What is the first thing you do while searching for something on-line? You enter the keywords that describe what you are looking for, and the rest of the job is done by the search engine. A list of web resources that match your description is provided. And now, let's swap roles. Imagine that instead of looking for a product or a service you need to sell one. In this case you would like your page to be noticed among other similar pages of your competitors.

Any search engine is a robot, a program that is being selective as to what sites to display first, second and so on. But the good news is that there are ways to make your website more appealing to the cyber evaluator. You can use various search engine optimization techniques (SEO techniques) that help your website top the list of similar pages. SEO is a multilevel process, but just as the Internet user begins his search by typing in keywords, the one who wants his page to be found would start with keywords as well.

Choosing the right keywords and key phrases is the initial step of SEO and ultimately important work to do. The first thing to remember is no keywords – no website optimization. And secondly, you will need them all the way, throughout the whole process of maintaining your website. The amount of basic keywords that SEO professionals normally use to optimize a website is not that big. One basically ends up employing around 5 key phrases per page, and occasionally using a couple of dozens of other word combinations related to the topic. But in order to choose those magical keywords that will actually increase your sales, you have to follow some basic principles that have been the result of SEO specialists' experience.

Strange as it may seem, one-word key phrases are not the most popular, as statistics show. Because the user is smarter than typing in one single keyword with very general meaning while looking for something quite specific, let's say an orthopedic mattress. Long phrases are barely effective as well, because it's hard to guess the exact word combination your prospective client would use. Therefore the optimum length of the key phrase is 2-3 words.

Besides being of particular lengths, key phrases should also have the potential to convert prospective customers who visit your site into actual clients who buy stuff. It's all about increasing the sales, after all. In that case, not only the length, but also the quality of key phrases becomes important. The more specific and up-to-the-point they are, the higher their convertibility. For example, if you sell designer orthopedic mattresses, you might as well use the three words as your key phrase. Chances are you will attract just your kind of visitors to the website, and actually make sales. Well, of course, not every product is of unique nature, but even if you simply sell mattresses just be as specific as possible.

In that respect, if your business is situated in a particular locality, it helps tremendously to specify that. Because if one is looking for an orthopedic mattress, he is not going to look for it in China, if one lives in the US, right? Very often people would like to limit their search to a certain area. So the information regarding the whereabouts of your business should be specified in your key phrases as well. For instance, "orthopedic mattress New Jersey" would be an excellent key phrase.

Now, time to get down to the actual making of the word list. Before you end up with the 5 precious words we've spoken about earlier, for best results, an extensive list of key words and phrases should be made. Without this pool of words to draw upon, it's very unlikely that the ones you will come up with will be effective. Making the list requires a lot of creativity and resourcefulness. You may even ask your friends, colleagues or family for advice. This will provide a better insight into the minds of your potential clients, because so many people, so many minds.

While creating the word pool, play a rephrase game. Say the same thing using different vocabulary. For example, "Valentine's Day perfume/aroma/fragrance", since you never know the age or the background of your potential client. Extensive use can be made of spelling mistakes as well. Quite often people are being careless, while entering keywords, so use their inattention to your advantage. For example, someone might spell "matress" or "mattresse" instead of mattress. So put that to work. It also helps to include different forms of one and the same word, like "mattresses", because maybe your neighbor needs two of them: one for his son, one for his daughter ;)

Also, not to exhaust your brain too much, some free on-line resources like Wordtracker, Google's Keyword Tool or Keyword Discovery are available. With their help your list of keywords and phrases can grow bigger, since they serve as key phrase generators.

Another source of inspiration could be your competitors' websites. The ones that appear on top of the results page, after you search for a product similar to yours, would be your target. Analyze the content of their pages to extract the keywords they are using, and success will be yours!

Once you are done forming the long sought-after list, the next step is to limit it to just a few words that are going to be your main tool for SEO work. Again, this will take some time, but your efforts are sure to be rewarded. Each word should to be evaluated according to three criteria. The first criterion is relevance, which means how closely a word or a phrase is connected to what your business has to offer. It's totally up to you to determine how relevant a certain word is, since it's not possible to do so automatically.

The second criterion is how frequently a particular word is looked up by Internet users. For example, you'll have to analyze which word is more often used for search - the word "mattress" or the word combination "bed mattress". And the third criterion is the frequency of use by your competition. That is how many of your competitors use a certain word or phrase to optimize their websites. The latter two characteristics can be established more or less objectively by means of on-line search. And then, according to these three criteria you single out the final keywords and phrases you will be using. Job done!

But, as we live in the age of technology, today it's possible to perform the whole word search quest in a matter of minutes. This can be done by using one tool. There are many software pieces out there that will help you get through all steps of keyword research at a much faster pace, gathering all the necessary data and breaking it down for your analysis.