The first thing you need to do is find the right keywords. Hopefully you understand their importance, but now it’s time to gather them! You can use free tools such as Google’s keyword tool, or paid tools such as Keyword Elite 2.0 or Micro Niche finder. After you have the right keywords, consider what your intentions are for them.
Many people will want to rank highly in the organic search listings. The organic listings are all based around content. The search engines will scan your site for relevant content and rank you accordingly. That’s why you want to make sure it is obvious to the search engines which keyword you are targeting for each page of your site.
You also need to ensure you set your website up properly. It’s important to have a relevant domain name (for most purposes), and fill out the meta section of your home page with relevant keywords. Then, you are going to write an article, or content page, based around the keyword you are trying to rank for.
Be sure to put your desired keyword for this particular page in the title, in the first paragraph, in the body of the article, and at the conclusion of the article. Be careful – you do not want to stuff this keyword in! Search engines have gotten quite smart these days and are able to spot when someone is trying to “spam” a keyword to fool the search engines. It’s all about being relevant, but not overdoing things.
Sometimes this is all you’ll need in order rank for a certain keyword. More often than not, you’ll need to perform further SEO on your website. You can do this by using article marketing (the resource box is where you a link back to your website using your desired keyword as the anchor text), commenting on relevant niche blogs, and more.
All in all, using keywords for search engine optimization purposes is a very smart thing to do. You can rank naturally in the search engines for your desired search terms, giving you a stream of steady, free traffic.
