The first thing you need to do when you begin chasing a good search engine ranking is decide which words you want to rank well for. This is called performing a keyword analysis. Keyword analysis involves a bit of research and a good knowledge of your business and the benefits you offer your customers. <!–more–>

There are several websites specifically designed to make keyword analysis easier. Two examples are:

•   Overture’s inventory tool which you can find at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. This tool is free and very easy to use and understand, but it only tells you how many searches have been conducted in the previous month for your keyword (and similar keywords).
•   WordTracker which you can find at http://www.wordtracker.com. WordTracker is a much more powerful tool, but you have to pay to use it (you can subscribe for a day for around $10). WordTracker helps you find the most appropriate keyword for your site by telling you what people are really searching for. Here’s how it works… You type in a word which summarizes what you do, and it tells you how many times that word has been searched for in the last month. It also tells you how many other websites are using that word as a keyword (i.e. targeting the same customers you are). Based on this information, it rates the word. The ‘best’ keywords are the ones that a lot of people are searching for but which few websites are targeting. WordTracker even suggests and rates alternative related words.

TIP: When you’re using WordTracker, bear in mind that it’s just talking about numbers, and numbers don’t always tell the whole story. So don’t just jump in and use the best rated keywords; you need to consider your own situation. It may be the case that you’re forced to select a keyword phrase which is not rated particularly highly. There are two situations in which this might happen:

i.  You’re in a niche market with relatively few customers searching for the keyword. In this situation, you’ll probably find it relatively easy to reach the top of the rankings, but you won’t generate a huge volume of traffic when you get there.
A lot of your competitors are targeting your keyword (it’s hotly contested) but it’s the only one you can use. If you target it, you’ll just have to work a bit harder on your backlinks in order to rank highly. When there’s a lot of competition for a keyword, it’s likely that the traffic payoff is good once you reach top.

Single Keyword v Keyword Phrases

                Generally speaking, you’re better off targeting phrases, not single words. For most businesses, there’s simply too much competition for single keywords.
For instance, if you’re in computer sales, your normally wouldn’t choose “computers” as your keyword. Go to Google and search for “computers” and you’ll see why… There are nearly 200 million results and the top rankings are dominated by the multi-nationals (at the time of writing, Apple and Dell). What’s more, research shows that customers are becoming more search-savvy – they’re searching for more and more specific strings. They’re learning that by being more specific, they find what they’re looking for much faster.
So instead of targeting “computers”, try to think of a more specific keyword phrase. Ask yourself what’s unique about your business? Perhaps you sell cheap second hand computers? Then why not use “cheap second hand computers” as your keyword phrase? This way, you’ll not only stand a chance in the rankings, you’ll also display in much more  targeted searches. In other words, a higher percentage of your site’s visitors will be people looking to buy cheap second hand computers (as opposed to people after brand new computers, people researching the history of the computer, and people trying to figure out how they can use a computer to bath their dog!).

Develop a keyword strategy
Also, think about developing a keyword strategy. If you start out targeting a very specific keyword phrase as described above, make sure it includes the more generic – hotly contested – single keyword. For example, you’ll notice that the keyword phrase above, “cheap second hand computers” includes the single keyword “computers”. This way, you’re really targeting both at once. As your site’s importance (or PageRank) and search engine presence increases,
you’ll start to rank for the single word as well. In time, you’ll start ranking well for “computers” even though you’re only actively targeting “cheap second hand computers”.
TIP: Google PageRank (PR) is how Google scores a website’s importance. It gives all sites a mark out of 10. By downloading the Google Toolbar (from http://toolbar.google.com), you can view the PR of any site you visit.