Why Keyword Research Will Make Or Break Your Website

Conducting proper keyword research is absolutely critical to the success of your online business – period. Without knowing which keywords you want to target you can not begin your SEO or PPC plans. There are many factors you will want to consider: building a broad keyword list, conducting initial ppc keyword research to isolate buying keywords, free vs paid keyword tools, determining broad vs longer tail keywords and understanding the impact of competition. Let me show you how to select the best keywords for your online business.

Step 1 – Building A Broad Keyword List

Building a broad keyword list is for your online business is most definitely the first step you need to take in your keyword research. Good news is that the Google Keyword Tool is near perfect for this task. Essentially what you are doing is looking to cast the widest possible net over your selected niche or market. Start with core terms and let the keyword tool select variations and sort by overall monthly traffic volume. Depending on your niche you should easily be able to gather a list of hundreds of words in little time.

Step 2  - Conducting Initial PPC Keyword Research To Isolate Buying Keywords

Now that you have a broad list of keywords, I strongly advise that you conduct some live market research in the form of an online PPC campaign. This is not crucial, but I strongly recommend it if you have the funds available to you – as it really is the best way to test the waters and to also test which are the buying keywords vs research only keywords.
For this test I recommend you use a 1 page landing page with some decent copy which searchers can purchase your product from. You will then want to set-up your adwords campaign and enable conversion tracking so that you can track online purchases. If you are unsure about adwords there are some tutorial videos which will be available shortly. I recommend that you set a high enough bid amount for all keywords so they are guaranteed first page. Start your campaign and let it run for at least 2 weeks. This will provide you with some very powerful market analysis.

Step 3 – Free vs Paid Tools

If you skipped step 2 then you are definitely going to need to conduct some in-depth analysis of your prospective keywords. To do this there are some free tools which you can use which are OK – but also some ‘paid tools’which can deliver brilliant results.

Free Tools

We have already mentioned the Google Keyword Tool – and it is still an excellent tool for this stage of your keyword research. Specifically you will be looking for individual traffic volumes and competition. It is also worthwhile to note the average CPC for the keywords – as this will often have a strong bearing on the ‘value’of the keyword. Wordtracker is another fantastic keyword research tool which comes with a free trial for 1 week. You can do all your research within that period for absolutely nothing – and youwill have some fantastic information at your finger tips.

Paid Tools

My personal favourite keyword tool is called ‘Market Samurai’- it is put simply the most advanced keyword research tool I have ever come across – and one of my now ‘not so best kept’secrets. For you aussies – best of all it was created by an Australian. It interfaces beautifully with Google and delivers a level of information which is unparalleled with any other keyword tool available. I strongly recommend you check out Market Samurai.

Another fantastic offeringand more cost effective is Keyword Elite which was created by SEO superstar Brad Callen. I am a big fan of this product and use both of these products in tandem to conduct my keyword research.

Click HERE To Learn More About Keyword Elite

Step 4 – Understanding The Impact Of Competition

The final thing I wanted to discuss in relation to keyword research is understanding the impact of competition. Competition for keywords will have the biggest impact on your ability to rank organically for it in a short space of time. I would suggest that you initially target the lower competition keyword-phrases – but have an ongoing plan to target broader phrases which you will be able to gain representation on as your site ages and gains authority in the eyes of Google.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has given you an insight into conducting thorough keyword research for your site. I would just really stress the importance of investing time in this process as it will make or break your online business. You will at some point be committing dollars to those keywords, and investing in the wrong keywords might spell disaster for your online business.