Keyword research is one of the most important stages of developing a website - especially if the purpose of the site is to generate money and business. Your first step is deciding exactly what you will be selling on your site - is it a product, service or information? Next is taking the steps to find out the type of things people type into the search engines when looking for your particular product or service.



The more terms people use to search, the better you can target your Internet marketing straight to them. It will also help you to better target your search engine optimization techniques. The more general your topic, the longer your keyword research will be. For instance, if you're only selling fishing rods, your keyword list will be shorter than if you sell the whole shebang: rods, tackle, bait, etc.

The first step to keyword research is often just putting you 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 me, 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.

If the purpose of your keyword research is for your pay per click ads in Google or Yahoo, there's a better way to conduct your research. How is that you ask? Just a bit of experimentation involving your pay per click program.

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.

It's really not rocket-science, it just means putting a little money up front. While more traditional keyword research works and definitely has value, for companies with less manpower and time, this method should help lead to higher conversion rates at lower costs. It can't hurt to try!