Keywords play an important part in successful search engine optimisation of web sites. Time should be spent in working outwhat keywords and key phrases a prospective visitor to your website is likely to type into a search engine to help find your web site. Keyword phrases are typically two to four words, which is the most commonly used in searches. Good research is vital to obtain good results in your search engine optimisation strategy. It helps to ‘think like your customers’.

There are tools available to help work outthe best keywords and key phrases to optimise your website. Google Adwords hasa ‘Find Keywords’ function, which you can use. This will show the results of a keyword or key phrase such as strength of competition, Global Monthly Searches andLocal Monthly Searches. It also gives Keyword Ideas with suggestion for related keywords, which can be helpful in narrowing down to 3 to 5 main words or phrases.

Another source of keyword tips and research information are your websites’ server log files. These will tell you the words visitors to your website used and these are entered in your server log files. This information can help to identify keywords and key phrases to target and can also give you ideas for new pages on your website.

Copywriting for your website can then help to optimise the web page. A page needs to feature the keywords prominently but it is best that the copy does not read like the keywords and phrases were added purely to boost the search engine rankings. An experienced copywriter knows that the optimal keyword density is about 5 to ten per cent.

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