If you want to be a successful Internet marketer, you’d better learn how to do keyword research. Unfortunately some people make it a lot harder than it is.
As always, one key is having the right Internet marketing tools. When you have the right tools and use them correctly, you’ll accomplish your task. First, let’s talk about tools. Then we’ll discuss how to use them.
The top search engines both have free keyword tools. The Google keyword tool will give you the latest results from the largest search engine. It can be a little complex for new Internet marketers, but it’s well worth using.
Microsoft’s Bing keyword tools will give you a wide variety of information. It’s useful because it can help you discover the relationship between keywords and potential customers.
The tool I use most often is the Wealthy Affiliate Keyword Tool. It’s just one of the tools available in the paid community at Wealthy Affiliate. It lets you analyze keywords more deeply than the search engine tools.
The WA tool gives you information that lets you immediately determine a keyword’s power for article marketing, search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. It lets you spy on your competitor’s ads and find out how much competition you’ll have for a keyword. You can also save, store and reuse keyword lists.
Knowing how to do keyword research is more than just using tools though. None of them will be worth anything if you don’t use the powerful tool you have — your mind.
You need to understand that even if a keyword has a high number of searches and low competition, it’s useless if it doesn’t help you attract the right people to your article or website. You need a term that is relevant for people looking for the products or services you promote.
Think of it this way – if you have a Ford dealership, you’d certainly rather have 10 customers who are looking for a Ford than 100 customers who are looking for a Chevrolet. And it’d be even better if the 10 Ford customers were looking for the exact model and color of cars you have on the lot.
Similarly, if you have a website that promotes guitars, a keyword like guitars wouldn’t be nearly targeted enough to attract potential buyers. But, people who search for Martin DXM acoustic six-string guitars are probably much more likely to purchase a guitar.
The key is to start with a wide ranging subject and narrow it down until you arrive at a term that has at least three words, gets at least 50 searches a month and applies specifically to the product or service you promote.
If you’re starting out and can’t invest much money in your business right now, I’d suggest using the free keyword tools to learn how to do keyword research. Before long, however, you’d do well to invest in a more thorough method of keyword research.