The Secret of Keyword Research

Keyword research is one of the most important stages of developing a website - especially if the purpose of the site is to generate money and business. Your first step is deciding exactly what you will be selling on your site - is it a product, service or information? Next is taking the steps to find out the type of things people type into the search engines when looking for your particular product or service.

It's the myriad of terms people use to search that will allow you to better target any search marketing you do, as well as start building content and links to help your organic rankings in the search engines (also known as search engine optimization). The wider your subject, the more in-depth your keyword research will be - sometimes ending in a list of keywords in the tens of thousands. For example, if you sell ONLY 3 brands of fishing rods, your keyword list will be noticeably shorter than if you sold fishing rods, line, bait, tackle, the whole nine.

Much of keyword research is just old-fashioned brainstorming. You sit down, think about your target audience and get in their frame of mind. Think about the types of things they might type in to find your service, and get yourself a general list of several terms. Once you have that together there are one of two ways to conduct keyword research - this is where the 'secret' comes in.

Most people will use online tools and programs to conduct keyword research. There are programs that will search several keyword tools on the net. You can also use the individual tools yourself and figure out which works best. Google's Keyword Tool generates a list of related keywords as well as suggested terms, also giving you an idea of how often they're searched for.

Of course, if the purpose of your keyword research is to build search marketing campaigns through Yahoo and Google, you can save yourself time, energy and the game of trying to figure out which keywords are the best to use and which will waste money. How you ask? Simply by doing a bit of experiment with whichever search marketing program you use.

Most pay per click programs allows you to choose a 'broad' match or 'exact' match option regarding your keywords as your build ad campaigns. Spend a bit of cash to build a general campaign around your original keyword research - the list of several general terms you created. Add them as broad matches, which will allow your ads to pop up anytime at least one of those words is in a search inquiry.

By running a test campaign for a week or two and spending a little bit of cash, you can cut your keyword research time in half and actually raise your marketing results as well. As people search and click your ads, you can tell exactly what SPECIFIC keyword terms (long-tail or short) will attract you the most business for the least amount of money. Once you let the campaign run a while, you can start building a more detailed campaign, and eventually get rid of the "broad" match option and instead spend your ad money on a long list of exact keywords.

Keyword research can sound daunting, especially for newcomers, but practice makes perfect, and this tip can wind up saving you a lot of trouble and time. In the long run, it should also help you target your keywords to your audience better, get you higher conversion rates and hopefully save some money. It's always important to try something for yourself before you rule it out entirely!

About the Author

About the author: Ashley Lichty, along with her colleagues, conduct keyword research, content development and other SEO techniques for ProspectMX.com. You can learn more about her and her team by visiting ProspectMX.

Comments

No comments posted.

You do not have permission to comment. If you log in, you may be able to comment.

Complete the details below to send a link to the page:
http://uniquebusinessarticles.com/internet-marketing/the-secret-of-keyword-research.html