Put yourself into their shoes.

Start thinking the way customers might think when looking for you
on search engines. If you’re a photographer in Maryland and you
shoot catalogs, try on catalog-photographer. Get yourself into the
same frame of mind as your clients when they are looking for you.

Make a list of keywords that people looking for your site
are likely to search for.

Separate yourself from your product, service, or home page, and
think like the average Jack 'n Jill who might want to find you but
know nothing about your site. Generate as many keywords as
you can without worrying about whether or not they are right. Go
over this list to prioritize and edit. Drop any that don't fit or add
more that come to mind. It’s okay to generate a list of 50, then
shave it down to the top 20 keywords your target audience will
use to find what you do best.

Develop your keywords into a list of keyword phrases.

Combine your keywords with other qualifying, more specific
terms, into two-, three-, or four-word phrases. For instance,
scanner becomes flatbed scanner; software becomes traffic
analysis software; and computer morfs into apple power
macintosh minitower.

Do not use keywords that are too broad.

Pair your generic keyword with something more specific. If you
offer regional office supplies, say office supplies new york. With a
restaurant, it might be restaurant santa barbara. You must be
specific to pre-qualify your visitors.

Use concept keywords to qualify visitors.

Specify the concept in your keywords, such as game software, if
that's what you sell, but also be specific enough so that the
keyword phrase is not too broad. You might want to use sega
game software.

Do not use trademark names in your keywords, other than
your own.

If you are a local flower shop and use 1800Flowers as a keyword,
watch out! Stay away from using other parties’ trademarks in your
keywords. On the other hand, if you really do want Kelley Blue
Book, make contact and request permission. The name has been
used before, and Kelley will likely cooperate.

If you are a well-known entity, include your company name
in your keywords.

A Chevy dealer might use chevrolet suburban. The company
name keyword is an excellent strategy for well known companies
such as IBM, General Electric, Ford, or Nasdaq.

Avoid individual common words in favor of more specific
terms.

Common words such as software, internet, cars, radios, and so
on. The terms are too general and will yield nothing but
looky-loos. Make it encrypted security software, internet writing
services, ford mustang, or bose wave radio, when they arrive at
your door, you greet them with exactly what they’re looking for.

·Remember that keywords and phrases can be
case-sensitive to certain search engines.

Although it is a commonly used strategy, I don’t recommend
coding-up repeated keywords in upper and lower case, unless
you've got a really hot keyword phrase. IMHO, there are many
other keyword phrases I can corral my audience with, so I go for
an even spread first, then I can always go back to code-in upper
case.

Having developed your best keyword phrases, do you want to
test for effectiveness? Affirmative! Route that list to colleagues,
friends, and spouses for scrutiny. Listen to their comments. You'll
be surprised how much insight they will provide.

Say you’ve done all the above, what’s next? Contact your media
planner, site promoter, ad agency, or in-house web master. Tell
them you want a reputable search engine position improvement
service. Or, arm yourself with all the latest techniques, and
do-it-yourself.

But whatever you do, make it possible for the major search
engines to recognize your site promptly when people type in
YOUR keyword phrases. It’s one of the best ways to drive
pre-qualified traffic to your site in 1998.

See KEYWORD STRATEGY step by step.