Finding The Best Keywords
There are several tools that can be used to generate lists of highly searched for keywords and keyword phrases. One of the best free tools on the Internet is the Overture Keyword Selector Tool. You simply enter a keyword and it generates a list of all related keywords and keyword phrases that were searched for during the previous month, along with the number of times the keywords were searched for. This gives you a rough idea of whether a particular niche is in demand and what people are searching for within that niche.
An example of using the Overture Suggestion Tool using the term 'Dog House'.
If you want a more in-depth analysis of what people are searching for on the Internet, you should look into purchasing one of the more advanced keyword research. Keyword Elite and WordTracker are two of the best tools available on the market today. They give you the monthly search results for keywords on several search engines as well as a number of other statistics such as the bid amounts for PPC ads associated with the search terms. It is a good way to quickly compile a large list of keywords and easily assess their profitability.
It allows you to easily uncover hidden niches and generate huge keyword lists so you can dominate your competition! And if that's not enough, there is even a feature that allows you to spy on your competition to see exactly what they're doing!
If you don't want to buy a keyword research tool (it is highly recommended that you do) you can quickly determine the amount of competition a particular keyword has by typing it into a search engine that supports PPC advertising and seeing how many PPC ads appear in the search results. Plus, most search engines will also show you the number of websites that contain that particular search term.
If there are a lot of PPC ads, the keyword already has a lot of competition and may not be worth pursuing (however, you may want to first check the bid amounts for the keywords - more on this later). If a keyword has a small number of PPC ads in the search results, the competition is likely a lot lower and you may be interested in making a PPC ad for the keyword, or create some content on your website based on the keywords that has a high keyword density so you will rank in the top spots in the search engines.
Ideally, you want to use the keywords that have the highest number of searches and that have very little competition in the search engines and in the form of PPC advertising.
A Google search for 'Dog House' shows us that there are approximately 92 million other websites that contain the same term. We can also see that there is already a large number of PPC ads for this term. This would not be a good term to target - we should concentrate on a search term, or phrase, that is more specific and will have less competition.
Chances are you will not be able to find a highly searched keyword that doesn't already have a lot of competition. If you find one that looks like it doesn't have much competition, you should find out if there is a market for that term before going any further. If other marketers are not paying for this search term, it is likely not a profitable keyword. This is not always the case, but it is the general rule of thumb. Competition means there is money to be made; otherwise no one would bother with SEO or PPC for that keyword.
The long-tail
To reach the most people, be sure to target a large variety of keywords. It may be tempting to go after the most popular set of keywords, but there is often a high amount of competition for these keywords, which makes it difficult to get a high search engine ranking for those terms and it drives up your cost if you're running a PPC campaign.
If you're just starting out, you will want to concentrate on having a large list of less frequently searched terms related to your niche. The competition will be a lot lower, so you will get a high search engine ranking. Plus, if you're doing PPC advertising, the cost for these keywords will be much lower.
It will help if you split up your keyword list into a number of smaller mini lists and categorize them by sub-topics. For example, if you were generating a list of keywords related to Home Theaters, you may want to categorize them by systems, designs, projectors, speakers, installation, furniture, etc…
Do not underestimate the power of the long-tail. Having a large list of less frequently searched terms can bring in just as much traffic as a small list of popular search terms; and it will likely cost you a lot less too.
