Expanding your Keyword List

Start by drawing up a list of words and phrases that relate to your company, your products and services. Ask other people to help as well, for example, staff members, friends, family, and anyone else you can think of. If you are in the position to do so, find out directly from your existing customers.

It is important to recognise that the most suitable keywords are not necessarily the ones which you think are the best, but those which will bring you the most customers. The keywords you want to focus on are the ones which people type into the search engines when they are looking for the information, products or services which you have to offer.

If you have access to your server logs or a web statistics programme you may be able to find out which keywords visitors are currently using to access your site. You can capitalise on this information by optimising your pages to further promote the products and services that people are already interested in.

Another approach is to learn from your competitors. If you already know who your competitors are take a look at their websites to determine which keywords they are using. Or try searching in Google or Yahoo for the products and services you offer to see which websites appear at the top of the search engine results. This way you can learn from companies who are already leading the field.