Keyword selection is the first step in search engine optimization. It’s also the phase where most people go wrong. If you pick a keyword that is not used by the people hunting for your product, you won’t get traffic. And if you use a keyword which is highly popular, you’ll face intense competition from other websites and your website may not end up in the top of the search engine for the keywords you have selected. So the first step to successful SEO is always keyword research. Without it, you are like a bull in a china store.

1. Get realistic estimate of keyword popularity 

How do you tell a popular keyword from one that you “think” might be popular? To get realistic popularity information you need feedback from the search engines as to how often your target keywords are used as queries. Using real world data instead of someone’s guess is a vital component of keyword selection. The Keyword Popularity Tools such as Wordcracker and Overture Keyword Tool  provide the quantitative feedback you need so you know accurately how often your target keyword is used as a search query.

There is a fine line between keywords that are popular and keywords that are too popular and too general to be useful. For example, David would like to create a website about hosting. David says he should optimize their site for the word “hosting” right? Wrong. According to Wordcracker and Overture there are 1,421,816 searches for “hosting” on bi-monthly basis. Sounds like a lot, but because the competition for the keyword ‘hosting’ is so intense, there is hardly any benefit in its pursuit of that keyword. We then suggested that they use the keyword “windows hosting” since thats what they specialise in. It’s better to rank in the 1st page for a more specific term than rank on the 20th page for a generic term. So in general it is not good idea to start with single word keyword phrases which are too popular.

In general, if you optimize for a keyword phrase consisting of 2-3 words, you increase your chances that your site will be found. Yes, the keyword popularity will be less than for a single word, but the keyword phrase will be more focused and your traffic will be more relevant.

Here’s an example. There was one client who wanted to have the words “slimming secrets” or “slimming diet” as his main keyword because his website is about swimming secrets and diets. Now even though the keyword phrases “slimming secrets” or “slimming diet” are 2 words, they are still too general and someone using that term in a search engine is going to get very general non-relevant results – everything from slimming secrets of celebrities to various slimming diets.

The searcher looking for specific information about slimming secrets may initially search on the general term and then refine his search when he sees the non-relevant results. The point to learn is: put yourself into the mind of a customer. People looking for slimming secrets look for something specific suiting their personality and someting which they could easily buy.

In this case adding the word ‘Japanese’ to the keyword phrase “slimming secrets” and optimizing for the longer keyword phrase allowed this client to get a top ranking in that keyword phrase and relevant traffic that converted into sales. The longer keyword phrase is less popular than “slimming secrets” or “slimming diet”, but popular enough and more focused so that it brought qualified motivated buyers to the site. Result was Happiness for Everyone: the client got more relevant traffic for his business and the customers were better able to find a site for ‘Japanese Slimming Secrets’.

2. Use your selected keywords in your website.

Once you identify your keyword phrases, it’s time to put them to work. Search engines read the HTML code on your Web page and score the page based on established criteria. If the search engine finds keywords in specific locations throughout the document, it will assume that your page is very relevant to that keyword.

After you strategically place your keywords on your page, be sure to proof-read your page – and read it aloud. Make sure the text on your page sounds natural, and not artificially stuffed with keywords. Remember, you have to please human visitors to your site as well as search engines.

Use your niche keyword to use anywhere you can. But don’t let the keyword density get too high or your site may become over-optimised. 5% is usually okay. Use the keywords intags, heading tags, image alt tags wisely too.

3. Relevancy of keywords for your website

Another rule to remember when selecting keywords is to make sure they are relevant for your site. Don’t just pick something off the Lycos Top Fifty list to try to drive traffic to your site. Optimizing for “Janet Jackson” only makes sense if your site actually is about Janet Jackson. All the major search engines learned that scam ages ago and will at best, ignore them, or worst, penalize you. There’s no reason to spam if you optimize your page correctly.

4. Divide and Conquer

Don’t just try to optimize your home page for every one of your keywords. Focus your pages so 2-3 keywords are relevant per page. Spread out the related keywords on other pages in your site. This will also create additional entry pages for visitors to enter your site on.

It is better to have about 10 pages on your site and target 2-3 phrases per page as appropriate. Since each page is targeted at specific phrases, they will score higher than a “one size fits all” solution.