i-Search Engines

The next thing you need to do before settling on the keyword terms is check the competition for each term. The Wordtracker tool I mentioned above has a tool for that but I prefer to go straight to the horses mouth - Google. I take each keyword term, type it into Google and click the search. If you see that there is several million to several hundred million other sites competing for that keyword term, you may want to pick another instead. For sure you don't have to but the more competitive your terms, the longer it will take to get top search listings.

Once you are satisfied with the terms you chose, put them into a spreadsheet with the estimated daily searches. Be sure to date the spreadsheet because you need to come back in about 3 months and run the keyword analysis tool for those terms again. You do this simply to verify that the terms you chose were not just a 'fad' term - you want to make sure it still produces decent traffic.

Well, that is about it - you have mastered the art of choosing proper keyword terms. Actually, there is no way to master keyword selection - just when you think you have nailed down the best term(s), you find something that looks better. The key here is to find terms you are comfortable with, produce good traffic and have a low amount of competing sites, then stick with that term for a minimum of 4 to 6 months. You want to be able to see the fruit of your work and changing keyword terms too quickly won't give the search engines adequate time to rank your terms.

Just one more thought - don't trust your keyword analysis to just anyone if you can't do it yourself. A lot of SEO/SEM firms don't really care about getting you keyword terms that return great traffic and even better conversions, they just want to get terms that they know they can get rankings for (something non-competitive/non-preforming). Even then, don't always trust yourself either - it never hurts to get a second opinion.

A little extra time spent upfront will save you months of wasted time down the road.

Trevor Walter
Freelance Marketing Group, Inc.
http://www.fmgconsultants.com