Choosing the right keywords is half the battle in search engine positioning. If you pick words out of your business plan and figure everyone is searching for "competitive global communication solutions," when what you're offering is "affordable long distance," your web site will be a lonely place indeed. Always use common sense keywords that people actually understand and would search under.

Research your keywords by talking with employees, customers, vendors, family members and friends. Monitor your web stats to identify terms actually used to find your site. Finally, spend some time with keyword popularity tools such as Wordtracker to finalize your best key phrases.

When you have the final draft of your list, try searching for the keywords on it. Make notes on how many similar documents are found and for which competitors before optimizing your pages for the most relevant keywords. Single keywords are very difficult - if not impossible - to optimize for, so your best bet to increase search engine positioning is to use keyphrases like "business voicemail" over a single keyword such as "voicemail."

Finding the right keywords is only half the battle in search engine placement. To win the war, you also have to use those keywords the right number of times. Just as bar patrons don't like watered down drinks, search engines don't like watered down keywords. So if you skimp on keywords, you reduce your chances of ranking well. Search engines actually count the number of words on a web page, giving more weight to those used the most frequently. They do this by means of mathematical algorithms. The total number of words on a page divided by the number of times a keyword appears is called "keyword density" or "keyword weight". Whatever you chose to call it, just remember it's one of the most important factors in search engine placement.

You should use your main keyword at least five times on the home page. But be careful not to spam your web site. To more accurately gauge the number of times you should repeat a keyword, take a cue from the competition, especially those that are highly ranked. This will provide a good idea of the keyword density needed to achieve ideal search engine placement.

Just like modifiers, keywords can also be misplaced. In order to be effective, keywords need to be repeated not only the right number of times, but in the right number of places. Search engines pay closer attention to certain parts of your web page. Words in these sections are considered more important than other words. This is called "keyword prominence." Whenever possible, put keywords in the following places:

Titles and Meta Tags: It's important to place your keywords in the title. Some search engines also pay extra attention to words in description and keyword meta tags.

Headings: The (H1 - H6>) tags give search engines, not too mention visitors, a good idea of what the main topic of your page is.

Text Top: The words at the top of your page, at the beginning of paragraphs and at the start of your sentences are generally seen as more important. Make sure that keywords are among the first words to appear. Underlining keywords, making them bold, or otherwise highlighting them may also help to emphasize their importance.

Hyperlink and Alt text: These are considered as important to some search engines.

URL Text: Including keywords in your domain and page names can boost your rankings.