Keywords
The first thing to do is write down as many single words and short phrases as possible that describe your business, your services and/or products and any other information you deem to be important. You are essentially trying to list words which users are likely to type into search engines when attempting to locate businesses which offer the services or products you provide.
Try to make the words and phrases as specific to your business as possible and do not list anything which is not directly relevant. For example, a family run farm may list a phrase such as “organic produce” – something which users may search for – but should avoid phrases such as “family business”. The first phrase would list sites which sell organic produce. The second would list sites which are family businesses regardless of what the business is. The first phrase is desirable, the second is not.
There are many online tools which can help you determine the most useful key words for your business:
If you enter your key words into these tools they will list the number of people currently using them with the Google Adwords and Overture paid advertising schemes. This gives a good indication of how common the keywords are. The tools will also list variant phrases and the corresponding number of uses for those. Obviously, the more people using a key phrase the less likely you are to be successful using it. That is not to say that you should leave it out – especially if it’s a vitally important one – but you should add other less common phrases too.
Bear in mind that your competitors will probably be trying to optimise their websites for the same key words as you. In fact, a good place to start if you are stuck for inspiration is to examine the copy of their sites. Note that you should not under any circumstances plagiarise their copy as this will potentially leave you open to legal action.
Once you have your key words and phrases you can start to construct your copy around them.