Keywords?

Well this is a word I use a lot when talking to clients but what exactly do I mean by this?

Essentially they are the words that potential visitors to your website input into search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo and which hopefully will bring these potential clients to your page. It is important to tailor your website for these potential clients and is not about providing fake information or inserting keywords into sidebars and footers or trying to “trick” people into visiting your website.
Where to start, well the first thing to do is to figure out who you are targeting with your business. Many clients that I mention this to tend to dismiss this with an answer like “anyone who has money” and don’t really think clearly about who they want to target. This is a mistake, trying to target everyone will invariably mean that you target no one. It does not have to be complicated.
If I take my own business which provides web design and development services from the small rural town of Wicklow (population 10,000) situated about 40kms from Dublin city centre.
Who do I target? Well mainly it is small businesses like my own, companies which do not require large websites but do need to be able to keep their clients updated about new products, special offers etc. As a web based business I can of course target clients all over the world (one of my oldest clients has a business in France) but as I believe that it is important to meet people face to face my target area is Wicklow and South Dublin, anywhere within an hours drive, so mainly local businesses.
How do I target them? Well it’s pretty straightforward really, all that I do is describe my business and the service I provide at every opportunity, not forgetting to mention my location here in Wicklow. I have a portfolio page which I update everytime I finish a new website design and build and I use this page to provide clear information to potential visitors of exactly what I do. Any potential client visiting my website can be left in no doubt about the services I provide and how I can be contacted. Websites are organic and change as time goes by, really it can’t be forced.