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The Basics of Keyword Research

Author: AshleyLichty
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Word Count: 576
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If you want your website found on the web, keyword research is the first step. Well, actually, the first step is deciding what products and services your website will sell and then actually building a website, but in between those two, keyword research has to be conducted. It means finding out what your potential clients are searching for online.

It's the myriad of terms people use to search that will allow you to better target any search marketing you do, as well as start building content and links to help your organic rankings in the search engines (also known as search engine optimization). The wider your subject, the more in-depth your keyword research will be - sometimes ending in a list of keywords in the tens of thousands. For example, if you sell ONLY 3 brands of fishing rods, your keyword list will be noticeably shorter than if you sold fishing rods, line, bait, tackle, the whole nine.

The first step to keyword research is often just putting yourself in your target audience's shoe and brainstorming. Put together a general list of the terms they may use to find your product or service. Then you actually conduct your keyword research. Everyone has their own way of doing I, but there are generally two schools of keyword research.

The more traditional school uses online tools and programs. Google's Keyword Tool will generate a list of related terms and suggested terms as well as show how often people search for them. There is also software available that utilizes several online tools in one. Whichever you choose, do a bit of research to find how to best utilize it.

Of course, if the purpose of your keyword research is to build search marketing campaigns through Yahoo and Google, you can save yourself time, energy and the game of trying to figure out which keywords are the best to use and which will waste money. How you ask? Simply by doing a bit of experiment with whichever search marketing program you use.

If you have a bit of extra cash to spend, you can do your keyword research in a whole different way. Take your original list of several terms and begin building a campaign around them (this works for both Google, Yahoo and other search marketing affiliates). Most search marketing programs have the option of using a "broad" keyword match - meaning whatever combination of search terms somebody types in, as long as it contains your keyword, your ad will pop up for them.

You can spend some money by running your test campaign for a week or two, and wind up actually cutting the manpower hours your keyword research takes in half. Using the analytics software most search marketing programs provide, you can track which keywords led people to click on your actual ads. Than you can add keywords and tweak your campaign as necessary, to get the most for your marketing, eventually cutting out broad match keywords for exact matches.

Keyword research can sound daunting, especially for newcomers, but practice makes perfect, and this tip can wind up saving you a lot of trouble and time. In the long run, it should also help you target your keywords to your audience better, get you higher conversion rates and hopefully save some money. It's always important to try something for yourself before you rule it out entirely!

About the Author

About the author: Ashley Lichty, along with her colleagues, do keyword research, copywriting and other SEO practices for ProspectMX.com. You can learn more about her and her team by visiting ProspectMX.