SEO Tip 3: What keywords should you be targeting?

Identify what term or terms you want the page to target. Remember these are keywords for the page only and not for the entire site. So it may be appropriate to have different pages targeting different keywords rather than one page targeting all the keywords you want.

• Consider what terms your customers will use when they make a search.
• Be weary of targeting popular terms – do a search and review the competition for your chosen terms. If your page is unlikely to rank as well or better than your competition then consider different but relevant terms.
• Consider other meanings of your chosen keywords – what proportion of searches using your chosen keywords will be for something unrelated to your page?
• If you have a budget to burn then you can further refine your keywords based on what searches users carry out. The following sites will assist here:
  • www.wordstream.com/keywords (free)
  • www.keyworddiscovery.com (monthly fee)
  • www.wordtracker.com (monthly fee)
  • http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com (requires sign up)

This tip is part of a series of tips on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). The previous tip in the series was Tip 2: Content is King and the next tip in the series is Tip 4: Naming of pages.