What are keywords?

When searching for information on the web, a person will enter words and phrases to describe what they are looking for into a search engine, like Google. These search words and phrases (search terms) are also known as keywords. The search engine will return results that best match the words submitted. The more defined you are with your search term (keywords), the more relevant the results will be.

For example, type the keyword women into a search engine and you'll get thousands of results, some relevant but most irrelevant to you. However, if you type the words women in business Australia, you'll get a much more targeted result.

Why are they important?

In order for a search engine to display your website when people search with certain keywords, you need to include keywords on your website. If your website is displayed in the search and people click on it, guess what – that is a free source of targeted traffic to your website.

How to determine what keywords to use

There is no point in just including any keywords; they must be relevant in order to target potential visitors to your website. Therefore your keywords need to be clear and concise. First of all you need think like your customers and determine what keywords they would use when on the web to find your product or service. There are several ways of doing this:

• You can guess, or
• You can do some research

So let's assume that you wish to find the right keywords for your business and not just guess. Firstly you need to find the core keywords that people would use to find your website. The most specific your keywords are the better.

For example, a business that offers services for business women could have keywords of – women in business, business women, women working from home, work at home women, women with small businesses.

The best way of doing this is to use a keyword research tool. There are several great free tools available that you can use and here we are going to show you how to use two of them.

Here is a video by Andrew Edwards from Online Marketing Solutions on how to use Wordtracker

You can also use the free Google Adwords Keyword Tool Once you have your keywords, you need to use them to drive traffic…

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