Free Keyword research guide

Keyword research is a vital part of site optimisation, with out this aspect of the process being completed properly then there is little chance of getting the desired results.

The correct keyword analysis and selection allows us to rank well and drive traffic from the keywords our customers use.

As an example if we were going to sell a book on “how to buy shares on line” your first thoughts might be to optimise for words like:

Shares
Share dealing
Buy shares
Share trading

These are all good useful words and phrases to optimise for but they are too broad for what we are selling, they might deliver traffic to the site but the sales rate would be very low and the competition for top spot very tough.

So instead we must think what would a perspective purchaser of our “online share trading” book use to find such a product, these might include;

Online share trading
How to trade shares online
Buying shares online
Online share dealing information
Online share trading book

The first thing you will notice is that the phrases used to find this product are longer than the previous example, this is because people who are looking to make a purchase rather than just gathering information use more definite search terms.

The term keyword can also mean key phrase – often phrases are more important to rank for than individual words.

We can use various tools to help in the keyword selection process, these will be gone into in more detail later, the thing to remember is always put your self in the customers position, what search term would they use to find your site, these then become your keywords.

We can use various tools to help in the keyword selection process, these will be gone into in more detail later, the thing to remember is always put your self in the customers position, what search term would they use to find your site, these then become your keywords.

This is part 1 of an ongoing keyword research guide, please return for the next part soon

You need to take your keyword research very seriously as it is the foundation of your entire on-line marketing campaign. If you start to optimise and promote phrases that people are not using, you will not get the visitor numbers you need to succeed.

You can analyse your own statistics to see how people have found your site and then build on those phrases. There is powerful software available that can suggest terms in your niche and provide estimated visitor numbers and competition analysis.

Look at your competition and see what they are trying to rank well for.

When conducting your keyword research you need to have an integrated balance of research and ‘buying’ phrases.

Keywords should be thought of as phrases rather than single words. They are the words people use to find your site on the Internet. These words are typed into a search engine which then brings up a list of websites related to that phrase.

Not all keywords, however, are worth the same to a company that is marketing itself on-line.

Some keywords are used for research purposes, while others are used to make purchases. Clearly ‘buying’ phrases will be of more interest to you if you are selling products on-line.