This blog will explore how using keywords on web sites actually works. It's for those a bit less experienced.

First off, links and keywords are arguably the two most important elements when it comes to your Google ranking. Since we've covered link building in other blog entries, let's take a look at using keywords on web sites.

Keywords are words that people would use to do a search on Google, and it can be one word, or several. Most keywords are actually several words put together, like "affordable hawaii vacations".

Long tail keywords are phrases that are longer, and get searched less often, but still contain important information that you could rank very highly for. An example of this would be "best rated hawaiian vacation packages". 

How do know which keywords to target? Well, you should do some competitive research to determine the keywords that other companies already use. You can use a tool like WordTracker to help you come up with new keywords.

But, you should also determine the competitive environment as well. Wordtracker uses a pretty cool indexing tool that can tell you what the level of competition is. Ideally, you should target keywords that have a high search volume and lower competition.

Once you determine your list of keywords (you should have 300 to 1,000), you can begin your site optimization by including one to four keywords on each page, and then create remarkable content that other web sites will want to link to.

It's the combination of credible links that are linking to a specific page, along with the content that relates to the search that makes the biggest difference.

It almost always makes sense to start a web optimization program or start the development for a new site with the clear understanding of your most important keywords.

Thrust Internet can help in the process. Thrust helps growing companies with their online marketing and social media programs, and also develops web sites.

Whatever route you go, make keyword development and link building two of your top priorities.