According to Trellian, http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/ over 80% of all online transactions begin with a keyword search.
If you want your website to rank well and receive loads of targeted traffic then Keyword research is absolutely vital. Every seo campaign should begin with keyword research. You need to know what your target audience is searching for and what your competitors are doing about it.
We’ve put together a quick overview to keyword research below:
- Identify your keywords
- Brainstorm and compile a list of keyword terms and phrases
- Behind every search is a potential customer. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes – what would you search for?
- Take the time to compile a very relevant and specific list, the better your initial list, the better the results you will get from your keyword research. Identify your keyword niches.
- Don’t rule out long tail searches – the more specific the query, the higher the chance of conversion
- Research your keywords (using the tools below)
- Add other relevant suggested keyword terms and phrases to your list.
- Take note of the estimated number of searches for each keyword and phrase. Keep in mind that the more popular the keyword, the harder it will be to compete for it.
- Prioritize your keyword list based on relevancy, your ability to optimise for these terms (i.e. include these terms in your content, links etc) and the traffic potential.
- Research competition
- Find out who is ranking for your keywords – conduct Google searches
- Pay attention to websites that repeatedly rank for your keywords and compile a list of your main competitors.
- Browse your competitors websites and take note of what keywords they use in their title tags, headings, internal links and content.
- Add any relevant keywords you have not identified previously to your list
- Identify other things that your competitors are doing that you could do – do they have a blog, newsletter or offer something unique and exciting to their customers? Get inspired!
- Start Optimising your website! A few quick tips:
- Examine your website for placement of keyword terms and phrases: title tags, urls, internal links, headlines and textual content should all be optimised to contain keyword terms and phrases but don’t overdo it – you will be penalised if it appears you are keyword stuffing
- Anchor text is very important, where possible, ensure you include keywords in all inbound links.
- Long Tail searches can deliver great value to any business. To increase your chances of capturing long tail searches add new content to your website regularly. Consider setting up a blog, news section, newsletter etc
- Avoid ‘keyword cannibalization’ – targeting the same keywords on many different pages of the same site. This waters down your value of your keywords and makes it harder for search engines to decide which page to display to a searcher.
- Content, content , content.
Useful Keyword Research Tools
Most of these are free or have a free service associated with them:
Overture Keyword Selector Tool – FREE
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion
Wordtracker – FREE
http://www.wordtracker.com
Google AdWords Keyword Tool Estimator
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Google AdWords Traffic Estimator
http://adwords.google.com
Yahoo! Search Marketing
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com
KeywordDiscovery
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/
Google Trends
http://www.google.com/trends
Spyfu.com
http://www.spyfu.com/
SEObook keyword tools:
http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/
It may seem like a fair bit of effort to research, refine, test and measure your website’s keywords – but the effort does pay-off in the long run. Choosing the right keywords can turn an average website into a highly profitable one.
Thanks for the research information… I found it very helpful..
Gary
Additional resource for the list of Useful Keyword Research Tools, How about using KeywordSpy? – This will give you an opportunity to immediately track down your competitors and gather keywords for the promotional campaign of your online business.
KeywordSpy is keyword research technology where you can also earn and even surpass what your competitors are making with Google Adwords and Overture. KeywordSpy gives you the key to their success: a good ad-campaign with the right keywords.
It goes with a ClickBank Affiliates Search Engine where you can see the actual market landscape at ClickBank.
I am always looking for new ways to improve on my keyword list.. thanks for the great info… nice list of keyword research tools too.
This really helps me understand the process behind keyword research though I’m a little confused as to what keywords make a good keyword seed list.
I’m having a bit of trouble developing my initial seed keyword list as I research a not-yet-created blog under the broad heading of “Personal Development”.
I know it’s very general to start with but I’m trying to identify an angle or niche.
Can you give me any tips on how to develop my initial seed keyword list and the sort of words I should be aiming for?
Thank you.
Hi Scott,
I was going to reply here, but the keyword list I came-up with based on the broad term ‘personal development’ was a bit long… so check your email
Cheers
Hello!
Thank you very much for taking the time to give me ideas as to how to do keyword research. It’s certainly given me lots to think about-
Your other post at:
http://blog.sitemost.com.au/2008/03/13/things-that-make-you-go-smm/
is really interesting to.
It’s great that you value your blog readers by answering their queries personally
Best wishes from Scotland!