"Search engine ranking begins by choosing the right key words. It is absolutely crucial to success with the search engines. What are the key words that your potential customers are using?"

Many website owners regard their ranking in search engines as crucial to their Internet marketing. They tend not to favour mass registration with numerous engines because it is not an effective technique, whereas a single high ranking position can bring traffic flooding to the site.

It is, therefore, the selection of appropriate words and word combinations – and the way they are used to give a good ranking in the major search engines – that will reap the greatest rewards.

Choosing the right key words

Choosing the right key words is absolutely crucial to success with search engines. I recently heard the story of a company that had obtained a top 10 position in a major search engine but became rapidly disappointed when just a few people visited the site – the company had chosen unpopular words and phrases.

But it’s not just a question of selecting words or phrases that many people are searching on – more importantly are the words likely to be used to find your products or services? What are the key words that your potential customers are using? You might need to consider various types of customers. For example, the words used in the UK are frequently quite different from those used by customers in the United States when searching for the same product or service.

Stop guessing

Resist the temptation to guess. Spend your resources on systematic research. Find out how frequently people actually search for the particular words you have in mind. Of equal importance, determine how many sites are competing for those key words. Applying effort in this regard is seldom wasted.

Avoid single words

Ranking well on the single word is usually not a good tactic. For example, a high ranking on the word "motor" is likely to be much more difficult than ranking in the top 10 for "reconditioned electric motor".

Those of you with a mathematical bent will realise that single key words usually return the least targeted leads. If someone is looking for just "motor" are they:

b) Looking for someone to refit a new motor to a golf buggy?

c) Seeking a replacement motor for their swimming pool? Or perhaps

d) Searching for a motor vehicle?

If you sold used cars and optimised your website for the single word "motor", only those in category "d" would qualify as sales prospects. You would get many referrals from search engines if you achieved a good ranking on the keyword, but many of them would leave very quickly.

It’s the difference between attracting tyre kickers and actual buyers. More important, the sheer volume of sites usually competing on a single word make it very difficult to achieve a top 10 ranking.

The best thing is to target multi-word phrases that give you the highest quality leads. For example, if you sell software you don’t want to waste your efforts trying to rank Number One on the word "software". It is just too general – not to mention too competitive.

The easiest road to success is to target popular key words that your competitors have overlooked. You should identify those phrases you know from your research are being regularly queried – and where you have identified there is a minimal degree of competition from other websites. In other words, look for the soft spots.

Most get it wrong

It is believed that the majority of website owners are targeting the wrong key word. Why do we suspect this? Easy – we look at their computer code and compare it with the words we know are being searched within the search engines. If you put in the resources to target the right key words in areas where there is minimal competition, you will probably be ahead of 99 per cent of the world and you will be generating more (and better targeted) traffic with less effort.

Once you have the right words and phrases you then have to make them visible (and attractive) to search engines – but that’s another story for another day.