Keyword research is the most essential step to take before creating a site or even purchasing a domain because you want to include keywords in the domain.

Many new marketers starting in web site marketing neglect keyword research altogether or complete only basic research by guessing what keyword to rank for and checking how many searches per month are performed for it. This approach is insufficient if you want to succeed. Target the incorrect keyword and you’ll end up wondering why you have no traffic.

So how do you do keyword research?

The most accurate keyword research tool is https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal This tool is suggested since statistics are specific to google, the undeniable search engine leader with 90% of overall searches.

Set up a database for your research. Label your columns: Searches, Keyword, Competition, Allintitle and Allinurl

Here is an explanation of each heading:
1. Searches: Monthly searches for the specific keyword/keyphrase
2. Keyword: The actual keyword or keyphrase
3. Competition: The number of pages targeting that particular keyword
4. Allintitle: The number of sites targeting the keyword in their title.
5. Allinurl: The quantity of sites with the keyword in their domain name

The first two columns of information come directly from the Google tool. The other three columns are investigated on google by performing the following searches.

To ascertain competition carry out a search for your keyword with quotes (“) around it (example. “Weight loss”). Google will return results from websites targeting the exact keyword/keyphrase. This filters out sites targeting ‘weight’ or ‘loss’ alone. Insert the quantity of results generated in the competition column beside the keyword. This number is discovered at the top right hand side of the browser window.

To discover how many websites include a keyword in their titles perform an allintitle search. The format for this is allintitle:your keyword. Substitute ‘your keyword’ with the keyword you want statistics for. Enter the number of results returned into the allintitle column beside the keyword.

To carry out an allinurl search use the format ‘allinurl:your keyword’ and insert the corresponding number of results in the allinurl column

Why search allintitle and allinurl? Because utilizing principal keywords in the title and URL is an extremely valuable factor in gaining good rankings with search engines for those keywords. Ultimately, you should use principal keywords in both. If our targeted keyword appears in the URL of 4000 sites then that is the greatest number of competitors we have to compete with. Including the keyword in both URL and title puts your site in front of most other sites in terms of on-page SEO.

Which Keywords should you Target?

It depends how much SEO practice you have which keywords you should target. It’s easier to rank for low competition keywords. New marketers ought to seek out keywords with fewer than 20,000 results in the allinurl column. This makes it simpler to outrank competitors. This may well look like a cop-out. However, sites that rank well for lower competition keywords will find it simpler to rank for interrelated high competition keywords.

It’s essential that traffic be laser targetted to increase conversion. For example: A site selling GPS systems shouldn’t explicitly target ‘GPS systems’ because it has massive competition making it tough to rank for. Moreover, a person searching for ‘GPS systems’ is most likely in research stage. A person searching for ‘Tom Tom GO 930 prices’ is much more targeted because it indicates that they are in purchasing phase. Of course, ‘buy Tom Tom GO 930′ is even better! Even though far fewer people will search for that phrase, those who do are in buying phase. It’s better to capture them in buying stage than in research mode!

Don’t pursue general keywords that have more searches because that exposes you to increased opposition. You need traffic that converts to sales. As you gain SEO skill and your site gains standing (i.e. Google pagerank) you can target high competition keywords. If you buy PPC (pay per click) traffic from search engines it’s important to target converting keywords.

Two factors determine the best keywords to target:

1. The amount of searches (higher is better)
2. The amount of opposition (lower is better)

Try to locate keywords with both of these factors. Balance is the crucial factor here. Each webpage should target one primary keyword and contain several associated keywords. Try to target combination keywords that contain more than one keyword like ‘online marketing techniques’ which targets three keywords including; online marketing techniques, online marketing and marketing techniques. Although two word keyphrases have increased opposition making them more difficult to rank for, using them means you won’t have to add them later on when you do desire to rank for them.

To receive free information and advice on web site marketing visit resources4marketers.com

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