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Many newbies starting in website marketing neglect keyword research totally or perform only basic research by guessing what keyword to rank for and checking how many searches per month are performed for it. This method is inadequate if you desire to be successful. Pursue the incorrect keyword and you'll finish up questioning why you have no traffic.

So how do you do keyword research?

The most accurate keyword research tool is https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal This tool is suggested since statistics are specific to google, the unquestionable search engine leader with 90 percent of overall searches.

Create a database for your research. Label your columns: Searches, Keyword, Competition, Allintitle and Allinurl

Here is an explanation of each heading:
1. Searches: Monthly searches for the specific keyword/keyphrase
2. Keyword: The actual keyword or keyphrase
3. Competition: The number of pages targeting that particular keyword
4. Allintitle: The number of pages targeting the keyword in their title.
5. Allinurl: The amount of sites with the keyword in their domain name

The first two columns of data come directly from the Google tool. The other three columns are investigated on google by performing the following searches.

To determine competition carry out a search for your keyword with quotes (") around it (example. "Weight loss"). Google will return results from websites targeting the precise keyword/keyphrase. This filters out sites targeting 'weight' or 'loss' only. Enter the amount of results generated in the competition column alongside the keyword. This figure is found at the top right hand side of the browser window.

To determine how many websites include a keyword in their titles perform an allintitle search. The format for this is allintitle:your keyword. Replace 'your keyword' with the keyword you want data for. Enter the number of results returned into the allintitle column beside the keyword.

To carry out an allinurl search use the format 'allinurl:your keyword' and record the corresponding number of results in the allinurl column

Why search allintitle and allinurl? Because utilizing main keywords in the title and URL is an exceptionally valuable factor in gaining good rankings with search engines for those keywords. Ultimately, you ought to use primary keywords in both. If our targeted keyword appears in the URL of 4000 sites then that is the maximum number of competitors we have to compete with. Utilizing the keyword in both URL and title puts your site in front of most other sites in terms of on-page SEO.

Which Keywords should you Target?

It depends how much SEO experience you have which keywords you should target. It's easier to rank for low competition keywords. New marketers ought to target keywords with less than 20,000 results in the allinurl column. This makes it easier to outrank competitors. This may seem like a cop-out. However, sites that rank well for lower competition keywords will find it easier to rank for interrelated high competition keywords.

It's crucial that traffic be laser targetted to increase conversion. For example: A site promoting GPS systems shouldn't explicitly target 'GPS systems' because it has considerable competition making it tough to rank for. Although it should contain that keyword within the domain name. Furthermore, a person searching for 'GPS systems' is most probably in research phase. A person searching for 'Tom Tom GO 930 prices' is considerably more targeted because it indicates that they are in buying phase. Of course, 'buy Tom Tom GO 930' is even better! While far fewer people will search for that phrase, those who do are in buying phase. It's better to grab them in buying mode than in research mode! It's best to utilize these longtail keywords on the product page where the purchase button is located. To include these longtail keywords in the URL simply utilize them in the page name (i.e. buytomtomgo930prices.htm)

Don't pursue general keywords that have more searches because that exposes you to additional opposition. You want traffic that converts to sales. As you acquire SEO experience and your site gains status (i.e. Google pagerank) you can target high competition keywords. If you buy PPC (pay per click) traffic from search engines it's critical to target converting keywords.

Two factors determine the best keywords to target:

1. The number of searches (higher is better) 2. The number of competition (lower is better)

Try to obtain keywords with both of these factors. Balance is the essential factor here. Each webpage should target one principal keyword and contain several associated keywords. Try to target composite keywords that contain more than one keyword like 'online marketing techniques' which targets three keywords including; online marketing techniques, online marketing and marketing techniques. Whereas two word keyphrases have increased competition making them more difficult to rank for, using them means you won't have to insert them later on when you do desire to rank for them.