Keywords and phrases strategically placed and crafted into your website can significantly boost your ratings in search engine results.

They are looking for an exact match to the keywords that they are programmed to look for, not something kinda, sorta, maybe. This means that if your heart’s desire is to be listed under “beaded jewelry”, you must make absolutely sure that this exact phrase appears generously throughout your site copy on every page of your site. Make it your mission to include whatever your top keyword or phrase is everywhere you possibly can; especially in the first paragraph and headline of your site.

Some choice places for keywords are above your site logo, in the subheadings, headlines, first paragraph, last paragraph, etc. Remember, in order for search engines to find you, a good rule of thumb is that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The more places you can reasonably put your keywords, the easier you will be found. That being said, don’t go nuts and paste them in every nook and cranny. This is called “keyword stuffing” and search engines don’t look kindly on this practice.

The next place you’ll want to put your keywords is in the meta tags of your site. Meta tags are not scary, and even folks without any HTML experience can definitely learn how to use them. Depending on what HTML editor you are using, be it Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Home Site,Notepad, etc., you'll find that you can switch between the design and code screens (this applies to WYSIWIG HTML editors only). What you will want to do is find the HTML code and go to the “head”, or beginning, of your HTML document. There you will find a space for the title, meta keywords, and meta description.