How to Identify Keywords for Your Website

The old (well relatively new but old in terms of SEO age) question for web marketers is this: how do I choose keywords for my web site. There are a few methods of accomplishing this task, but we wish to suggest a different approach than the mainstream ‘check out keyword suggestion tools’.

Here is an overview of common methods and their overall effectiveness. What we’ll find is that some methods are more powerful in defining targeted keyword sets, or markets, than others. For example….

Some Steps to Finding the Right Keywords

We’re going to make the assumption that you’re a new entrant to a particular market and are just starting out to determine what keywords you’re going to target. Simply put, this is the wrong approach.

Keywords are merely a component and sometimes just a product of your market research that you conduct before you enter into the market. Yes, remember, you are doing a complete search of market metrics, of which keywords are a part of, but other things such as demographics of target markets, primary customers, entrance requirements, etc.

Smart firms will do proper market research of their online competitors, target markets, demographics, etc., even before entering. The result of this type of research is an impression of who your market is and where they search.

To go straight to the keyword generators for an impression assumes two things:

1. It assumes you trust the data of the keyword generator (that it’s accurate, up-to-date, etc.)
2. It assumes the keyword generator data is comprehensive.

Both of these assumptions are wrong.

Using keyword generators is a largely ineffective method of accurately figuring out where your markets are. There are a few out there, but more of the same poor quality data is not going to help.

Now most market researchers online are wise enough NOT to trust the keyword generators as the only input on keywords. Don’t get me wrong, there is value in keyword generators like Tertullian, Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker, etc. However, to begin your market research with a third party tool is a poor business model. So how should you approach determining what keywords to use? Here are some suggestions.

Try running a few Adwords campaigns. You will then generate your own data on impressions and expected traffic for certain keywords.

Remember that your market will only use hot keywords aroud 20% of the time. The other 80% of searches will be wild iterations you never thought possible. These words are based on your content, as in Google will return close searches based on the type of content you have.

That would lend to the idea that a good way to find markets and your own data sets of keywords is to write content to your target market. After accumulating data for a while you’ll start to notice your own trends using your OWN data.

It is a competitive advantage to collect as much user data/analytics as possible and adjust your marketing campaigns and content as necessary.

If you’re really in the scenario where you base everything on keyword tools then let me say you should stop what you’re doing and really asses what you’re trying to accomplish. Trying to make a quick buck without relying on basic market principles is a sure way to failure.

Don’t be like any run of the mill third world web site cannibalizing overused and outdated keyword sets. Set yourself apart from the field by spending a bit of time watching where your target markets hangout on the net, and write a few quality articles targeted to them.

This will kick start your data collection that you’ll continually expand as time goes on. After than, it’s rinse, wash, and repeat, with your gold mine of market data. Happy hunting.