If you have begun or are considering beginning an internet marketing project or website design you have most likely been exposed to “keywords”. Keywords are words or phrases that are utilized in mass by web surfers to search for products and goods. For any business there can be hundreds to thousands of keywords that reference, directly or indirectly, a product or service (the remainder of this article will utilize “services” to reference both products and services). The trick for business owners is to select the proper mix and density of keywords to ensure success with an internet venture. The following will discuss a good process for selecting a list of relevant keywords.

The first step in selecting keywords should always begin with current customers. During daily operations ask these individuals what words they would use to find or reference your services. With this initial list the next step is to brainstorm with staff, business partners, or associates a deeper list of words that relate back to your services. During this brainstorm it is good to view your services from all angles. Remember that sometimes the person that purchases your services may not be the person that uses your services nor may they be the person that is looking for your services.

To better refine the list of keywords it is now time to utilize web based keyword suggestion tools (to find keyword selection tools search “free keyword selection” in your favorite search engine). These tools reference actual search data to provide search volume estimates for a particular keyword; allowing you to understand if a word is heavily or lightly used by internet surfers. Begin the process by searching with the most generic keyword. For example, if I own a car dealership my first word would be “car”. This will return a list of phrases and words relevant to “car” with their corresponding search volume. Take note of the words that are relevant to your services and the number of searches performed. Continue this process for all of the words you identified in step 1.

With the keyword volume data in hand you can now refine your list down to 10-20 core keywords that relate to your services. These keywords will form the backbone of your internet marketing efforts and should now be utilized in your website copy, meta tags (most importantly the title tag), and advertising messages.

In the internet marketing world keywords are the core drivers to connecting relevant searches with services. The keyword selection process is never complete and business owners must monitor and measure results to refine, add, or remove keywords. By taking a systematic approach to building a list if keywords businesses will ensure that their internet marketing campaigns are relevant to the target audience.