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You probably have heard of the importance of “keyword research” and how “keywords” can help you to be found online, but what in the world ARE keywords?

Keywords are the words that people type into the search engines when they are looking for something online.  For example, let’s say that you wanted to find a local salon where you could get your hair cut.  So, you fire up your computer, connect to the internet, pull up Google and type in….”women’s haircuts.”  Yikes!  You will see the results listed very quickly and do you know how many sites are listed there for you?  About 493,000!  The top results show trends in women’s haircuts, ideas for cuts and, of course, celebrity hair dos.  That is not what you wanted, so now you try again and type in “Yuma hair salon.”  Much better, now you can see a listing of local hair salons that you can actually make an appointment with.

This example is meant to help you see that the words that are typed into the search engine’s search box are very important in helping the user to get the exact results that they are looking for.  In this case, “women’s haircuts” was too broad of a term and gave results that were not helpful.  When we typed in “Yuma hair salon” we got an actual listing of hair salons that we could look at and select from.

This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and keywords go hand in hand.  When your website is properly optimized with your keywords, then the search engines are able to match your site to searches performed by your potential customers.

So, how do you know which are the right words to use on your site?  Start by knowing that you probably don’t know what the words are that most people are typing in to find you.  And it’s okay that you don’t know.  There are keyword research tools that will help you to find the right keywords for your business.

It all starts when you sit down to brainstorm what you think a customer might type in, then, when you have a good size list, you can put in the words and phrases into the keyword tool to see if you were right.  The keyword tool will tell you an average number of times each day (or month, depending on the research tool) those keywords were typed into the search engines.  Often, the research tool may even list keywords that you hadn’t even thought of and that you can now use as keywords on your site.

We can help you to pinpoint the correct keywords and then optimize your site with those keywords.  We have the experience and knowledge necessary so that you can concentrate on running your business; we’ll take care of getting your site set up to receive your customers, keywords and all.