Keyword research in undoubtedly one of the most important aspects to consider when setting up your own online home business.

If you don’t target your keyword phrases effectively then you will be wasting both time and effort, performing tasks that will never pay off no matter how hard you try.

Here are some points to consider when conducting your keyword research:

1. Consider which tools you are going to use and save them to a one of your favourites folders for easy and frequent access. There are even some tools out there that allow you to download a tool bar with all the tools readily available. There are numerous free tools, many of which are very useful. I personally, use a tool called Keyword Elite to conduct my online keyword research.

2. What keyphrases are you going to target? – If you have very few resources available and are new to online marketing then it is advisable that you target ‘long tail’ keyword phrases. These are keyword phrases with 3-5 words, which make them a lot less competitive and easier to attain top rankings in the search engines.

3. Use a variety of keyword phrases for each campaign – Are you using the keywords in your website content or are they primarily for backlinking text? I would find two or three less competitive keyword phrases for each target market and use these to create backlinks through article submissions. Then, take ten different variations of these keyword phrases and use them in your website content.

4. Target profitable keyword phrases – Obviously the main aim of keyword research is to find profitable keywords. How can we do that? One effective way to target buyers and also find less competitive search terms is to find keyword phrases that contain certain words like, ‘buy’ as in ‘buy keyword research tool’.

5. Find untapped markets – Many of your competitors will be targeting all the same keyword phrases. This is where they fall down. Find obscure phrases that your target are already searching for and go after these by specifically writing articles based on these to achieve better or top search engine rankings. One good way to do this is by scanning your current website visitors and finding the keyword terms that sent them to your site.

Keyword research is only a beginning in building a profitable online business but it is an aspect of your marketing that cannot be overlooked. Effective keyword research is essential to ensure your business becomes a huge success and not a dismal failure.



By: Mal Keenan

TheNewPPC asked:

In the last video, we showed you how to determine if you’re in the right market, how to find your most profitable keywords, and how to do some “sneaky” research using Clickbank. Today we’ll show you our keyword lists, the market analysis, and start uploading our campaigns in Google AdWords, Yahoo Overture (Search Marketing), and MSN AdCenter. Watch over our shoulders as we do this and talk about everything. Due to the YouTube limitations, these videos are part of a 2 part series. This video …

So you have developed your idea for a niche website and you’re raring to go, but before you go ahead and start writing content there is another vital step you should take. It seems so obvious and yet many people make the error of failing to take it. What is this critical next move? Keyword research.

The importance of keyword research

The effective use of keyword research can mean the difference between a website that climbs the search engine listings, has thousands of visitors each day and generates an excellent revenue and a website that goes unnoticed. Using niche keywords can improve your sales and boost your profits. Keywords or keyword phrases are the terms that a searcher types into a search engine to find whatever they’re looking for on the internet. Keyword research is the process of selecting the most appropriate keywords on order to optimize your search engine rankings and help lead visitors to your site.

How to research keywords

You don’t have to be a marketing expert to do your own keyword expert; there are already tools out there to help you. Two good examples are Instant Keyword Research and Keyword Elite. Both are simple tool to use and will save you a lot of time and leg work. The advantages of such a tool are obvious:

You can find more specifically targeted keywords

You can improve your search engine ranking

You can save time

You can increase your profits

You can generate large keyword lists

You can uncover negative keywords to avoid

Keyword analysis

Another advantage of using a keyword research tool is that it will give you an estimate on daily clicks per keyword and pay-per-click bid values. Why is this important? If you want to optimize your profits you need a heads up on the competition. These figures will allow you to analyze how many pages are competing for the top rankings and to focus your keywords.

How to use your keywords

Once you have completed your research and generated a list of targeted keywords you need to know where to place them on your website. Strategic placement will greatly improve your search engine ranking. It’s important not to fall into the trap of overusing them otherwise the search engines may interpret them as spam.

Optimal use of keywords is 3-7 times on each page

The title tag should contain your most important keywords, usually 5-6

Headings tags should contain your most important keywords or keyword phrases

Use keywords in hypertext links

Keyword content should be placed in the upper third portion of the text

Most Internet marketing experts will tell you that keyword research and proper usage means more to your website’s success than almost any other aspect. So take your time, do the research and create your content the right way.



By: Andy West