by Christina Pomoni

Created on: July 06, 2010

Keyword research is a fundamental activity in the context of search engine optimization (SEO) that can make or break a web marketing strategy. Its importance is reflected in its ability to forecast shifts in demand and take action to altering market conditions through the use of effective keywords that raise consumer interest and drive more traffic to a website. Besides, in today’s competitive business environment it is of vital importance to understand consumer behavior and be able to intrigue more visitors to your website through the conduct of effective keyword research.

Here are the steps to conduct effective keyword research:

a) Determine the value of a keyword

There are keywords and KEYwords. And there are several methods to evaluate a keyword and understand how valuable it might be to rank for and receive traffic in search engines. For instance, keywords that return pay-per-click ads along with organic search results are considered greatly valued and directly conversion-prone keywords. Besides, keywords that are a match to Google AdWords campaigns are also valuable. You can test innumerable keywords in a sample Google AdWords campaign by selecting “exact match” option and measuring the traffic to your website as well as conversion rates, meaning the percentage of custom visitors who turn into actual customers. By using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool (adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) you can get comprehensive information for competition in your industry, the estimated cost per click (CPC) for each keyword on an ad clicked and historical data on the number of searches for particular keywords or keyword phrases over the past moths.

b) Target your audience with specific keywords

As in any business, customers are equally important in e-commerce. Particularly, when it comes to web marketing efforts that lack the element of personal contact, it is very important to know your target audience and convey the right message. This involves employing the right strategies to ensure that your target audience will find your site. And one of the best strategies is using the right keywords that people are most likely to enter in their search engines when looking for products or services relevant to your online site. To achieve that you can create a list of possible keywords by brainstorming, but also by using traffic monitoring, log analysis and user surveys features.

c) Use other keyword research tools

Besides the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, there are other valuable search engine data keyword research tools that can provide information about the effectiveness of the keywords used in your website. These are WordTracker (www.wordtracker.com) and Keyword Discovery (www.keyworddiscovery.com) that both offer free versions of keyword research tools. By entering your keyword, you get a comprehensive list of keyword phrases that match your keyword and an estimate of their popularity.

Finally, you can use your own insight and knowledge in the sense of knowing at least one keyword that can promote your product or service effectively ion the Web. You can also use the insight and knowledge of your customers, who definitely associate products with words or images. This is the fundamental law of brand building. Finally, you can check your competitor’s websites to see what keywords they use for similar products or services. In doing so, you will get an idea of what keywords are really effective in your industry.

Sources:

http://www.articlesbase.com/sem-articles/how-to-cond uct-keyword-research-575169.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_5201616_do-keyword-research. html

http://www.improvetheweb.com/how-to-conduct-your-key word-research-and-make-your-seo-more-efficient

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