If you don't like wasting money on “so-so” pay-per-click results, read on. If you're good with spending a couple hours to save a ton of cash, you need this information. This down-in-the-trenches guide to doing your own keyword research will instantly help revolutionize ANY pay-per-click campaign – and even organic SEO if that's your thing.

Ready to roll up your sleeves? Good!

Step 1: Grab a pad and pen and let's get busy. Start by writing down exactly what your website is about. I know it sounds too simple but trust me ? the basics you find here make all the difference later!

Step 2: Now circle every word that you think people enter into search engines trying to find what your site offers.

Step 3: OK ? Now let's use Google's AdWords keyword tool to see what people are REALLY searching for. Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in one of your circled words. Does it come up? Is it singular or plural? Do you see any similar words above the one you typed in that will also work? If so, write them down. Also check out the ?Additional Keywords to Consider? section at the bottom of the page.

Step 4: Find out what Google thinks your keywords should be for any given web-page. Just click on the ?Site-Related Keywords? tab of that same Google AdWords web page and enter your URL. If the keywords you selected in step two are not at the top of the list, you should consider either changing your page text or redefining what your keywords should be.

Here's a sanity check. Take that sheet of paper you started with and review what you wrote. This should be your ?baseline of vision.?

Step 5: Keep the AdWords tool open and also open a new browser window. Visit Google and enter any one of your keywords. When the results come up, check the number of matches found. This is your competition.

Step 6: Let's go back to the AdWords tool. Try to find some good specific ?keyword phrases? ? Not just single keywords. Here's what I mean... Let's say you have a page that deals with flower delivery. Instead of ?flowers?, which has 233,000,000 competing pages on Google, try ?send flowers?, which has 1/10th the number of competing pages. Better yet, think like people speak (I.E./ I'm sending flowers to...) As it turns out, a lot more people are searching for ?sending flowers? than are searching ?send flowers? and there's a lot less competition!

Recap: So what's the final score? Seven times less competition with even more people searching? This is a HUGE advantage. I'd say we have a winner. You can ? and should ? do that for every keyword or phrase you plan to go after, especially if you ever pay-per-click.

If you decide to dig deeper and want to get in some good ?spying and ethical stealing? of your competition's best keywords, search Google for keyword tools. There are a ton of them out there. I use Keyword Elite. It was developed by SEO Guru Brad Callen, (http://www.KeywordEliteWeb.com ). He's the same guy that developed the ever-famous SEO Elite - http://www.SeoEliteWeb.com

Best of luck!