Perhaps the single most important factor in search engine optimisation (SEO) is your choice of relevant keywords. The various search engines function by using keywords and looking at how people search for what they want to find on the Internet.

If you fail to select the correct keywords, your website will be destined not to be found. The only way to raise it from the dead at that point will be to pay for traffic and this can be extremely expensive. However, if you choose the appropriate keywords, you will then have a much better chance of achieving free or almost free traffic. It is via this means that you will develop a lucrative business via the Internet. There are three main factors to bear in mind when it comes to selecting the most appropriate keywords for your website. These are demand, supply and relatedness. Each of these three needs to be borne in mind in order to make sure your website is amongst the leaders for your niche keywords. There is little point in electing to use overly popular keywords because of the huge competition and this will result in your site not achieving a top ranking anyway.

When it comes to deciding upon your keywords, you can use the services of, say, Wordtracker to find out about the most popular keywords. They can send you a free weekly report complete with two tables of the most widely used keywords over the last six months and last month. You can then use this to narrow down a particular key theme and then perhaps use Yahoo or Good Keywords to find out exactly how many searches there have been for your selected word or phrase in the last month. If you fix upon a certain keyword or phrase and then place this into Yahoo, you will receive several thousand results, but if you then place the same keyword into Google, which is probably the most popular search engine, the results will be even greater. This will show you that there is a great deal of competition.

One option is to elect to go for a related keyword that has a better demand to supply figure. This is called the ‘long tailed’ approach. Instead of opting for a really popular phrase, such as ‘building websites’ you could instead use ‘building websites from home’ or similar. The most important requirement is to find a phrase that has a relatively low supply, but still enough demand to make your efforts worthwhile.

Another alternative is to use a number of related keywords, one or more for each page of your website. Good Keywords will help you to find the most appropriate related keywords. These can then collectively be a focus for a large number of visitors to make your effort worthwhile. They should be funnelled to your main index page, which will have your main keywords. This should, in turn, boost your rankings and gain you the volume of traffic you require.

Unless you consider these concepts, your results will be rather hit and miss, so you need to think about how many searches there are for a particular term, in addition to how many searches there are for a specific term as well as how many websites might meet the search criteria.

If you need help, try looking for an affordable website designinq agency who will not only be able to provide relatively cheap web design, but also give you advice on your keyword choices.