Keyword research
To properly understand the keyword research it is better to know the keyword first.
Keywords are the starting point for effective websites.
The term "Keyword" has two meanings depending on whether you are:
- Searching for something
- Writing a webpage
In simple words I can say that a keyword is the word or words used to search for something. For example if you were looking for information about Degree College, you would go to your favorite search engine and enter:
Degree college, degree college in US, best degree college worldwide etc. etc……….
These are the keywords from the perspective of the searcher. It simply means that the searcher usually use the words whatever he generally speaks.
Notice that although we have used the term keyword the searcher usually enters more than one; 2-3 word searches are the most common.
The keyword should represent the topic or theme for a web page/website. For example if you were going to write an article on degree colleges then the page keyword would be, degree colleges and the page content would all be focused on that(name, place, ranking etc.)
After properly understanding what is keyword? Now we can move on keyword research.
What is Keyword research?
Keyword research is the most crucial step for any website. For the optimization of the web page it is of great importance that you should choose the accurate keyword matching the quality of the content.
After selection of the keyword an analysis of the keyword is important to yield the highest ROI. Keyword research is the first step towards optimizing your website. It is the right keywords that form the success of pay-per click campaigns. An in-depth study of the keywords only will give you the perfect idea about selecting the right keyword, which people use in order to search for your products or services via the search engine.
Keyword Research consists of three major steps:
- Keyword Identification
Keyword identification is about finding the keywords that your target group is using. There are many online tools that are available that will help speed up this process
- ROI Analysis
In the second step of keyword research, the most valuable keywords for your web site should be short listed. The most generic keywords are the most widely searched, but also the most competitive. Generally, phrases that most accurately describe specific qualities of a site yield the highest ROI as I have described earlier through degree college example.
- Competitive Analysis
In this final step of keyword research, an analysis is conducted to judge the strength of competitors for potential keywords. Competitive factors include how attentive sites are to optimization issues and the number of relevant inbound links they have received. Another important factor to be kept in mind is that the selected keywords should be place strategically in the content to increase your rankings in the search engine.
Keyword Research Tools
There are number of tools available for keyword research, however the main ones are
- Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool - Overture is a free tool and can be used directly from the overture web site or through many derivative programs.
- Wordtracker - is commercial software specifically developed for keyword research. They do offer a free limited trial version on their website.
Keyword selection
This involves deciding which keywords are the best ones to use. This is not simply choosing the most popular! There are other criteria to evaluate like ..
- which are easier
- which keywords are more profitable
- which keywords will generate more clicks.
Today there are large mass of tools that can be brought to use for effective keyword research. Once you have the right keyword with you and accordingly the right content, you will create a direct communication bond with your visitors because you will be speaking their language.
