First of all, you and your client should brainstorm together(face to face if possible) about the keywords and keyphrases youwant to use for the copy. It is important that you brainstormtogether so that you will be able to stay true to the brand andhave an effective choice for use in the search engineoptimization efforts. You could make use of different keywordtools found in the web such as Keyword Discovery, GoodKeywords,WordTracker, Overture, etc. (issues regarding their usabilityand effectiveness will be discussed separately). These tools canbe downloaded or used directly over the internet should youchoose to utilize it.

In choosing keyphrases or keywords remember to start with anduse popular but "not-so-competitive" terms since it would bevery difficult to compete with more established websites if youhave just been starting. The above-mentioned tools will help youdetermine which key words or phrases you could use.

One word keywords are very difficult if not impossible tocompete with as it would have a more general scope compared withkeyphrases. For example, if you are trying to write content fora company selling educational toys, choosing a keyword like"toys" would be a stupid idea since search engines would givearound one hundred million hits for that particular keyword,while changing it into keyphrase like "toys for students" or"educational toys" would only have hits of around five million.This means that the chance that a web searcher would actually goto your website would be 100,000,000:1 under the keyword "toys"while choosing the keyphrase "educational toys" means a chanceof 5,000,000:1, greatly increasing your chance of being visited.Besides, customers are more likely to refine their searchessince using or typing just one word searches would mean beingbombarded with a lot of unwanted information than they need,costing more time and effort.

Your keywords should specifically target (1) the product orservice that you are offering and (2) what people actually typewhenever they use the search engines in looking for products andservices like yours. A good example would be when writingcontent for a company selling kilns for bricks, you should not optimize for the keyword "kiln for bricks" if most peopleactually type "oven for bricks" when they are looking for suchequipment. It is useless to optimize for the term kiln when mostpeople opt to type oven since a few if none will be looking forthe term kiln.

You should also identify and discover various words and termswhich are closely related to your keyword or keyphrases. Somekey-terms and keyphrases are so intimately intertwined withothers that one group associates it with a particular fieldwhile another choose to associate it with something else. Onegood example would be Cosmetic Surgery. Cosmetic Surgery is amedical procedure, so, it can be regarded as something relatedwith medicine and surgery, while it is also correct to say thatit is related with cosmetics and beauty. Since the fields ofmedicine, surgery, cosmetics and beauty are popular fields,optimizing for both the cosmetic and the surgical aspect of thekeyphrase Cosmetic Surgery would bring more keyword hits forsearches from individuals of both parts of the spectrum.

Another thing to consider is to integrate local terminologiesor equivalents of your products or services when optimizing withkey words or phrases. An "elevator" in the US would be a "lift"in the UK, a "truck" in the US would be a "lorry" in the UK, andthe list goes on. When trying to sell products or services for ahuge demographically different society, you should optimize forboth of the groups as each would tend to search for the morefamiliar local term. Better yet, you could create differentsites for different demographic groups, replacing particular keywords and phrases; enabling you to cater to both.

Moreover, it would be wise to consider placing regionalinformation or regional key words or phrases. Integratingregional information along with keywords and keyphrases enablesusers who prefer more specified searches to visit your website.You would also benefit from the limited competition because ofthe more specified search. Most people looking for products andservices in the internet would certainly prefer to find whatthey need locally, so adding local regional information woulddefinitely be of great help to you and your potential client.Another benefit is that you could add another keyword, which isthe regional information to your existing key word or keyphrase. For example, instead of having just "plumbing services"add "Atlanta" before 'plumbing services'. This would give you anedge over competitors as it would profoundly decrease yourcompetition.