Search engine optimization: how to choose keywords

Written by Joe on Wednesday, December 1, 2010

How to choose the right keywords

Think like your customers

First, take your customers point of view. Think about if you were searching for a company that offers the products or services your business offers. What would you search for? What keywords would you enter into the search engine? If I was looking for a local catering company, I would search for "catering new jersey" or if I was looking for a local restaurant website designer, I would search for "restaurant website designer new jersey". Think of all the possible words you can. You can even try looking at other websites that offer the same products to see the keywords they are using for ideas.

Keyword research

Next, go to the Google Keyword Tool and start entering you keyword phrases. The Google Keyword Tool will also offer similar keywords, local search trends, competition, monthly local and global searches. Choosing the right keywords from this list to optimize your website can be difficult. A search engine optimization expert will be able to help you choose the right keywords.

More keyword research

Another website to take a look at is Google Insights. Google Insights allows you to enter phrases and see which get the most searches. You can search for specific time periods or locations and compare which phrases would be best to optimize for.

Apply your keywords

After collecting a list of the best keywords, it's time to start using them! Try to include your keywords on every page of your website, in links, meta titles, headings, etc.. The more you use your keywords the better. Try to dedicate 1-3 key phrases to a page, but don't make your text illegible. Repeating keywords over and over is called keyword stuffing and search engines don't take kindly to it.

Check keyword density

This is important. After all of your research and updating all of your content and adding content including your keywords and key phrases, you need to check the keyword density. You should be looking for a keyword density around 4%, too much more than 4% and search engines may think you are keyword stuffing, which we know is not good. You can find free keyword density tools by searching Google.

Choosing the best keywords and phrases, and using them right, can be difficult. If you don't understand the data presented by keywords research tools and keyword density tools, you may be wasting your time. A search engine optimization expert will be able to help you choose the right keywords and optimize your content using those keywords.