Zooming in on the most likely and most effective keywords and phrases is a critical element in the search engine optimization process. A keyword/phrase is the word or string of words an Internet user enters into a search engine when looking for Internet content. Hence, the entered keyword will mirror all or parts of the contents of the pages a search engine returns as matches for that search. For example, the phrase "National Hockey League" most likely will return the National Hockey League's Web site as one of the top-ranked search results. Similarly, the phrase "online booksellers" might create such results as Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble's Internet branch.
When optimizing Web site content for the Internet's search engines, it is crucial to determine the most likely keywords used to search for the site, and subsequently put the site in the most opportune position to score high in search engine matches for those words.
On a Web site, the selected keywords and phrases should appear frequently. The keywords should be woven into number of page elements, the site's Title and Meta tags, as well as page copy, anchor text, etc. The on-page keywords should closely mirror the keywords and phrases search engine users are most likely to be using. Ensuring that the keywords and phrases occur frequently, but coherently on the Web site will vastly improve the site's optimization level and
No one word or phrase will cover all Internet searches for a particular Web page. Besides, some generic search words and phrases will return, literally, millions of matches. Therefore, a Web page should be optimized for two-three keywords and phrases. Carefully optimizing content for multiple keywords, theoretically, will increase the chance of search engine users finding the page. Optimizing a single page for more than three keywords is not feasible.
The key to defining the likely keywords for a given Web page is to put oneself in the Web user's position and attempt to imagine which word or phrase the user would type into the search engine's search field if looking for a particular type of Web site, and, subsequently, make sure that the page's keywords and other contents mirror those words or phrases.
One way of finding keywords for a Web site is to write down a number of words that thoroughly describe the Web site's contents. Next — based on those words —, start brainstorming. The subsequent train of thought will likely spawn several potential keywords and phrases. The next step is to determine the popularity of those keywords and then boil the list down to the two or three keywords that best combine popularity with describing your content.
Automated utilities, such as Wordtracker and the Yahoo! Search Term Suggestion Tool (the latter is also built into Traffic Blazer's Keyword Analysis feature), can help determine keyword popularity.