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I just read a small article by David Utter at Search Newz that intrigued me. Mr. Utter posted data from www.onestat.com that reveals some very helpful information about your typical internet searcher. In other words we have been given some insight into the mind of how our customers search.

One of the biggest obstacles in Search Engine Optimization is convincing the client to target keywords and phrases they might not agree with. Often the topics of which keywords to target turn into which keyword to target. The education process starts by us explaining to the client that targeting one keyword is foolhardy and a huge waste of our time and their money.

An example: A potential client asked if we could rank them for the term "toys". We convinced him that toys could lead to many results that would be of no use to him. Cat toys, dog toys, other kinds of toys not fit for a G or PG audience as well as his own types of products, children's toys.

And now that I have used three paragraphs to get to my point, here it is. People searching on the Internet use more than one keyword when searching. They most often use two words. This is substantiated by a study done by OneStat.com.

OneStat.com reports that two-word searches rate just above three-word searches, 29.6 percent to 27.55 percent. The figures they show for July 2005 are an average of searches done over the last two months.

"Search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo can drive a lot of traffic to a web site. It is important that a webmaster or SEO expert knows what kind of search phrases they have to use to drive more traffic to a site," said Niels Brinkman, co-founder of OneStat.com, in a statement.

Remember, specific is good on the Internet and targeted is even better. Two-word searches are wonderful, three-word searches are even better and four-word searches are sale waiting to happen. So don't waste effort for a keyword unlikely to bring people to you Internet door, focus on the phrases that will bring sales to your business.