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Make Keyword Research First Priority

Keyword research is important because of the way people search the Internet for solutions to their problems. People have problems; blogs and websites have solutions. Search engines function as matchmakers connecting those with the problems to those with solutions. As a blogger or website owner we want to be the "go to" place for people looking for solutions in our area of expertise.

All searches begin with a keyword or keyword phrase and if we want to have our blog read or our website found we must anticipate what words or phrases they will use in their search query.

Begin with identifying where you want your searcher to land when they arrive at your site. Depending on how your site is organized it could be your home page, a welcome page, a sales page or any one of several topical category pages within your site.

The next step in this keyword research process is to develop your prototype keyword list. This is your first draft and at this point we are still talking process more so than science. In the military we had a saying in regard to ideas... "Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes." That's what you are doing with your prototype keyword list. It's your "best guess" as to what keywords your searchers will use to find your solution to their problem.

Now that you have your short list of what you think, it's time to see what Google thinks. Google has provided a handy tool to help with this step in the keyword research process. It's called Google's Keyword Tool or Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Copy your prototype keyword list into the box provided in the Google Keyword Tool. You can register and bypass the Captcha gateway if you like. It's free to use in either case.

Google's keyword tool is going to give you some valuable information about the keywords you have chosen. For example, the popularity of your keyword can be seen in the average number of monthly searches for a particular keyword.

You will also get an assessment of the competition you will encounter as well as the popularity trends over a 12 month period. Greeting cards, for instance, will peak during February because of Valentine's Day and December will peak because of Christmas. Trends for the other months will be relatively steady lower volumes for the rest of the year since birthdays occur randomly throughout the year.

Caution! Your Keyword Research Results Could Mislead You

Your keyword results can vary greatly depending on certain parameters within Google's Keyword Tool that you choose or allow to default. Note the little check box that says, "Only show ideas closely related to my search terms." Its default is unchecked but you will probably want to check it.

Please note also you can choose locations which will give meaning to the column "Local Searches." Numbers of searches are provided both globally and locally.

Lest we lose sight of our objective here among these details, recall that we have submitted our prototype keyword list to Google's Keyword Tool to see what Google has to say about our choices. In addition to giving us information about our prototype keywords, Google is suggesting other keywords for our consideration. The additional keywords that Google presents depend on the selection of parameters we are discussing.

Another important parameter "Match Type," whether Broad, Exact or Phrase.

The default is Broad which will give you information not only on your keyword but on others that are similar. Exact match will give you information on keywords that contain only your exact phrase. Phrase match will give you information on keywords that contain your keyword phrase.

Examples:

If your keyword phrase is birthday greeting cards, a broad match will include holiday greeting cards, funny birthday greeting cards and birthday greeting cards among many others.

A phrase match would include funny birthday greeting cards and birthday greeting cards and other long-tail keywords that contain your keyword phrase but not holiday greeting cards.

An exact match will include only searches for birthday greeting cards.

How To Decide Which Match Type To Use When Doing Keyword Research

In keyword research I use the broad match because it will yield the largest number of keyword ideas from which to harvest final keyword gems. Looking through the keywords provided by the broad match search you will find additional keywords that you would never have thought of. Seemingly obscure keywords discovered in this process may surprise you with decent search volumes and low competition.

The other match types are more useful when making advertising decisions using Google AdWords. Phrase match and exact match can be used to narrow your target market for advertising. Fewer people will see your ad but more of those who do will buy. But that's a discussion for another blog post.

Continuing On With Our Keyword Research Process

Once you have run your prototype keyword list through the Google Keyword Tool using the aforementioned parameters you will have an extensive keyword list. It is from this extensive keyword list that you will choose your keyword gems.

Eliminate keywords which have search volumes so small that they could not generate enough traffic to our site to make them worthwhile. I usually toss keywords that have less than 3000 monthly global searches.

Eliminate keywords with very high search volumes because they usually are highly competitive. At this point in the process you are looking for keywords with viable search volumes and low competition.

Choose from the remaining keywords the ones you like for a more detailed competitive analysis. These are the candidates for becoming your keyword gems. Google searches on each of these will show you your page one competitors. Examine these competitors eliminating keywords whose competitive sites are deemed too formidable to penetrate.

Now look at the source code for some or all of your competitor sites in the title and meta tags for keywords used by your top competitors. Add these keywords to your list. "Rinse and repeat" using the Google Keyword Tool on this keyword list. Find the top 10 sites for each of the keywords on the final list. Using Firefox extension SEOquake, another of the keyword tools, total the Page Ranks of the top 10 sites for the keywords you like from this list.

You should be able to compete with some of the top 10 if the Page Rank totals 20 or less.

Keyword research can be tedious and frustrating. There are other keyword tools such as Market Samurai that automate some of the manual processes described here. But be prepared to be disappointed when your favorite keywords have to be discarded as not viable. Don't get emotionally attached to them. Your best keyword opportunities may be those that never occurred to you.

So what do you think? Is keyword research a process, an art or science? It is definitely a process. Is it an art? Perhaps a case can be made for that especially in choosing your prototype keywords. Science? The development of keyword tools is definitely science and the application of those tools is both process and art. I think we have a case for declaring that keyword research is process, art and science.

Bob Young retired from regional management in the computer service industry and now devotes his time and energies to helping Boomers and others find and develop alternate or second careers. He is an Executive Affinity Group Leader at Small Biz Incubator, offering SBI Blogger! blogging platform and mentored training for online business owners.