keyword research

There is some confusion going around about what the best practices are for getting a web site ranked well in the major search engines. Well, I have the answer. As a matter of fact I will guarantee you a #1 position within the Google search engine no matter how bad your website is doing right now.

Now let’s analyze what I just said, or better yet what I did not say. I did not say what word or phrase I would have you ranked for. I didn’t say how or how long your website would be ranked either. All I told you was where and what position. This is by far the oldest trick in the book. The Internet is riddled with these bogus offers and promotions of guaranteed top rankings for very little money in return.

Now if I told you I would have your website ranked #1 for the specific keyword “sporting goods” in a Google pay-per-click program for one week you would have something to count on. The problem is that most website owners do not know what questions to ask and end up getting scammed time and time again.

So, let’s talk about the two different ways you can market you website and what to watch out for when approaching a company to market your website for you. The two types of search engine marketing are commonly referred to as “Pay-Per-Click” and “Organic”.

The major difference between the two is that with “Pay-Per-Click” you will pay each time someone clicks on your sponsored ad. You will notice sponsored ads at the top of most search engines and they are usually highlighted in a light blue color. Organic search results are the ones the search engine has indexed based on certain varying factors, usually based on the quality of content and the popularity of the website. Popularity is based on how many websites have a link pointed at yours.

Both methods can be rewarding, but a key factor that is often overlooked is proper keyword research. Notice I said “proper”. I have been marketing websites for a very long time and can say that I have made every mistake known to man.

One thing that didn’t take me long to figure out was if you want your web site to do well it is very important to find the keywords that are going to bring the biggest return while remaining relevant to your website and the overall content. You can’t fool the search engines by using highly searched for keywords if your website is not related to the particular keyword.

When performing keyword research there is a formula that I use and the same formula will work for you as well if you have the right tools and are willing to put the time in that is required.

The first thing I do is use a program called Keyword Elite to build a keyword list. It will take one word and build literally thousands of words based off the one. Next I filter out words that are not relevant to my website content. Now I am left with only relevant keywords and I know these are the most searched for words because the program only returns keywords and phrases that are actually being searched for starting with the most searched for and works its way down.

After I have a solid keyword list I take it to a project within the program which will show how many actual searches, how many competitors and how effective each keyword is. I pay very close attention to the amount of searches compared to the ratio of competitors there are. It is much easier to break into a market with fewer competitors as opposed to a market that may be getting more searches with more competitors.

Lastly, I pick the ones that look the best and start populating my website with the highly searched for keywords. The same applies to Pay-Per-Click. You want to use keywords that aren’t as competitive, but still return a descent amount of searches. In either case you will spend less time and money if you do the proper keyword research on the front end.