For this exercise, let’s assume that these are all the keywords that this company is going to use at this time. Yes, this is an overly simplified example, but it will allow you to see some of the essential steps and planning required whatever the number of keywords or the complexities of the Search Engine Marketing plan.

When we look at this keyword list we can see that the words restaurant and software are used in every chosen keyword – in addition, the keyword ‘restaurant software’ has the largest search count at 4267. For these reasons, the home page – the most important page on the website should use the phrase restaurant software a number of times (at least 3 times) in the body of the text on the home page. Normally, the home page will also have other essential keywords that will have to be accommodated. Search Engines accept the reality that there may be 2 or 3 keywords on a home page – and not all of them will occur as often as expected as when only 1 keyword exists.

Ideally there will be a minimum of 400 words on every page of your website. Search Engines are looking for sites that provide the information that searchers are looking for and one of the ways they determine the authoritative ‘weight’ of a site is by the number of words that appear on the website.

Warning – optimizing your website for keywords is of absolutely no value if keyword optimized pages do not first of all address the wants and needs of your target audience. The text you create with your keywords must resonate with your target customer – and motivate them to take the actions you desire.

Each page of your website should be matched up to a corresponding keyword - you may have to create additional pages for your website if you do not currently have a website page that deals with a chosen keyword. Some of your more important keywords may appear on more than one page of content.

Ideally, a web page keyword will appear in the title on the page, in the sentence of the first paragraph, in the last paragraph and in the body of the text. Once your have the basic keyword occurrences, synonyms are an excellent way to increase the ‘weight’ of the page – and are easier for your audience to read. Always ensure that the keywords flow, feel natural and are not stuffed into the text. It takes practice, but it is doable.

As we have seen - successful Search Engine Marketing begins with proper keyword selection and is followed with proper keyword usage on the website text. The next step is ensuring that the correct HTML tags are completed. We will review this aspect of keyword success in Part 3 of this series.