Keyword Research

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is about finding the exact terms people are using to find the products or services that are sought to solve problems, enhance health, provide entertainment and basically uncover the many way searches that are performed. The time invested on keyword research is the most important part of any SEO campaign. Skipping this step in the process or spending minimal time on it will guarantee that your sites and submissions remain unseen by your targeted audience.

Knowing (and using) the exact phrases your potential customers or clients are using to search for solutions to their problems will leave a trail of breadcrumbs straight to your doorstep.  Proper research is time consuming, but, once you have your Keyword list, you can start implementing them immediately into your articles, posts, comments, and reports.

The first step in keyword research is to know your product or service, so, have a few words to start with and then we’ll talk about how to create your list a little later in this article.

What to do with the keywords?

Create a theme for each page and your site as a whole using the words from your list. In your content submissions and web pages make sure that your title contains the keyword and phrases. Using long-tail keywords will strengthen your chances of connecting with the people looking for their solution (which is what you’re offering).

• Restate your title in a sentence in the first paragraph.
• Place the keyword or keyword phrase at least twice in your description.
• Use keyword-laden links. According to Wikipedia, “The anchor text, link label or link title is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. The words contained in the Anchor text can determine the ranking that the page will receive by search engines.”

Follow your title with a short sentence restating your title. You should place the same “keyword or keyword phrase” at least twice in your description. Also, make sure to lead off your meta “keywords” with the “keyword or keyword phrase” you placed in your title and meta “description”. This “phrase” is what the searcher types in at the search box. Do this for each page you want the search engine to spider and rank. Use your targeted keyword or keyword phrases a few more times throughout the content being careful to make sure your keyword density does not exceed 3-5%.

Free Keyword Tools

There are several free keyword tools available. The most popular are Wordtracker, Google and SEOBook and each having features that make discovering those gold nugget keywords easier.  Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool that can be installed on your website. You can see what keywords drove users to your site through the organic or natural listings.

Of course, there are several keyword software tools you can purchase including paid versions of Wordtracker and SEOBook.

Keyword Research Service

Let’s say you’re someone who’s just starting out with affiliate or internet marketing.  You may not have the time, money or inclination to spend days/weeks/months learning how to properly research keywords. Even the free tools have a bit of a learning curve.

The paid tools offer lots of bells and whistles that require mere mortals to spend a fair amount of time watching video tutorials to effectively implement all the options. If you’re anything like me, you just want to get your content written and something up on the internet so you can start driving traffic to your site.

If you’ve been working online for some time you may be ready to outsource some of the tasks on your list.  This is where I come in. I discovered that I really enjoy keyword research. Who’d a thunk it? I’ve been using a method for keyword research called the Golden Ladder by Linda Caroll.  Stop by my website and read more about my service. Let me know if I can save you some time, money, and a few hairs (that you won’t be pulling out of your head) lol!

All the best,

Theresa Mayhew
Helping people find the right keywords!
Keyword Angel

Tagged with: affiliate marketing • articles • getting traffic • keyword marketing research • keyword research • keyword tools • online business • Traffic • Wordtracker

Filed under: affiliate marketing • keyword research

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