by Ruth Belena

Created on: July 05, 2009

Keyword research is essential for any online marketing campaign, using successful search engine optimization. Your challenge in finding the best performance keywords is to determine what keywords will target visitors who are most likely to buy or subscribe from your promotional web pages. Any website can attract high levels of traffic with some general keywords, but those keywords will not always result in sales, sign-ups or new customers for your online business.

The first step in finding the best performance keywords is to make a list of the products, programs and services that you offer in your online business. Select keywords that clearly define what your online business is about. Cover all the search terms that could be used for each item or service you sell.

Your selection of performance keywords should be based on every aspect, such as product name, type of service, associated brands, and some general terms relating to uses of your product, service or program, and the benefits to customers of using your online business.

When doing keyword research you may find it helpful to do some market research analysis to establish the best performance keywords. One way to do this is to examine keywords used by your competitors, particularly ones that are highly successful.

There are a number of free online tools to help you identify keywords most frequently used in searches for your type of business, and to find alternative keywords related to your online business.

- Useful Keyword Research Tools -

Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool This free online tool shows keyword suggestions from both Wordtracker and Overture. It provides appropriate phrases that appear most often in searches, and will show how often particular phrases are used. You can also use this tool to find alternative keywords for different aspects of your business.

Wordtracker Trends You can use this free keyword tool to find trends in search engine results for the top hundred keywords related to any word or phrase. It also provides an estimate of daily search volume for any given keyword.

Wordtracker Keyword Questions This is a great way to find questions people ask when using search engines. Use questions that relate to your online business, as long tail keywords. You should also use them to create valuable content that answers what people need to know, in connection with your business activities.

Google Keyword Tool Although it is designed to generate keywords for Google AdWords, anyone can use this free tool to get ideas for appropriate keywords by entering a few descriptive words or phrases.

Google Search-based Keyword Tool Use this free tool to find relevant user queries that have frequently been used in Google searches, or to find data about each keyword.

Most Internet users know how to use a search engine to find information, and many will search to compare similar products, to find the most efficient service, or to look for the lowest price offer. Finding the best performance keywords will benefit your online business, when you optimize all your web pages to attract many new prospects and potential customers.

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