Any successful internet advertising and marketing campaign hinges upon good use of keywords.  Basically,people find your website by typing into Google a keyword phrase.  To begin to identify the best keywords for your website, you need to brainstorm on what would the ideal user of your site type into Google that would enable them to get to you.

Personally, I use the Google Keyword Tool when I start looking for keyword phrases and begin my research.  First, type in a broad/generic keyword phrase. As an example, if I were using a website  to sell graduation invitations, I would start by entering in the keyword phrase ‘Graduation Invitations’ and click the ‘Get Keyword Ideas’ option.

What Google then does is to list information about that keyword and a variety of combinations involving your keyword phrase.  Adjacent to the phrase is the average number of times that phrase has been searched on a monthly basis through Google.  Our phrase, “Graduation Invitations” receives an average of 165,000 searches per month.  As you continue looking at the list, you will come across several other words like, “Graduation Invitation” and “Graduation Party Invitations” that garner an additional 120,000 searches per month.

As you look at this, you will begin to realize that this tool also helps you see the demand online for a product.  On average, no less than 250,000 people are looking for Graduation Invitations on a monthly basis.  These people are  looking so that they can research/compare prices or make a purchase.  In other words, you could have access to over 250,000 potential customers each and every month!

Now, what I have found is that the more powerful, effective, and useful  phrases of keywords to use and position within your website  are the ones that are less competitive and generally involve 3-5 words in the keyword phrase.  The benefit to using theses less competitive phrases is that you will find more highly targeted traffic coming to your site.  Why?  Consider this… Which is more advantageous, a customer looking for “Graduation Invitations” or “Blue and White Graduation Invitations”?  The person that is very specific about the type of invitations for which they are looking  is more likely to be ready to buy and past the window-shopping/research phase.

As you brainstorm your keyword phrases, it is best to try a wide variety of combinations.  Don’t be afraid to use both plural and singular spellings. At the end of your brainstorming session, you will likely have a list of at least 100 keyword phrases.  It is from this list that you will begin to plan your website and its content.   Use this list in your article writing and in your Meta tags.

As a reminder, don’t try and fool Google by using the same keyword phrase over and over.  Google is a little smarter than that.  A good keyword density is approximately 4-7% of the article and it should look and sound natural.

A well thought-out and planned keyword strategy will position your website for a truckload of highly targeted traffic.