Keyword Tips 

When searching on the Internet you enter search words which best describe the product or service you are searching for - These are Keywords.

When making a website you try to make web pages that match the keywords that people enter into the search engines in order to search for the particular product or service that your website offers.

Your success in targeting the  keywords that people enter determines the number of visitors that the search engines send you. These visitors are essentially free!

5 Tips for Choosing Keywords

Keyword Phrases

Don't use single keywords but keyword phrases i.e. Making a website not website. Most searches are for phrases and not single keywords.

Plurals and Singulars

Most search engine give different results for singular and a plural. Therefore it is important to know which is being searched for. Sometimes its obvious others you need to consult Wordtracker. In either case its a good idea to target both variants on the same page with emphasis on the most searched i.e. the singular variant or the plural.

 Spaces, Hyphens and variations

Most search engines treat an hyphen as a space hence off-shore and off shore are essentially the same. However offshore is treated very differently. This website, for example, is targeted around the keyword Website and not web site.

 Brainstorm and Jumble the Keyword Phrases

Just because you search for making a website it doesn't mean everyone else will. So try to think of alternatives like:

website making, making website,

Even though Google and most search engines state that it ignore the letter a in making a website it is possible to rank high for making a website but not for making website even though they should be the same if the "a" is being ignored.

Synonyms

Synonyms are different words with similar or identical meanings and are interchangeable. Synonyms for make are:

Build and create

You can find them at http://www.synonym.com. Keyword tools like wordtracker and Google keywords will show them as well.

Common Misspellings

When entering keywords many people make spelling mistakes by targeting these common mistakes you can attract these visitors to you site or to your advert. You can include some common misspellings in your keyword meta tags but they are difficult to include in the body text ( unless accidentally).

 See Misspelled keywords for more details

Web www.build-your-website.co.uk

Related articles and resources:

• Keyword and Keyword Research
• Misspelled Keywords