When you build a website, you must consider how users will find it using a search engine. There is no point in creating a thing of beauty and finding that no one comes to see it. People most commonly visit sites by using search engines, and they search for sites by entering words or phrases in a search box. These words are known as ‘keywords’, and they hold the secret to successful search engine marketing.

Contrary to some opinion, there is no magic involved in designing your website so that others will find it in search engines. If someone searches for sites using a particular set of keywords, the sites they find will have those keywords included in the text on the sites. In a directory, a site could be found by navigating down through categories until a relevant group of websites are found, and in this case the websites could be built using any reasonable content. In a search engine, however, sites are indexed according to the words on the web page. Every word counts. This is an important point to remember when designing a site that uses a lot of images, Flash or other media content. Search engines cannot read the text on an image.

How do you find keywords to use on a website? There are a number of methods available, some formal and some informal. The simplest option is to use an informed guess. If you were to search for the products or content your site delivers, what keywords would you use? You might use a single word to find a broad spectrum of sites, but more often you would use several keywords. If you wanted to buy a villa in Florida, for example, you might use search terms such as ‘property for sale in Florida’. This phrase is still quite broad, and by trial and error you might use more specific terms such as ‘villas for sale in Orlando’, or ‘buy a condo in Daytona’. The sites you find would contain these keywords, and this should set the pattern for your choice of keywords for your own website. By including keywords relating to focused content or product details, you will attract users who are searching for your particular content, and not general passing visitors. If your site specializes in selling ‘left handed paintbrushes’, these would be the keywords you should use throughout your website, and not simply ‘brushes’.

While you can make an informed guess about the keywords you use, it is possible to become blinded by being too close to the project. Sometimes we make assumptions without realizing it. To get a more objective idea of appropriate keywords, ask friends and colleagues what they would type in when using a search engine to find your products or services. Be careful not to lead them by asking, for example, how they would find left-handed paintbrushes in Smalltown. Try to provide them with the minimum of prompting. If you run your question past several people, you should start to get a consensus on what the appropriate search terms or keywords should be.

The most objective method of finding keywords is to use statistics. A number of websites provide statistics on the frequency with which particular keywords are used, and can sometimes yield surprising results. Keywords you thought to be important may be rarely used, while others you thought to be insignificant may be used frequently. When checking keyword statistics, start by entering only one or two broad terms to see the range of phrases used by the public. Add more focused keywords based on these results. The range of statistical information available depends on the provider, and some information is free while other information must be purchased. To find suppliers of keyword statistics, search for ‘keyword statistics’ or ‘find keywords’ in a search engine.

Geographical considerations are also important when identifying keywords. A website might advertise a service available in a defined region or group of towns. In this case, include the names of the surrounding towns so that someone searching for the service in one of those towns will find your site. If you run a photographic studio in New York, for instance, you will not benefit from a family in London searching for ‘family photographer’. The keywords in your website should define the geographical scope of your service, be it the country, state or town.

Having outlined the importance of including focused and relevant keywords on your site, it is worth emphasizing that you should not use keywords on your site in an unnatural way. You may be penalized by search engines for ‘keyword stuffing’ if you repeatedly use keywords without good cause. The text on your site should include keywords where appropriate, and must be written in a way that is pleasing and natural to both human visitors and search engines. If you identify appropriate keywords, and include them in your site in a sensible manner, you will have taken an important step in ensuring that search engines will index your website correctly and will present it to searchers who are interested in your particular content.