Keyword Research for SEO
Search Engine Optimization Series by Jenna Ryan - TheMarketingShop.com

Keyword research gets you well acquainted with your target market. With the help of search engine query data, we can find out the what, when and how of web searches. This type of data is invaluable for developing your web marketing strategy. You can use this inside knowledge of your prospects searching habits to position your website in front of potential customers.

NO KEYWORD? NO RESULTS.

If the keyword phrase is not on your website, your site will not show up in the natural search engine results--no way, no how. If you want to show up in a search result, your website MUST have that keyword phrase on it, period. This fact necessitates an involved selection process for the perfect combination of keywords for your website.

Keyword research is the first step to organic search engine optimization or pay-per-click campaign. It's one of the first things to do when building a website, starting a small business online, starting your SEO or setting up a pay-per-click campaign. Even before your register your domain name, you should know exactly which keyword phrases your site will target.

KEYWORD DATA

The type of keyword search data available increases almost daily. There are numerous free tools on the web. Here's some of the questions you can answer using keyword research tools.

What keyword phrases are people using?
How many searches are conducted for keyword phrases?
How do the keyword phrases compare?
What misspellings are occuring in keyword searches?
What part of the country searches most for particular keyword phrases?
How competitive is a particular keyword phrase?
What is the current bid-price for the keyword phrase?
What is the msot popular keyword phrase for my industry?

Using this data, you can determine how to build your website to make the most of the web traffic and to gain search engine rankings by providing information related exactly to the searches being conducted.

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KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS

Adwords Keyword Tool - This tool gives you Keyword popularity, Cost and Ad Position Estimates, Possible Negative Keywords, Additional Keywords and Global Keyword Estimates.

Good Keywords This handy free keyword research tool is downloaded onto your computer and allows you to see the number of searches for particular keyword phrases conducted in the past 30 days in Yahoo. You can use this data to compare keyword terms with one another, knowing that the ratio between the keywords will be roughly the same in Google.

WordTracker - This keyword tool is the most comprehensive keyword research tool on the market and is offered for a fee of $19 per month and well worth it for the serious web marketer. In this system you can get everything but the kitchen sink about your choice of keyword phrases. The WordTracker Universal Search feature will help you find as many keywords related to your topic as possible.

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Keyword Variations

Keyword research is conducted for a number of reasons, as we've described above. Here's a bit of data you can obtain using the free GoodKeywords Keyword Research tool.

Keyword Phrase, #of times searched in Yahoo 30 days (#s are not correct)
dallas texas real estate, 430
real estate dallas texas, 1000
dallas real estate texas, 500
real estate dallas tx, 501
real estate dallas, 450
dallas tx real estate, 560
dallas real estate, 10,000

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CHOOSING THE BEST KEYWORDS

Keyword research gives you volumes of information, but you need to know what to do with it. Many people mistakenly believe it's best to go after every keyword phrase in the universe when trying to get to the top of organic search results, but that's not the best approach. The key is to pick a handful of the right keywords, otherwise your website will become a giant mismash of keywords that puts-off your website visitors and search engines alike. When deciding which keywords are best for you, there are many things to consider:

The keywords your target market is using.
Your local service area or geo-location.
The competiveness of the keyword phrase.
The types of clients you want to attract.

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KEYWORD COMPETITION

You don't want to pick the hardest one first or else it will take too long to reach the top. On the flip side, you don't want the easiest keyword in the world either because that probably doesn't have as many searches. The best keyword phrases are in the middle between the most and least popular.

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BROAD & SPECIFIC KEYWORDS

Surprisingly you don't always want to try for the the keyword phrase with the highest number of searches. Sometimes the highest searched keyword is too broad. The point is getting a keyword not that will get you the most traffic, but that generate the BEST traffic for your business. This takes an extra dose of analytical and marketing skills to know just what keywords to target.

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KEYWORDS FOR GEO-TARGETING

When doing keyword research, it is important to include the area you are working in or else you will receive searches on a national basis. If you're selling homes in Miami Florida, you hardly want people looking for condos in Long Beach California to visit your website. Plus, it would be too competitive to get to the top of "homes for sale" on a national basis. Limiting your keyword phrases to those that name your local target area will hasten and heighten your overall results.

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IDEAL KEYWORDS

What is the criteria for an ideal keyword phrase? The answer to this question depends on your objectives and the status of your website. Let's examine a few details about keywords, search engines and the way people search.

Search research tells us that people who do more specific searches are closer to the end of the buying cycle than those who do broad searches. It is a good idea to have both broad and general search terms on your website to capture those people at the beginning and closer to the end of the buying cycle. 

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KEYWORD EFFECTIVENESS INDEX (KEI)

Founded by Sumantra Roy, a respected Search Engine Positioning specialist from http://www.1stSearchRanking.com. The KEI compares the Count result (number of times a keyword has appeared in our data) with the number of competing web pages to pinpoint exactly which keywords are most effective for your campaign. Look for the keywords near the top. The higher the KEI, the more popular your keywords are, and the less competition they have. Which means you have a better chance of getting to the top.

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WHERE DO KEYWORDS GO?

The keywords chosen for your website are the backbone of your website. They help us determine which direction each of your pages should go. For example, if we choose a keyword such as "Fort Worth Real Estate," we will write interesting, informative and relevant web on the topic of Fort Worth Real Estate. Textual content is the foundation of your website, and keywords are the foundation of textual web content. Here's a few places you should insert keywords on your website:

Near the top of the webpage
In page titles
In page file names
In content of webpage
In navigation of webpage
At bottom of webpage
In keyword and description meta tags
In image alt tags
In link titles
In image file names
In lists
In headers
In bold and italicized content

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KEYWORD SPAMMING

It's not necessary to go overboard and insert keywords all over your website in unethical ways. Stuffing your meta tags or putting so many keywords on your site that it doesn't make sense is pointless. This is considered "spamming" by the search engines and can get you banned from Google altogether.

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KEYWORD USAGE

Keyword Proximity: Placing your keywords near the top of your website and at the beginning of sentences and paragraphs will help your website gain high search engine rankings.

Keyword Identity: Use your keyword in the same way each time on your page unless you don't mind if the modified version of your keyword phrase counts as an entirely new keyword.

Keyword Density: The ratio of the number of times your keyword phrase is used in conjunction with the other words on your site helps determine your keyword density. It is good practice to have an on-page keyword density of 6% or less per webpage. Any more than that will alert Google and could cause your page to loose rank.

Keyword Niche: Each web page should have one main keyword phrase that you wish to emphasize. Any ancillary keyword phrases may show up, but those should be considered gravy. Go after one keyword phrase only per page.

Keyword Context: The contextual content surrounding your keywords is very important. Google's algorithm determines whether the words around your keywords are true to the subject. If they are not the keyword will not be given as much search engine credibility for rankings purposes.

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