Keyword selection is the most important piece of information you need to figure out to be successful online.  To build a search engine friendly website, you have to have content and that content must be filled with words that would be used to identify your company and its products.  Keywords are words that are searched for often on the major search engines.  These are important because you want people to easily find your website when they are looking for the type of product you offer.  

The first step in the process of keyword selection is finding the right keywords.  There is a free tool available on overture for keyword selection.

Overture is the company that handles Yahoo’s pay-per-click advertising and other programs.  This tool will tell you how many times any given keywords were searched for during the period one or two months prior.  It can give you a very good idea of what keywords or keyword phrases to optimize your site for by using the free tool above.

You should always try to mix up the popularity of the keywords you choose.  The most searched keyword or phrase is important to optimize your website for, but you should choose some lesser searched phrases, as well.   This should make it easier for your prospective customers to find you.  The lesser searched keywords and phrases are not optimized for as often as the most searched terms and will be much easier for your company to rank well for them.  

Once you know what your main keywords are, you need to take one or two keywords and create a page of content based on the keywords you chose.  You can do this by writing information on your products.  If you offer furniture and hard wood furniture is one of the keyword phrases you have chosen, you should write a page on the quality of the wood you use in your furniture products.  By using the term “hard wood furniture” as often as possible, you will be able to show the search engines why you should be ranked for that term.  Feel free to scatter your other main
keywords throughout the content you write for your website.  This can only help you obtain good rankings for those keywords.  You must create a page of content for every one or two keywords you want to rank well for.

Once you have content written for your keywords, it is important to have a solid linking structure for the interior of your website.  Search Engines look at exterior and interior links to figure out what is important to your customers and help them find you easier.  In English, this means that you will rank better by using the correct words inside the hyperlinks used on your website.  These words are given extra weight by search engines by being used inside a link.  You should include a link to another content page inside of every content page you write that points to a separate content or product page inside of your website.

The last, and possibly the most important, piece of your search engine optimization puzzle must be the exterior links pointing to your website.  Major search engines, especially Google, put a very large focus on the words that are used to link to your website from other web pages.  It is also important to obtain links from “authority” sites.  A relevant site’s link is worth much more than a site that has nothing to do with what your company does.  By following the simple steps above, you will be on your way to better search engine rankings for the most important keywords.