4 Step Guide to Keyword Research

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:

1. 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
2. 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.

3. 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!
4. 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.