One common mistake a lot of businesses make is to add a website to their marketing toolbox without really considering how to use it. You see the problem is, even though you need your website to help market and grow your business, what you actually need first is a strategy to promote your website.



Your primary goal must be to attract visitors to your site because without them, the whole game plan comes undone. If you intend to rely heavily on free search engine traffic for your website exposure and your site never makes it past position #200 on the search engine results pages, chances are no-one is ever going to know you exist because few people bother to look past the first four pages of results. There are literally billions of websites out there all hoping one day to make it into the top 20. Sadly, most will languish in the wait or just give up trying. So what do you do to make it happen? Well a good place to start is with keywords.

It's important to understand that the web is driven by people entering search terms or 'keywords' into their search engine browser windows. If you're wondering what people are looking for, that is where you'll find the answers. So the starting point is to develop your site content around the terms (keywords) that people are searching for that relates to your business. After all, there's no point in creating a site that focuses on widgets if people are actually searching for woggles. If you use the right keywords on your website pages, you make it easier for the search engines to match up your content with someone's search request and you're well on your way to having a successful site. It doesn't pay to just take a guess at these keywords, you need to know exactly what terms people are using in their searches. Online keyword databases are an invaluable tool for this research.

Another strategy that will assist your campaign and score you some extra points with the search engines is to choose a domain name for your website that includes your chosen keyword(s). Lets' say you have a gardening company and your main product is a new hybrid rose you've developed called RoseX. Now if you create a website with a domain name that is simply the name of your company, chances are your site will get little traffic because few people will be searching for your company name. But if you have confirmed that RoseX is a popular keyword that maybe thousands of people are searching for, it would make a lot of sense to include that keyword in your domain name as well as on your sites pages.

It's all about giving the search engines what they want. Of course there is a lot more to consider in pursuing a top position in search engine results, but without the right words, it's not going to happen.