Okay, so you have a website or a product you want to promote online. The next step is finding the right keywords. Choosing the correct keywords will ultimately determine how successful your marketing will be. There are a few easy steps you can take to make sure that you are always on top of the competition.

The first thing you should do is write down the first keywords that come to mind describing your website or product. This will give you a general list of where you should start in your selection. After you have done this you might want to visit the websites of a couple of your competitors. If you go to 'view' in your browser menu and then go to 'source', you will be able to view that websites code. In the very top of the code look for the tag that says 'header' and inside the header will be a meta tag that says 'keywords' in it. Write down any of the keywords on their lists that you find useful.

After you have your list the next step is going to Google. If you visit Google's site, you will find Google's keyword tool. Simply type in the keywords you have on your list and the tool will give you a list of similar keywords, tell you which ones are the most popular, and tell you how much competition you have for each keyword. The best thing to do is choose a keyword that has a reasonable amount of search volume, but not a lot of competition. It is these words that you want to use in your Google Adwords campaigns and search engine optimization.

Try to find your own little 'niche' by breaking down what your business does into something more specific. For example if your business sells cake mix, instead of simply using 'cake mix' as your keyword try to break it down into something that you further specialize in such as 'German Chocolate cake mix'. After a while of breaking down your keywords and re-entering them into Google's keyword tool, you should have a keyword or two that you can work with.

Alternatively, if you are short on time, or you just can't seem to find that certain niche, you can use software that will do this WHOLE process for you. This is a good move on many levels, because you won't have to spend countless hours researching and refining your keywords. Also, using software will pick up some of those 'niche' keywords that have slipped by you, that could have made you a lot of money.