When optimising a website, proper keyword research is often forgotten in the haste to grab what the webmaster thinks could be a popular keyword or phrase.

Search engine optimisation is much more involved than just choosing a keyword and repeating it 50 times on one page. Big search engines like Google and Yahoo consider the types of things people might type in to a search bar when trying to find certain information.

They then apply these search phrases to certain aspects of your own webpage to gauge the relevance of your content with regard to what the person searching is trying to find.

There are several keyword research tools available on the internet capable of offering alternative search phrases that people commonly look for base on your own general keyword.

Let's look at some ways you might be able to use keyword research to optimise your website

• Research Keyword Phrases

If your keywords are very general, your competition in the search engine rankings will be fierce. Try to narrow your keywords into search phrases to be more like what a visitor would search for on a search engine. Optimise your pages to suit these targeted keyword phrases.

For example: Your website might be about golf clubs. You create your content and your web pages around the keywords 'golf clubs'. If a visitor types 'best golf clubs' into a search engine, your page won't rank as highly for that particular search, even though you have golf clubs as your chosen keywords.

• Targeted Audience

If you're running an e-commerce site, you'll want to attract people who want to buy from your site. With very general keywords, you're attracting some shoppers but you'll also be attracting browsers, people just looking for information and more.

For example: If your keyword is 'web hosting' you might be attracting visitors wanting free hosting. If you want to make a profit perhaps you only want to attract people searching for 'cheap web hosting' or 'UK web hosting'.

• Geographical Targeting

Depending on what your website is offering, you may consider including a geographical reference into your keywords and page description.

For example: if your keyword is 'cheap florist', you won't want to attract flower-buying visitors expecting delivery to Australia. Perhaps include a geographical reference to keep your visitors closer to home, like 'cheap florist London'.

• Typing Errors

People often use incorrect spellings for common words. They might type too quickly and get letters mixed up or miss a letter completely. Words like 'accommodation' are often spelled with one 'm' missing.

Take a close look at your own keywords and try to imagine how people would type it into a search engine.

• Geographical Spellings

If your keywords are UK English specific, be sure to include at least one option for someone misspelling that keyword in US English.

For example: You might have the keywords 'colour chart', but someone typing into a search engine might search for 'colour chart'.

When your keyword research is complete, you can then focus on your search engine optimisation to suit those keywords. Be sure to add those key-phrases to your page title, your heading tags and into your meta tags before inserting them into your main content as well.

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Author - Julian Hall, Search Director of Pure Online Genius