Keyword Research: Down and Dirty
If you want your website found on the web, keyword research is the first step. Well, actually, the first step is deciding what products and services your website will sell and then actually building a website, but in between those two, keyword research has to be conducted. It means finding out what your potential clients are searching for online.
The thousands of terms people use to search for things related to your industry online will help you target your pay per click advertising and other web marketing, as well as help your SEO efforts (especially so you know what anchor text to use when link building). The wider your subject and more services or products your provide, the more in-depth your keyword research will get, sometimes resulting in lists tens of thousands of words long.
To start your keyword research, just brainstorm a bit and get into your target audience's head. What might they search for in the search engines to find your service? From there you can generate short list of broad terms. From there you can take your research in one of two directions.
The more traditional school uses online tools and programs. Google's Keyword Tool will generate a list of related terms and suggested terms as well as show how often people search for them. There is also software available that utilizes several online tools in one. Whichever you choose, do a bit of research to find how to best utilize it.
If the purpose of your keyword research is for your pay per click ads in Google or Yahoo, there's a better way to conduct your research. How is that you ask? Just a bit of experimentation involving your pay per click program.
This technique involves spending a little cash on for your research, but it often yields better results than more traditional keyword research. Just take your first general list of keywords and build your text ad campaign around them in whichever program you use. Most marketing programs allow you to chose a broad or exact keyword match for your terms - choose the broad option. This means whenever someone searches for a combination of words that include one of your keywords, your ad will show.
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.
It's really that simple - a great way to better-target your keywords to your audience and save a ton of time and energy on keyword research. (Not to mention your eyesight - if you've ever had to go through a spreadsheet 1000 words long to clean it up, you know what I mean!) This should help you have higher conversion rates as well, leading to more sales generated. Go ahead, give it a shot, and see if it works for you!
Article Source: http://www.search-raven.com
About the Author
The author, Ashley Lichty and her team does keyword research, content development and other search engine optimization practices for ProspectMX.com. You can learn more about her and her team by checking out her website.
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by: AshleyLichty
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