to Europe? If you do then you'll find you are competing with 649 sites. But if your flights to Europe are cheap, you'll find that "cheap flights to Europe" competes with just 13 sites. Alternatively, "cheap airfares to Europe" lists just six sites.So instead of competing with nearly 20 million "travel" sites, be specific with your keywords and you could end up in the top ten.

	Links to assist you in selecting the best keywords \| keyword phrases.
	Do you have enough keywords and keyword phrases?
	Find accurate keywords that best describe your web pages.
	Overture and Google keyword selection tools.