There are still (some – the internet hoards information!) ‘guides’ out there recommending that keywords be selected and packed into pages and web sites to increase the breadth of appeal of your site.  Keyword density is the game in these guides.

If you don’t know this already – don’t do this!!!

The ‘second wave’ of thinking on keywords now recommends that keywords are selected for relevancy around a theme and it is this you want to use in your website.  Some will go so far as to say, just choose one keyword per site or per page.

There are of course also tomes on the subject of on-page SEO and where to place keywords.  Thankfully these seem to be drawing some kind of consensus around Title tags, and Page tags – but there is still a split on whether meta tags and meta descriptions are good, bad, or otherwise.

So, what’s all the fuss anyway?

The heart of this confusing mix of views is that keywords are what people use to find your site – ie the search terms they are putting into Google, Yahoo! etc – and the search engines scan your site to find the most relevant match, putting those they deem most relevant at the top.  Ok, yep, go that.

So, what’s the answer then?

Actually, I think it gets back to the very beginning of your site – your market.  Do you really know your market?  What are they after and what do they want to see when they search for products / services like yours?  When you can answer those questions, target your keyword selection around them.

This is where keyword tools come in handy.  They can provide an ocean of information about search terms – who uses them, for what, where, how often etc.

But, there is trick here – you still need a way to decide how to choose the keywords that make sense for you and to do that – you need to know what your customer (or potential customer) is looking for.  Target each page to meet that specific need and don’t cram 15 possible ‘guesses’ onto a page.  Choose the most relevant and you’ll be on your way.

As with many things, this is not as easy as it seems, but that’s why keyword research gets its own tab here – and is deserving of your time and attention.