There is no doubt keywords are vital. They are the words folks might use to locate your information.

For example, a person researching cell phones might use the following keywords typed into Google, Yahoo, Metacrawler or any number of the available search engines.

- Cell phones

- Wireless phones

- Cell phone planes

- Prepaid cell phone

- Best cell phone

- Cellphone

- Cell phone deals

- Cell phone reviews

When choosing keywords for a business the first step is to consider what terms people will use to find you. To accomplish this, a three step approach is often recommended.

1. Brainstorm ideas. Sitting down with a pen and paper to brainstorm keywords may seem silly at first however brainstorming is a successful strategy. The brainstorming exercise will be a success if you are creative and think like a potential customer. Challenge yourself to come up with 50 potential keywords. Remember that people often misspell keywords, like the 'cellphone' example used in the list above.

2. Consult with associates, friends and family, current customers. The next step is to ask around. Find out from people what keywords they would use to locate information on your business idea. Friends, family and associates are generally the best place to go however if a business has a close relationship with their customers, then asking a few key customers may be beneficial.

3. Keyword popularity tools are used for research. This third step is where business owners often skip right too however if you don't attack a keyword popularity tool with a plan, you can end up with thousands of potential options ' a real mess. Take keywords you have complete confidence in and use the keyword tools to examine how often they are used. This will help business owners determine what their primary keywords are and what keywords to use in their content or on secondary website pages.

There are free keyword tools available such as:

a. https://adwords.google.com/select/ Keyword Tool

b. https://www.wordtracker.com/trial/ Free trial

c. inventory.overture.com/

d. http://keywordspy.com Free Trial

That leads us right into a very frequently asked question...where are keywords used? Several places actually...The home page and index page of a business website is where the primary keywords are located. This is the page people land on when they come to a website. Maybe it has sales copy, maybe it tells a bit about the company's products or services, or maybe it offers informational copy. The general rule of thumb is to focus on one or two primary keywords. They should be placed in the headline, first and last paragraph and then distributed throughout. Keyword stuffing or jamming your copy full of you keywords makes the copy read like a phone book and the search engines don't like it.

Secondary keywords can be used on subsequent website pages, articles, press releases, press releases, advertisements, blog posts and so on. Using the example from earlier a primary key word might be "cell phone" or "cell phones" and a secondary keyword might be "cell phone reviews"

Keyword hype is justified. They are a huge influence on a company's profitability. Future customers use keywords to locate products, services, and information. Your business is found with them. Traffic will come to your business website if you set up the right keywords and most commonly used keywords on your site. More traffic and bigger profits are the end result.