Phrases
It's usually very straight forward to work out the main search phrases for a website - this involves noting but common sense. For example, if you own a shoe shop in London, an obvious search phrase would be "shoe shop London". However, it is also important to analyse the behaviour of your potential customers and understand what else they might be searching for.
A phrase a more words will match fewer websites, thus reducing your competition. Research shows that around 80% of internet users start a search by using 3 words - experience has shown them that 2 word searches often return irrelevant results. We usually begin the SEO process by focusing on 3 word phrases so we can 'get a foot in the door'. Once that works, we have the option to review our progress and devise a cunning plan to rank highly for 2 word phrases, and so on.