Selecting the correct keywords and keyword phrases is the starting point to your seo campaign and paramount to your online succes. Potential clients find a website by typing in keywords and keyword phrases relating to their search criteria. An example of a keyword is "watches", and an example of a keyword phrase is "buy watches" or "purchase watches". Entering these three searches into a search engine will bring up different results. This is because various sites target the word "watches" while others concentrate more on the term "buy watches" while still others target the term "purchase watches".

So which is the best term to target and how do we determine this? To make this decission we consider two factors; the amount of searches per day each term/phrase receives and the number of websites competing for each term. Obviously the most profitable keywords are those that receive the most searches in a day. These keywords are also almost always the most difficult words to attain a top placement for, due to the fact that there are many sites targeting these money keywords. This is not to say that one must not target these popular keywords, however it is equally important to target keywords/phrases that do not receive as many queires in a day but also do not have as much competition in terms of competing websites.

The search term "watches" is a very general search term and highly competative, thus consider optimizing for a search term/phrase that is more targeted to your products such as "Rolex watches". By optimizing your website for more targeted or niche keywords/phrases that describe exactly what you sell, will bring you a more targeted audience and these niche phrases do not have as many competing websites.

It is also important to optimize your website for exact keyword phrases as search engines will match a particular search exactly to the closest result. Thus a search for "Rolex watches" will bring different results to a search for "watches rolex".

Compile your list of keywords/phrases by first writing out a list of terms that you think your customers will use to find your products. Be creative and remember that people tend to use phrases as opposed to single keywords e.g. "best price on rolex watches". If your target market is localized, then remeber to include the area you are located in. Example: a plumber services a ceratin area and would thus include the city or suburb where they offer their services.

There are a number of websites that capture search term data from all major search engines. Using one of these services will show you how many searches a particular keyword/phrase receives in a day, as well as detailing other search terms that are related to your keywords. Two of the best services that we have found are: Keyword Discovery (www.keyworddiscovery.com) and Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com)

Another technique is to target common misspellings of your keywords. Misspellings are often not targeted by your competitors and can result is some worthwhile traffic.

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