Keyword Research – Do You Know Your Keyword Phrases?

Can the people in your target market find you on the Internet? Visibility in your niche is all about keywords. Knowing your keyword phrases will make your online marketing much more successful. Remember that keywords are words we all use when we need more information on our topic and go to Google or another search engine in order to get some sites that will answer our questions or solve our problem.

Make a list of the words and phrases you believe your prospects would type in if they wanted more information about your niche. If you are not sure which phrases would be best, go to your competitor’s sites and do some investigating. You can right-click and choose ‘view source’ to see which words they have used on their sites, but this may not be a complete and accurate list. Instead, go over to Google’s free keyword tool, called the Keyword Tool External, and enter in the complete URL of their site.

This will give you a list of the exact phrases that particular site is about, according to Google. You may be amazed at what you will find by doing this. Now do the same with your own blog or other website. Does what Google have to say about your keywords match with what you are hoping to project? If not, make some changes in the text you have included on your site so that it reflects what you want to share with your market.

I recommend finding two or three phrases used by your prospects and optimizing your site for them. The best ones are those that contain four or more words. These are referred to as ‘long tail’ keywords because they are searched for much less frequently than the shorter phrases. Even though fewer people are looking for these particular phrases, the ones who are will be excellent prospects. This makes a lot of sense if you think about it; wouldn’t someone who typed in ‘nikon point and shoot digital camera’ be more likely to be ready to make a purchase than someone who simply typed in ‘digital camera’? 

Be sure to check up on your words and phrases on a regular basis, as they may change over time. Just during the past year the phrase ‘online marketing has overtaken ‘internet marketing’ as the phrase people use when searching for information on how to market their business online. Keep up with the times by knowing the current terms used by your prospects.

While there is no set number when it comes to how many searches for a particular keyword phrase is best, you do want to take a look at that before deciding to purchase a new domain name. For products and services that will be promoted globally, I prefer at least ten thousand searches each month. If your business operates locally, expect that number to be much smaller.

The most important thing is to determine which keywords are best for your target market and to begin using these phrases in everything you write on the Internet, including articles, blog posts, forum post, social media, and other writing that is a regular part of marketing your business online.