Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Keywords are essential to ensuring that your site will be visible on search engines. Think about the terms that customers will use to search for your website. Consider which keywords and key phrases best describe your products or services.

Keyword strategy should be central to your search marketing, as it is vital to both search engine optimisation and any pay-per-click advertising you may do.

Choosing keywords

Choosing keywords is the most important step in building a search engine-friendly site.

You should think beyond broad, generic terms and focus on more specific, niche phrases. This is where the concept of 'long tail keywords' comes into play.

Long-tail keywords may have lower search volumes but are more likely to attract higher-quality traffic. For example, if you're selling tropical fish in Northern Ireland, terms like 'tropical aquariums Belfast' are more relevant and targeted than broad terms like 'fish' or 'Northern Ireland.' This helps draw in potential customers who are closer to making a purchase decision.

Keyword research

To find potential keywords, brainstorm words customers might use to search for your site. Make sure you cover all the different services your site offers.

There are several tools available to assist in the process, such as:

• Google's AdWords Keyword Planner - a free tool (though registration for AdWords is required) for helping you discover relevant keyword suggestions and insights
• Moz Keyword Explorer - a user-friendly platform for discovering keywords and analysing competition

You can also use any data that you may have from web analytics software to see what keywords your customers are currently using to find your website.

Optimising keyword usage

The density of these keywords on your website will also impact search engine results. Look at your competitors' websites and see how they use keywords.

The choice of keywords and the optimal keyword density are difficult to define, although there are tools available that can help you analyse this. Tools are available to analyse this aspect, but the focus should always be on quality content.

Use keywords in your content, page titles, page headings, subheadings and in any metadata that is included in your page code.

Plain English works best

It's important to use real sentences rather than just keywords in your content. Overusing keywords in an attempt to manipulate search rankings can lead to penalties from search engines, so make sure your content reads naturally. Always aim for clarity and relevance over forced keyword repetition or keyword stuffing. See search engine optimisation dos and don'ts.

Keep up to date on how your keywords are performing

In addition to doing the obvious searches on keywords to see where your site comes in the listings, most search engines allow sites to check their status in their indexes. You can use these to monitor your search position to see how changes affect your search rank, and to determine what keywords to add in future.

If you are also using pay-per-click advertising, you can use this to test and refine your keyword strategy by working out what has and hasn't worked in your advertising campaigns.

Search engines often return results as users type using predictive software - this may affect your keyword strategy. It is important to keep up to date with how search engines are indexing and how any changes to functionality may impact your search ranking and keyword strategy.