Finding keyword phrases that will help you get traffic is one of the primary ways webmasters make money on the internet. If you target keywords that are too competitive, you'll be spending a lot of time with very little to show for it. If you can find keyword phrases that have little competition or that will require less work to achieve a top ranking in the search engines, you'll be able to get traffic to your website.
Start your research by brainstorming a list of keyword phrases that match what your website will be about or what you believe people are searching for when you want them to find your website. I've found that using a spreadsheet is the best way to keep track of your keywords. If you don't currently own Microsoft Office, you can use Google Docs or OpenOffice.
From the more broad keyword phrases, you'll be able to take more specific keyword phrases that indicate individuals being more apt to take action or buy products or services from you. For instance, someone that searches for "mp3 players" isn't as ready to actually buy an mp3 player versus someone who searches for "32GB iPod Touch 2nd Gen". Now, when you end up reviewing the competition for these keywords, there are millions of pages using the keyword phrases "mp3 players" but only a few thousand pages that use "32GB iPod Touch 2nd Gen".
With any of these keyword phrases that you've found, you'll need to determine how many monthly searches are done so you know which of these keyword phrases will be worth going for. Two great tools for doing this are the Google Adwords keyword tool and the free keyword tool at freekeywords.wordtracker.com.
When you have data about how many searches get done on these keywords, you'll need to cross reference the competition. You'll need to know how many other websites there are on the internet that contain your keyword phrase. Google has in its index a lot of websites and you'll be able to get some data on how many pages Google has where your keyword phrases are being used.
There are some search parameters that you can use, especially with Google that will give you some indications of how much competition there really is for these keyword phrases. If you do searches with the allintitle or allinanchor options with your keyword phrases, you'll have an especially good idea of which of those keyword phrases you should go after with your website.
As far as what numbers you're looking for, go with a minimum search volume of 100 searches per day or 3000 searches per month. Of course, if you have a very specialized site, or something that doesn't require as much traffic, you may still be able to go for keyword phrases with less than 100, but make that your baseline. As far as competition, go for keyword phrases that have less than 10,000 allintitle or allinanchor. The higher the competition, the harder it will be to get your website ranked in the search engines.
Finding keywords is just the start. Once you have your keyword phrases, you'll need to place those strategically in your web pages including in the page title, h1 tags, and within the content of the page itself. Ideally, you'll have about a 3-5% keyword density. What this means is that you'll use your 2-3 word keyword phrase about 1-2 times for every 100 words. If you have a few paragraphs in your blog post or your web page, plan on about 1 keyword phrase per paragraph. If you use those keyword phrases in the right way, you'll be on your way to getting those top rankings. - 16069
Start your research by brainstorming a list of keyword phrases that match what your website will be about or what you believe people are searching for when you want them to find your website. I've found that using a spreadsheet is the best way to keep track of your keywords. If you don't currently own Microsoft Office, you can use Google Docs or OpenOffice.
From the more broad keyword phrases, you'll be able to take more specific keyword phrases that indicate individuals being more apt to take action or buy products or services from you. For instance, someone that searches for "mp3 players" isn't as ready to actually buy an mp3 player versus someone who searches for "32GB iPod Touch 2nd Gen". Now, when you end up reviewing the competition for these keywords, there are millions of pages using the keyword phrases "mp3 players" but only a few thousand pages that use "32GB iPod Touch 2nd Gen".
With any of these keyword phrases that you've found, you'll need to determine how many monthly searches are done so you know which of these keyword phrases will be worth going for. Two great tools for doing this are the Google Adwords keyword tool and the free keyword tool at freekeywords.wordtracker.com.
When you have data about how many searches get done on these keywords, you'll need to cross reference the competition. You'll need to know how many other websites there are on the internet that contain your keyword phrase. Google has in its index a lot of websites and you'll be able to get some data on how many pages Google has where your keyword phrases are being used.
There are some search parameters that you can use, especially with Google that will give you some indications of how much competition there really is for these keyword phrases. If you do searches with the allintitle or allinanchor options with your keyword phrases, you'll have an especially good idea of which of those keyword phrases you should go after with your website.
As far as what numbers you're looking for, go with a minimum search volume of 100 searches per day or 3000 searches per month. Of course, if you have a very specialized site, or something that doesn't require as much traffic, you may still be able to go for keyword phrases with less than 100, but make that your baseline. As far as competition, go for keyword phrases that have less than 10,000 allintitle or allinanchor. The higher the competition, the harder it will be to get your website ranked in the search engines.
Finding keywords is just the start. Once you have your keyword phrases, you'll need to place those strategically in your web pages including in the page title, h1 tags, and within the content of the page itself. Ideally, you'll have about a 3-5% keyword density. What this means is that you'll use your 2-3 word keyword phrase about 1-2 times for every 100 words. If you have a few paragraphs in your blog post or your web page, plan on about 1 keyword phrase per paragraph. If you use those keyword phrases in the right way, you'll be on your way to getting those top rankings. - 16069
About the Author:
Brian specializes in keyword marketing research videos as well as affordable web hosting. You can get several pay-per-click vouchers including from Google, MSN Adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing.
