When you say the words “keyword search” to most internet marketers you’ll get one of two responses. You’ll see them groan and shudder or you’ll simply see them shrug their shoulders. The fact of the matter is that many don’t know how to or have never taken the time to do a little keyword research. It’s not difficult and the information can be invaluable. Once you know what keywords your audience is using to find relevant information, you can position your company so they the find you instead of your competition.

The first step in any keyword research project is to come up with a few words to start with. You can pull them out of the air, do a bit of brainstorming – what do you think your clients might be using to find your business? You can check your Google analytics to see what they’re using or you can check the meta data on your competition’s websites to see what keywords they’re using. Pretty sneaky, right?

Once you have a handful of words to start with the next step is to choose your keyword research tool. They’re in abundance so you’re not stuck with the first one you land on. Google and Yahoo both offer keyword research tools and there are tools you can subscribe to like wordtracker.com.  Make sure if you’re choosing one which you have to pay for, that they offer a free trial so you can make sure you’re getting your money’s worth.

Once you’re in the tool of your choice the next step is to plug in one of your beginning keywords to create some results. For example, let’s say you’re creating a surf instruction school and hunting for keywords to optimize your website. You may use ‘surf instruction’ for your beginning keywords.
You hit enter and now you have anywhere from 10 to 10,000 more keywords. Some have potential and some do not. Look for keywords which have good popularity. Meaning they’re used often. Yes some people may use the words ‘riding the waves’ but if only a handful are using those keywords they’re not going to generate much in the way of traffic or profits.

You’ll also want to look for keywords which don’t have a lot of competition. That doesn’t mean you don’t use the words “surf instruction” to optimize your website if that is the single most popular keyword phrase people use to find surf schools however if everyone is using that keyword to optimize their website it might be difficult for you to rise to the top of the rankings – which is ultimately the goal.

If you’re searching for keywords to use for search engine advertising then it will also be important to pay attention to the cost of the keyword or keyword phrase. It’s easy to blow an ad budget in a day with the wrong keyword! Not all keyword tools provide this information. If you’re going to be using search engine advertising, use that search engine’s keyword tool to generate results.

Keywords change over time so it pays to make keyword research a regular process. Some business owners are fastidious and are often looking for the next best keyword phrase, while others prefer to analyze their SEO on a quarterly or annual schedule. Take the time to make sure you’re optimizing your site and do a little keyword research – it’s really not so bad.

By Peter Marino

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