Keyword Research Tips

There are two basic ways to determine the keywords you use on your website or for online advertising. The first is by brainstorming, by thinking of the terms used to describe your products or services, and related descriptors.

The second way is to do some online Keyword Research. This can be accomplished via various online services offering searches of competitive sites, or through Google Adwords or other keyword tools.

While brainstorming keywords can be a good way to get a start on optimising your website, it should not be the only way you find key words and phrases. With a bit of effort on your part, you can easily identify what keywords will give your e-commerce site the greatest marketing impact.

What Keywords Are Your Competition Using?

There is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to advertising your company. In fact, it can be quite beneficial to use the same keywords your competition does in order to come up in the SERPs at the same time, which gives a potential customer the choice between your company and another.

There are various sites you can visit to give you a listing of your competitors’ top keywords. These include Theme Zoom Gladius, Spyfu, GoogSpy, and Display Details. There are many more that provide Keyword Research tools and most of them are free.

What Keywords Aren’t Your Competition Using?

Conversely, you might be missing out on a great marketing opportunity if you don’t pay attention to the keywords your competitors are not using. Many times they concentrate only the most popular combinations and fail to include the lesser used, or long tail keywords.

Think of keywords as a bell-shaped graph. The most popular – and the most expensive in a pay per click advertising campaign – are those which make up the middle third, the highest point on the bell. Long tail keywords are those at either end.

Using less popular keywords is not necessarily a less effective marketing strategy. Those long tail keywords may just fit your company’s niche perfectly, and you will find less competition vying for top rankings with these phrases. It is far easier to achieve the top of the SERPs with a long tail keyword than with a more popular, highly competitive one.

Keyword Research From Website Statistics

Another research tool at your disposal is the statistics for your website. It is a good idea to regularly check the information compiled by your web host or the software you use for tracking visits. You may think that most people are reaching your website because you’ve optimised for a certain term, but a look at the statistics may show otherwise.

For instance, perhaps your business is selling cookbooks and you’ve included lots of text and links with the keywords “gourmet cookbooks”. When you review the information in your statistics, you find that quite a lot of visitors are getting to your site with the phrase “low calorie recipes”. That is very important information that could change the entire way you market your business.

Keywords and Keyword Research are vital components in any e-commerce site’s online marketing strategy, but only if you are focusing on the ones which result in the highest number of conversions.

Have a most outstanding day.

Sean Rasmussen
Aussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010