Seven Tips for Sucessful Keyword Research

Seven Tips for Successful Keyword Research

Before
you
set out to march your way to the top of search rankings you'll need to
take a
good survey of the terrain ahead. You need to do a good amount of
keyword
research. Surprisingly, many webmasters seem to have stepped past this
important starting point, and doing so has most definitely set
obstacles, some
impassable, in their path. Keyword research is the only way to approach
SEO
with informed expectations. How competitive are the keywords you are
optimizing
for? What keywords are you including in your link building efforts?
What will
it take to succeed? Answering these questions ahead of time makes all
the
difference.

Here
are
seven key tips for successful keyword research.

1.
Use a
proper tool.

Sure,
there's a lot of free stuff available out there, but when it comes to
keyword
research free tools are few and far from powerful. If you're
considering
investing either money or time into SEO for your web site look at a
solid
keyword research tool as a necessity.

Some
of the
better keyword research tools:

a.
SEOmoz's
Keyword Difficulty Tool - this tool from one of the great SEO
innovators gives
you a good general idea of how competitive your keyword/phrase is.

b.
Trellian's Keyword Discovery Tool - user-friendly, simple, and
feature-rich.
One of the best keyword research tools available.

c.
WordTracker Keywords - second to none, WordTracker has been a leader in
keyword
research for years. A great value.

2.
Identify
*viable* targets.

We'd
all
love to rank well for the most general and all-encompassing search
phrase
related to our topic, but only a handful ever will. Targeting some
ultra-competitive keywords is as good as shooting yourself in the foot
unless
you've got massive amounts of time and resources to throw at the
problem.

Finding
long-tail (three words and more) and targeted search phrases that are
actually
getting traffic can mean the difference between SEO success and
failure. Be
reasonable in your expectations, and fight the big guys by researching
long-tail search phrases that have slipped beneath the radar. You might
also
find that long-tail search phrases bring better conversion rates for
your
topic.

3.
Keep it
relevant.

You
may find
keywords and phrases that offer inroads to high search rankings, but
it's
important to remember that the ultimate end is traffic and how you
utilize it.
In other words, you need to be sure your keywords relate to your web
site. If
you get a page to rank well enough to bring in some search traffic, but
when
users actually view that page they either can't make sense of the
content or
find the page unrelated to your topic (or worse - spammy) that search
traffic
will do you no good. Not only will off-topic or spammy content affect
your
brand and drive users from your site, but there's a chance Google could
catch
on to your irrelevant content or spammy techniques and penalize your
domain for
it.

4.
Don't be
too wordy.

No,
really.
A common mistake is to choose your keywords based on your own
perspective
rather than that of your target users. Sure, you know your topic inside
and
out. You know the buzz words, the technical details and a whole lot
more, but
do your users? What if the user isn't sure what they're looking for?
Maybe they
know the function but not the name. Keep this in mind when researching
keywords, and make sure you consider your choices from the perspective
of
someone very new to your topic.

5.
Consider
local search.

One
area
small to mid-sized web sites can really find a competitive edge is in
locally-specific search phrases. These are inherently less competitive
and
therefore are easier to rank well for. However, go back to #3 and think
it
through - if your web site is locally specific or if users will want to
know
your location this is a good strategy, but optimizing pages for local
keywords
that will look out of place to users can be a mistake.

6.
Monitor
your web analytics.

One
of the
great benefits of web analytics is that it allows you to monitor
keyword
referrals. In other words, you can find out what visitors are searching
for
when they land at your site. For brand new sites there won't be too
much data,
but if your site has been around at all and is getting some organic
search
traffic you will find that your analytics reports are a great source of
keyword
information. Referring search phrases can be surprising - sometimes
including
misspellings and other abnormalities. Keep an eye on your analytics,
and you
might find a keyword worth optimizing for.

7.
Constantly reevaluate your position.

While
keyword research is definitely the first step in developing your site
content
from an SEO standpoint it should also be a recurring one. Internet
trends shift
quickly. While a lot of your core keywords will remain unchanged for
the
foreseeable future some buzz words will get attention while others fall
from
the spotlight. Stay on top of your keyword research and you can make
the most
of new opportunities while recognizing the less-than-ideal keywords
that are
either too competitive or don't bring in enough traffic.

Author: Mike Tekula