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After discussing how important it is to set and keep within
a budget (Lesson One) and the importance of finding a niche
market that you can feel passionate about (Lesson Two), we
are now going to embark on a key Internet marketing success
strategy:
HOW TO GET THE RIGHT KEYWORDS FOR YOUR WEBSITE
There is a lot to discuss, so today's lesson is jam-packed with detail.
So, let's dive in!
KEYWORDS = Words that are used in search engine searches to find specific information, products or services.
Keyword Research: "How Do I Choose Good Keywords For My Website?"
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| Keyword research is the process of determining which
keyword phrases best describe your website's products and/or
services. Obviously, that will depend on the niche market
you have chosen (see Lesson Two). When you have chosen some keywords, you will
need to narrow down your list by doing some further research and asking, "What keywords are people searching for?"
If you have not thought about how to get the right keywords for your website you may not be getting the most suitable visitors and those who do land on your pages may not want to read your
information or buy your products.
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HOW TO GET THE RIGHT KEYWORDS: A THREE STEP PROCESS
Keyword research can be broken down into a three step
process.
STEP 1: DISCOVERY PHASE
In this step you want to focus on identifying as many
keywords or phrases as possible.
Initially you need to sit down and brainstorm a list of
keyword/keyword phrases that address the topic of your web
site. Have a dictionary and thesaurus handy. At this point
include every word or phrase that you can think of. The point is not to find the best keywords at this stage.
There are several keyword tools that are available to help
you generate a keyword list. Google's Adwords Tool is free.
You can access it here:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
You can also use the user-friendly keyword suggestion tools
that Empowerism.com
offers free to members as part of their extensive portfolio of Internet marketing research services.
With these tools you will be able to generate hundreds of
keyword phrases.
STEP 2: ANALYSIS PHASE
This step involves analyzing the popularity and competition
for the keyword phrases.
I use almost every one of the 24 SEO tools available in the
Empowerism.com member centre to maximize my keyword analysis
options and to find the best keywords for my campaign. The
more specific your keyword phrase, the more relevant and
targeted your traffic will be.
You can use Google's Adword tool to get an idea of the value
placed on a keyword (i.e. its competitiveness) by checking
the "Estimated Avg. CPC" (Cost Per Click) column after you
have entered a keyword and a suggested CPC value.
You can find how many searches are conducted for various
keyword phrases by using the free keyword research tool
provided by WordTracker at:
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
Add up the total number of searches for your TOP 5-7 keyword
phrases to find the total search volume.
Between the 5-7 keyword phrases, the sum of all of them
combined, should total at least 75,000 - 100,000 searches
per month.
That means at minimum, you should have 5 keyword
phrases that get searched 500 times per day. Or 7 keyword
phrases that get searched 350 times per day. You get the
idea. If you don't have that much...then the niche is not
worth pursuing. Move on to the next one.
(Note, although you want your TOP 5-7 keywords to attract a
reasonable number of hits, the rest of your list can also be
useful for pulling in extra traffic.)
STEP THREE: KEYWORD SELECTION PHASE
From your analysis phase, you should be able to identify a
number of high quality keyword phrases that accurately
describe the qualities of your website.
Select a dozen keywords and key phrases from your list.
This is a very important exercise and you should spend at
least a couple of hours, if not more, researching different
keywords.
While you are researching your keywords, check your
competitors by doing a search in a couple of popular search
engines like Google, Yahoo, etc., using those keywords. Keep
a record of your competitors' urls and other information
because you don't want to waste your time doing the same
search again in the near future.
To find which sites use the exact keyword phrase, place it
between inverted commas, "" to narrow down the search. | Get Your Site To The Top In 3 Easy Steps... Click Here |
In your final selection of keyword phases you need to look
for phrases that have a high level of search activity,
while the level of competitiveness is relatively low.
To make your final selection of 15-20 of the best keywords and keyword phrases you
will want to do a Google search on the keyword phrases and
view the top web sites listed for each phrase. Also, check
the number of competing sites. Don't be put off by high
numbers, but initially, aim to get your site in the top 1-5
ranking on the first page for keywords that are on no more
than 5,000 sites.
Longer keyword phrases (also known as "long tail keywords")
can be used to get one or more of your webpages to the very
top of the rankings for some less frequented but highly
relevant search terms, so feel free to cheerfully attack
phrases with just a few sites to compete against.
Are the top listed sites professionally designed? Can you
design a web page that can move up into the top ratings for
this keyword phrase? It is not as difficult as you may
imagine, especially when you bring article marketing
(Lesson Nine) and blogging (Lesson Five) into play.
ONE KEYWORD OR KEYWORD PHRASE PER PAGE
When starting a new web site it's highly recommended to
target only ONE UNIQUE KEYWORD per page. With your newly
researched keyword list you can write your content with a
balanced use of unique phrases that will help generate
traffic to your web pages.
Scroll down to continue the lesson...
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