Once upon a time, not so many years ago, if you needed to find something all you had to do was to let your fingers do the walking for you. And the Yellow Pages are still are great place to look for a specific type of business or service.

Now we have the Information Super Highway. Finding information, or anything else for that matter, is simply an act of entering in the correct keywords at your favorite search engine or directory.

Keywords are the 21st century equivalent of the Yellow Pages and they are necessary to find whatever it is that you seek online. But, not only do you find things with keywords, they are also what others will use to find you.

The keywords you use on your website will determine exactly how your website will perform in search engine and directory searches made by potential visitors.

This can have a huge positive or negative effect on the exposure your website receives from the global audience of the Internet.

Traffic is essential for the success of any website.

It does not matter what the purpose of the website might be. Without traffic, then you are creating a website that will never be seen by anyone other than yourself.

For those of us attempting to do business online, the proper use of keywords can make or break you.

Here are a few important points to consider:

1. Choose Proper Keywords.
   If you are selling fresh fruit online, it will not do you any good to use words that describe auto parts. The keywords you choose must be closely related to that subject or topic which will be found on your website.
2. Good Use of Keywords.
   Not only must you choose the correct keywords to describe your website, but you must also make use of those keywords throughout the actual body of the text of your website.
3. Excellent Use of Keywords.
   Many people go to the trouble of researching keywords to make their web site as attractive to potential visitors doing searches but fail miserably at the most important element of the entire process by naming the Title of their website Homepage.
   Make use of your keywords in your website Title!
4. Do NOT SPAM Your Keywords.
   It has long been thought that repetition of keywords will improve the ranking of your website. While this was true many, many years ago, it is not to be used today or your website will be penalized if not outright banned by the major search engines and directories.
   Use keywords only one time each in your Title and within the Meta Tags of your web page HTML.
   The exception to this rule is the repeated use of the same keyword within the actual text of your website but ONLY if the keyword is relevant. Repetition for repetitions sake will also cause you to be penalized or banned altogether.
5. Research Your Keywords.
   How would someone find you online?
   Pretend you are a potential visitor to your website and compile a list of words you might use at a search engine or directory and research what these terms bring back as results to your inquiry.
   Is your website already among the search term results? How about your competition?
   If neither appear in the results of your search then you need to try using other keywords.
   You can even cheat a little on this by visiting your competitor and viewing the source of their web page to determine exactly which keywords they are using.

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And now back to our guest article...

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6. Modify Your Keywords.

Just because you finally compile a list of keywords do not fall into the trap of thinking that they are somehow now etched in stone.
Not on the Internet.
Review the most common search terms being used at least once every month or two and modify, adapt, adjust and overcome any problems by making changes to your list.
A great way to keep tabs on the most popular terms in use on the Internet can be determined by accessing various FREE services that exist online dedicated to compiling a list of the top current search keywords.
You can access our "FREE List of Keyword Services" by sending a blank email to our auto-responder at: keywords@emailexchange.org
Making use of these little secrets on keywords will insure that your website is always in the top rankings of searches done to find your unique web page content.

• New:Pay-per-click search engines: tips, techniques, and recommendations. By Elisabeth Archambault.
• Link Exchange Your Way to the Top -- By Elisabeth Archambault.
• On Line Business Truths -- By Angela Wu
• Paid Inclusion Tips -- by Larisa Thomason

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