It does not matter whether you are writing web content; articles for the directories like eZines, or simply writing metatags, keywords must be a vital part of the entire package. The best content in the world will not get read if your website is locked up on page ten of search results. While there are many different aspects to creating a dynamic SEO plan finding the best keywords and using the distribution that is most search friendly is one of the most important of them.

Search engines use three types of software to create their rankings:

• Spider software requests information from web pages but in text only format with no images, videos or even formatting considered. This means that if your images do not contain an alternate text in the body or urls that includes keywords it will be missed.
• Indexing software takes this information from Spider and organizes it based on the algorithm used by the search engine. This indexing essentially figures out what the web page is all about.
• Finally there is the query software that creates the interface that we see in our search results.

So basically the spider software finds the keywords either in text or urls and the indexing software uses its unique algorithm to rate things like number, placement and activity based on those words.

How to Find the Best Search Terms

Keywords come in two varieties: Short-tailed and long tailed. Short tailed keywords are the most common and ideally contain no more than two words. Long-tailed search terms attempt to give a much more specific result, finding an audience that is much closer to the ideal demographic.

It is a very simple task to sign up for one of the many services that to your keyword research for you, including services like Ad Words from Google (Which is probably the best tool on the market). Your keywords should be relevant to your business and/or your website content. If you have a product then the keywords will be product related for the most part. If you offer a service, such as industry news, your keywords will be generated along those lines.

Avoid the mistake of using search terms that are too broad simply because they are highly ranked. Once you are able to get on page one of Google these words can help you but into then you will be unlikely to appear in any of the top searches because of other factors. There is also a probability that searchers using broad terms are less likely to be ready buyers than searchers who are using more specific keywords.

Balance is Vital

Long tailed keywords are much more specific, and hence more likely to get searches, than short tailed keywords but great care must be used with these as they can end up being too specific. ÔÇ£MenÔÇÖs pantsÔÇØ might be two general and ÔÇ£brown menÔÇÖs size 34 pantsÔÇØ might be too specific. A much happier medium would be ÔÇ£menÔÇÖs size 34 pantsÔÇØ.

Finally, keyword stuffing is frowned upon by all of the search engines and Google especially will penalize a website heavily for the infraction. If an article has more than 4% concentration of keywords in the content and title it will possible receive a penalty and the higher the concentration over this amount the higher the chances of losing ground in the rankings.