| You need to be extremely careful with keyword | | | | companies? Words like services, companies, |
| research so that you don't miss excellent | | | | products, accessories, and many others can really |
| opportunities or aim so broadly that you target | | | | pay off. Ok, everyone wants to rank #1 for |
| phrases that will never rank well. Here are 10 | | | | terms like "toys" and "sports." It would take more |
| strategies to guide you along the way: | | | | time and budget than you may have to land such |
| 1. Know your potential customers. | | | | terms (through META updates, content |
| We can't tell you how many businesses we've | | | | adjustments and links). |
| met who simply pick keywords out of thin air. | | | | 6. Visit Wordtracker. |
| They don't talk to customers or hot prospects in | | | | It's a great tool even if it only collects a sampling |
| order to determine what might be a useful set of | | | | of actual searches (more than 300 million). You'll |
| keywords. | | | | get a good sense of how frequently someone |
| 2. Start with core words. | | | | may search. Here is their URL: |
| A core set of keywords - even if too broad - | | | | 7. Use your intuition. |
| can stimulate creative thinking. | | | | Don't hesitate to try some ideas; Wordtracker |
| 3. Look at the industry. | | | | and other sources can confirm whether you have |
| Examine industry trade group web sites and | | | | a search term people might or might not use. |
| related newsletters to find potential keywords. | | | | 8. Limit your selection. |
| 4. Study competitors. | | | | Come up with a list of words - 10, 20, 30, maybe |
| Some companies make a bigger deal of | | | | 50 or more. But don't get so many that you can't |
| competitors' keywords than they should, but it's | | | | manage them all. |
| still a useful strategy. Invariably, a competitor will | | | | 9. Tie keywords to site planning. |
| be using a strong keyword or phrase you don't | | | | Pick keywords you can work with over time. |
| want to miss. Often, however, they load their | | | | Make sure you don't plan to drop a page from |
| web sites with single keywords that aren't | | | | the web site or change it so often that your |
| appropriate. If internet users are seeking | | | | target keywords may be knocked off or |
| cookware, their search terms shouldn't be | | | | irrelevant every 30 days. |
| laundry-based words. Yet we came across that | | | | 10. Study your log files. |
| very example. Be careful which words you use. | | | | Web analytics is a great tool if you want to see |
| 5. Be specific - add other words to your primary | | | | how your visitors are searching. Study the results |
| phrases. | | | | and you will come up with a revised set of |
| If you sell metal, try metal stamping or metal | | | | keywords. |
| stampers. Or, how about metal stamping | | | | |