Wednesday, November 9, 2011


Keyword Research Tools and Tips for SEO

Welcome to learn tips on how to do keyword research with keyword tools for search engine optimization to help ensure your site ranks well in search engines like Google.

Keyword Research is a process of selecting the most "optimum performance" keyword phrases that can help visitors find your site. Keyword research is always first step towards successful search engine optimization of your website. Without effective keyword research and SEO, you are shooting from the hip.


Therefore, the foremost step in any SEO campaign is identifying your target audience and researching what keyword phrases they might be searching in the search engines to locate a site like yours.

If you would like to create a website about traveling you could optimize your site for the generic term "travel", but how well is that going to perform?

Well according to Overture, 2195206 searches were performed for "travel" in Dec 2005. Now in order to rank high for this term you would have to compete with high end websites such as travel.com, travelocity.com.

Now that might be your ultimate goal but if you are just starting, there is little to no chance you will be ranked high enough to receive any traffic for the term. 



If you were to do a little keyword research, you might find more specific terms with much less competition like "group travel" 15002 with searches, or "travel destination" with 16706 searches, or "travel inn" with 13338 searches. Obviously, the number of searches is much less with these phrases but your chances of ranking high will be much more.

Searching Keywords : One way of searching for keywords is to focus on identifying as many keywords as possible that are related to your website and target audience. It is a good idea to start with identifying 100 to 150 keywords related to subject of your websites. Alternatively you can start with 10 t0 15 generic terms and latter expending them into keywords with the help of top and reliable keyword research tools and software / services. 


 
The most generic keywords are the most widely searched, but also the most competitive and sometimes bring mediocre conversion rates. So my take is to search for little less competitive keywords tightly describing theme of your website.

Keyword Research tools like Wordtracker and Google Keyword Tool can be used to expand on your initial list of starting out keywords. These tools allow you to find the number of searches being made on a particular term and also look for all related terms that include your search term. 

Wordtracker and Google Keyword Tool are the two most widely used services that give you the ability to research and find out what people are actually searching for on the major search engines along with information on how popular a search term was in the last 30 or 60 days.

Top 5 Keyword Research Tools and Services:
1.     Google AdWords Keyword Tool: A must use keyword research tool from Google. This is also the most widely used FREE keyword research tool by people why advertise on the internet mainly with Google AdSense.
2.     Wordtracker: Keyword research tool for SEO, PPC, link building and blogging. If you are serious about search engine optimization, then Wordtracker is a must have software for any search engine marketing professional.
3.     Google Suggest: Google Suggest is a great way to find synonyms and related word suggestions. Just start typing your search term and you will see a drop down list of related terms.
4.     WordStream: Keyword research tools for pay-per-click marketing and search engine optimization.
5.     Thesaurus.com: This service is very similar to Google Suggest.








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