There are countless e-commerce entrepreneurs out there looking to make their first million online. They have ambitions to build extravagant websites full of enticing offers. They intend to optimize their websites to show up on the first page of a Google search and they plan to use pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic to their new businesses. But before any of that can take place, an online business needs to start with a list of targeted keywords.

Keywords form the pillars of your online business identity. They're used to compare you with other businesses. They're used to determine where on a search results page you show up. They're used to assess a cost for your pay-per-click advertising and they're used to guide advertisement placement for other people's pay-per-click on your own site. Indeed, keywords are the cornerstone of an effective e-commerce business.

When an online business is launched, everything that is done needs to target a list of pre-selected targeted keywords chosen to best represent your business intentions while encountering minimum competition along the way. If the keywords are poorly targeted, you'll be inviting suboptimal visitors to your site. Yet, if you're targeting the most popular keywords in your area of expertise, the competition will drown you out or force you to pay much more to get noticed.

The success of failure will be directly affected by the keywords you choose and this article presents three different things you should do to build that list. It also presents these three strategies in a deliberate order, designed to optimize the process. Taking the time to work through this process BEFORE you launch your online business will save you countless hours and dollars later on.

First, run a few Google searches yourself, trying to find your competitors. Make note of the keywords you use in your searches as your prospective customers will likely do similar searches. Once you find your competitors, visit their websites, right click, select view source and copy the keywords they have listed in their own meta tags. Within minutes you could accumulate a long list of keywords. Highlight the ones you like the most.

Second, purchase a one-day subscription to WordTracker.com (for $8) and enter the highlighted words one by one. The website will provide a long list of related words for each word you entered. Print these lists out and keep them handy. You will eventually use these lists to optimize the text on your website. Regardless what you're writing, you should get into the habit of using your keywords and related words whenever possible.

Third, go to the Google Keyword Tool in the Adwords platform. The tool is publicly available and can be accessed for free. Enter your favorite keywords in 2-word and 3-word combinations. The tool will provide long lists of related keyword phrases along with their usage frequency within live searches and the competition for purchasing those words for pay-per-click advertising. Even if you have no intention of doing such advertising, you can extrapolate the competition for those same keyword phrases for organic optimization.

By following these three steps, you will end up with a list of keyword phrases that are commonly used as search criteria but that encounter little competition from other e-commerce entrepreneurs. All of your subsequent efforts should then revolve around those phrases, ensuring your online business identity is properly represented and sufficiently encapsulated by them. Your online identity is driven by effective targeting and targeting is a function of keywords. Choose them wisely.