Keywords are the building blocks to a well-built website.  They should determine the navigation structure to the website, the content of the site and if used wisely will have a positive impact in how well your website is ranked by search engines and more importantly will lead qualified prospects to your websites. 

There are a number of tools online to help you determine seed keywords based on your products or services, but the first step you should take when developing your initial list is to brainstorm.  Make a list of terms that you think your clients, customers or prospects might use to find a company that offers your product or solution.   

It’s possible, in fact likely, that you may be too close to your topic.  It’s wise to seek the advice of someone not familiar with your product to find out what terms they would use to find the solution you are providing.  There is a website called seedkeywords.com that can help facilitate that process. 

It’s also a good idea to step away from the computer and go to the library.  Find your topic in the library and see the different phrases that are used to reference your topic.  Better yet, ask a reference librarian what terms real people use to ask about a topic. 

Once you have an initial list of keywords, you’ll want to develop a secondary and tertiary set of keywords.  For example, as I revamp my own website, the table below might be similar to this partial list of my keywords.

 

Primary	Secondary	Tertiary
web development	web design	custom web designs, small business websites, html / CSS coding, ?custom web design solutions, website packages,?build your own website, web design tools, web designer, web developer, html editor, domain registration, web hosting
	E-commerce websites	Shopping carts, online store, online shopping cart, merchant accounts, e-commerce security, SSL, build your own shopping cart
	website applications?	blogs, wordpress, bulletin board, forum, knowledgebase, membership directory, custom applications, content management systems
Internet services	E-mail	POP mail accounts, webmail, email defense, spam filters, e-mail marketing
	internet marketing	Search Engine Optimization, SEO, email marketing, RSS feeds, PPC, SERP, pay per click programs, google adwords programs,

 

 

As you can see by laying out the keywords in primary, secondary and tertiary columns it can help you determine the architecture or navigational structure of the website.  Additionally it will help you to focus on the terms you need to include in your content to make it easy for people visiting your site and for search engine bots to determine the services or products that you are offering on your website.  The easier you make it for people and bots to know what you’re talking about, the easier it will be to get targeted customers to your website and to improve your bottom line.