Search engine optimization is an important part of internet marketing strategy and it is almost hopeless to expect results from SEO efforts carried out without proper keyword research. Keyword research is the first fundamental step in SEO. Right keyword selection is very often the difference between an effective and a failed SEO strategy. Here are some pointers to help you conduct effective keyword research.
Prepare a list of target keywords based on industry information
While preparing a keyword list, you need to consider things like the keywords you wish to focus on, the number of conversions you can handle, the level of competition you can handle and your link building capacity. For instance, in case of travel industry, your list may include keywords like airplane, train, bus, car, travel by plane, travel by airplane, travel by bus etc.
Find out the traffic levels for each target keyword
Plugging in the keywords in your list to the Google AdWords Traffic Estimator will help you find out the global monthly search volume for these search terms to select the most effective keywords. This will also provide you other helpful stats. Generic keywords like ‘travel’ or ‘airplane’ will have a very high search volume, but high competition as well.
Further refine your keyword list based on search volume and level of competition
Now that you know the search volumes for selected keywords, you need to consider other factors like the level of competition for these keywords to refine your list. The higher the saturation, the more will be the competition. An easy way to find out the saturation level for a keyword is to check out how many pages come up on entering it in a search engine. Beginners can target keywords with global monthly search volume of 5 – 10,000 and competition level less than 1,000,000. These are generalized figures and may vary according to your industry.