the general phrase of "fancy dress" it doesn't appear to be ranked at all

What you have done (like all the others) is trying to get ranked for a very popular and expensive keyword. Fancy Dress is a word that so many searchers will type in to search tools, and thats why its sought after to be ranked for/under. Chances are that word is used in quite a few adwords adverts and it probably costs a fortune to keep that advantage.

Yep, just as I thought - the search volume for Fancy dress is :246'000, (according to Google tools) so it gets searched 246'000 times (I think). Its a high value keyword and from what you've said sounds like you'll never be ranked for it as a free search listing option.

Your best bet for being found by popular keywords is to pay for them - its the only way Im afraid. You could try on-topic directories and put that keyword into your description, but I advise against spamming a ton of keywords as your likely get booted out if you take too much advantage of the specialist directories - some dont like keyword spamming. But they are probably your best bet.

Highlander

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I guess it looks like my work is cut out then.

Just one thing, when you mentioned:

"Your best bet for being found by popular keywords is to pay for them" .....

were you referring to paid adwords or a paid listing ion a directory?

Thanks

Use both paid listings for maximum return. Directories will be the cheaper paid option, but try and locate on-topic specialist ones for even greater advantage.

Paid will get you the best results though, just the way of things.....

Drop me your url by private mail and I'll try and help out, as I may know a few on-topic websites (proper established businesses).

Hi,

I think you should post some articles & blog.

What highlander is saying is spot on.

You could try targeting long tail key phrases like 'quality fancy dress' but I'm not sure how much value you would get from those types of key phrases.

A better bet for a business such as yours is to target a region. I assume most of your business is local.

So target 'fancy dress london', or wherever you are based.

You need backlinks, on site seo (meta keywords as you described) account for a very small proportion of the overall metric used to rank sites.