Keyword Research

Laying a foundation is one of the most important things that must be done in order to make your website successful. A beautiful design, professional logo, and all the content in the world will not necessarily translate into earnings. In today’s competitive market, keyword research is the basis for website owners who are serious about making an income.

keyword researchAnd as important as keyword research is to the profitability of your website, it is nevertheless, a time-consuming and difficult process. Therefore, we have compiled a few resources to make your search a little easier. Some are free while others are subscription based (must be a paid user) so you need to decide for yourself what is the best solution at your stage of development.

Use Your Server Logs:

If you already have one website, use your Awstats from your server to determine keywords that are popular. Often, you are not familiar with the key phrases or terms that visitors use to come to your site. When you see a pattern for a phrase, use that on one or more of your pages to attract more users or a higher position in the search engine results.

Google is a Wealth of Information:

There are several ways to use google to find keywords to target. Again, if you already have one website, using Google Webmaster Tools will help you find where you rank for a keyword and what the specific phrase is.

Google Trends is a great place to find niches or keywords to target. Every day, Google provides the most popular searches from their search engine. Hourly, they provide Hot Trends which means that you can really zero-in on something current. By using keywords from here, you can capitalize on seasonal earnings or quick fads.

Google Insights for Search can help you as well. It is particularly useful if you want geographical data which can be very lucrative because you can geo-target your content and products.

Checking Competitors’ Keywords:

SpyFu allows you to find out about keywords and phrases that you might suspect are good target words. You type in your keywords and it lets you know how many searches were conducted and who presently ranks for that keyword. It also lets you submit an existing domain name to find out what words that site ranks for, and what its position is on Google. The basic service is free and you do not have to register.

KeywordSpy lets you spy on your competitors. To use the service, you must register an email address, and then you receive a Lifetime Free Trial. Paid packages with more features are available.

Basic Keyword Searches:

KeywordDiscovery has a section that most people do not know about. You do not have to sign up to use it either. You type in your suggested keyword, and it returns how many searches were conducted and a list of derivations on the keyword and their search numbers.

Paid Solutions:

There are two highly popular softwares that help you research keywords and decide which keywords to target. Both programs are downloaded onto your hard drive.

MarketSamurai provides a free one month trial. Once your trial is finished, many of the features are disabled, although you can still access the work you have completed.

NicheBot has a fourteen day trial for $1 so you must provide payment information before you try the product.

So even if you have no clue about what is hot and what is not, there are many ways to conduct keyword research. Many online utilities will help you to find which keywords to target.

As a final resort, consider hiring a professional SEO Company or an internet marketing company to assist you in making the right keyword decisions. These people have the experience you need in targeting the right keyphrases!