I can understand your fear, that competitors would steal your keywords if you freely advertised them. I wouldn't recommend using this technique on mass-marketing that would be see by anyone and everyone. I think this technique would be best used with marketing that would go directly and only to your customer base, such as postcards, brochures, business cards etc. I wouldn't recommend this at all for TV commercials, online video clips etc.
But consider this...your competitors can find out your keywords anyway if they really want to. They would only need pull up the source code of your site, which can be done from any computer without much skill or knowledge. Unless your source code is somehow protected, all it takes is someone right-clicking and viewing your page source to pull up your whole list of keywords.
When it comes right down to it, I'd rather my customers be able to find me than not, regardless of what competitors do. If you have a solid business, a decent product or service at a fair price and an informative and user-friendly website, your competition can be dealt with. But don't sacrifice potential business just to keep your keywords a secret. The fact is that unless you're already a well-known company or a potential customer has your flyer/brochure/business card right in front of them, the odds of them remembering your full website are very slim. This is especially important for marketing firms or sites offering PPC or paid advertising of some kind. If a consumer will be paying for ad space on your site, or marketing services from your firm, they may want to know how your site ranks to determine if you can help them. If they don't know how to find you in a way that they can compare your exposure with that of your competitors, you will lose out on their business. Period!
Don't sacrifice potential business for keywords. The keywords are there to get you the business, so let them do their job!
Use the Technique WITHOUT Competitors Stealing Your Keywords...
I can understand your fear, that competitors would steal your keywords if you freely advertised them. I wouldn't recommend using this technique on mass-marketing that would be see by anyone and everyone. I think this technique would be best used with marketing that would go directly and only to your customer base, such as postcards, brochures, business cards etc. I wouldn't recommend this at all for TV commercials, online video clips etc.
But consider this...your competitors can find out your keywords anyway if they really want to. They would only need pull up the source code of your site, which can be done from any computer without much skill or knowledge. Unless your source code is somehow protected, all it takes is someone right-clicking and viewing your page source to pull up your whole list of keywords.
When it comes right down to it, I'd rather my customers be able to find me than not, regardless of what competitors do. If you have a solid business, a decent product or service at a fair price and an informative and user-friendly website, your competition can be dealt with. But don't sacrifice potential business just to keep your keywords a secret. The fact is that unless you're already a well-known company or a potential customer has your flyer/brochure/business card right in front of them, the odds of them remembering your full website are very slim. This is especially important for marketing firms or sites offering PPC or paid advertising of some kind. If a consumer will be paying for ad space on your site, or marketing services from your firm, they may want to know how your site ranks to determine if you can help them. If they don't know how to find you in a way that they can compare your exposure with that of your competitors, you will lose out on their business. Period!
Don't sacrifice potential business for keywords. The keywords are there to get you the business, so let them do their job!