Choosing the right keywords and phrases for your website is an important part of the process of search engine optimization and making your site more visible to search engines and searchers alike. If you're not sure what search engine optimization is, I invite you to read my article titled Search Engine Optimization 101.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: 20-30 minutes

Here's How:

You'll want to think about who is your target audience, and what the primary focus of your website will be. Need help on this one? Ask yourself:

What do I want to say?

To who do I want to say it?

How will I say it?

Jot down a list of words and phrases that you think people might type into search engines when looking for your site. Don't worry about being perfect: just be creative. This might be a good time to review how to brainstorm for keywords and phrases.

Each page on your site should have one to three related keyword phrases that are site-specific. For example,say you have a page all about coffee mugs. Good phrases to target on this page would be coffee mugs, ceramic coffee mugs, or unique coffee mugs. See what I mean? They're all related, and they're all pointing at the same general content on the page.

Your keywords should be used throughout your site copy - where they make sense - as well as in your title tag and various meta tags. Don't go nuts and start inserting keywords every other word, because this is considered bad form. 

It takes a while to get the hang of finding the right keywords that work, but once you've mastered this skill, you'll really see how this can benefit your site.

Tips:
Be creative, but be choosy.
Try not to target keyword phrases that are too competitive.
If there are unusual words associated with your content that you think people might search for, or misspellings, include them sparingly.

What You Need:
Creativity
Persistence