Keywords, what are they? What am I supposed to do with them?

First off lets define what a keywords are. Keywords are just what the name implies, words which are key to describing what your site or business is about. Also, keep in mind that keywords exist because these are the words people will most likely use when trying to find a website, such as yours, via a search engine. Much like the yellow pages are arranged, by topic. You wouldn't look under Roofing if you needed a plumber. There are two very important factors to consider when working with keywords for your site: which keywords are to be used and where they appear within your site.

Lets begin by discussing some of the places keywords can live within the pages which make up site:

URL (address)
Page Titles
Keywords Meta Tag
Descriptions Meta Tag
Body Content
Text Links
Images ALT tags
Comments
No Frames Tag
Frame Names
Graphic File Names
Hidden Form Fields

From the list above we can see that there is an opportunity to place keywords in many places within your pages. Once we have an idea of where keywords can live, lets begin to discuss how to determine which keywords are best to use. Next Page>