Keyword Voodoo

How to Research Profitable Keywords for your Niche

While you’re building your website with the aim of building an online business, one of the most important things to build into your efforts is using your site to target the most profitable keywords.

Keywords or key phrases are the search terms used by people — your customers — to find the information they’re looking for from the search engines. Sometimes those keywords will be a specific product name and number (Kodak 630G), and other times it will be a more general phrase, like “best point and click camera”.

In order to find out what keywords you will get the most advantage from, you’ll need to do some serious keyword research.

Keyword Research: How to Find Profitable Keywords

The first thing to consider when doing keyword research is how many searches are made each month for the keywords you choose. A keyword that has only a few, or even a few dozen, exact match searches each month has virtually no chance of being profitable. Remember that even if you rank very well for that keyword, you’ll only get a fraction of those searches to your site.

To be considered as a likely profitable keyword to target, it should have at least 1000 exact match searches each month.

Keyword Research using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Using the Keyword Tool from Google is a good way to begin your keyword research.

Type your keyword or keyphrase in the keyword box, and in the Match Type section, uncheck broad and check exact.

You’ll be able to see a range of keywords and their monthly searches. Clicking on the column header for Global Monthly Searches will sort your results from most searched to least. If none of your keywords looks like a potential winner, don’t be discouraged. Try alternate keywords and phrases until you find out what people ARE searching for.

Keyword Research: Competition Score

The other column you should be paying attention to in the Google Adwords Keyword Tool is the one labeled Competition. Unless you’ve got a magic trick that will get you to the top of Google for highly competitive keywords, the best keyphrases when beginning to build a site are words and phrases with a good number of monthly searches and low to medium competition.

Before you decide to rule out a really great keyword with lots of competition, though, be sure to do an actual search on Google and see the results for yourself. It may be that although a lot results show up for that keyword, very few of them are optimized. In those cases, it may well be possible to bypass all or most of the competition for that keyword and rank very well in spite of the high competition score.

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Keyword Research – Finding a Keyword Tool

Keyword Research – What do you need a keyword tool for?

Before you decide on a keyword tool that will best suit your needs, you first need to be clear about what you’re going to use the tool for.

Some people use keyword information in order to find the best Google Adwords keywords and key phrases to focus on when purchasing advertising.

Others might wish to learn which keywords to emphasize in their search engine optimization efforts to rank highly in organic search results.

Content writers might use a keyword tool to generate ideas for articles and blog posts that will rank highly and drive lots of views.

Marketers might use a keyword tool to discover high-paying keywords to build sites for in order to earn money with Adsense or advertising.

If you are hoping to promote your site with social media marketing, using a tool that focuses on various social networking tools is important.

The information you’d need most from your keyword research tool in each instance is slightly different, so a tool that works for one purpose might not be ideal for another.

Keyword Research – How do you decide which keyword tool to use?

When you are searching for a keyword tool to use, it’s best to start looking at applications and software that were written for the goal or purpose you have in mind. SEO keyword software will be best suited for search engine optimization keyword research, while Google Adwords Keyword tool and similar software will work best if you’re using keyword research for advertising purposes.

That’s not to say that you should ignore keyword tools not made specifically for your purpose, especially if they’re free, but you should be aware that they might not give you the whole picture.

Keyword Research – How often should you use a keyword tool?

Some keyword tools offer a free trial period, and while it may be tempting to simply garner as much information as possible during that period rather than paying for the software, keyword research is not a one-time activity.

Keywords change in both usage and popularity over time, and if you are serious about your keyword research, you should check your keywords in your keyword software at least once per month.

Should you trust your keyword tool?

No matter what your purpose in using keyword research, or the keyword tool you’re using, it is important to check that you’re getting the results you desire from your efforts.

If you’re targeting keywords to rank high in search engine results, it’s essential to not only check that your site is ranking well for those terms, but also to ensure that those terms are bringing in the traffic that your keyword research promised.

If you are researching advertising keywords, it’s essential to keep an eye on the popularity of those terms as well as the price per click.