How Do I Know What Keywords To Use?

Wouldn't it be cool if you knew what internet users were looking for online? And cooler yet, what exact words they were typing into Google to find it?

You can.

This is called keyword research. There are many tools available that can show you words that users are searching for, how many times they are typed into Google each day, and other phrases like it that searchers are using. By finding the words that people are really looking for, and having these words on your web page, you can greatly improve your chances of getting more organic traffic to your web page.

The Goal of Keyword Research

The main goal of keyword research is to find words and phrases related to your topic that internet users are using (search volume), and have these be phrases that don't have a large amount of web pages already in the Google index (competition).

For example, if you want to rank in Google for the phraseblack bag, a Google search will show you that there are already 5.1 million web pages in their index that rank for that phrase. Also, black bag is very broad... what kind of black bag?

Be more specific. What aboutblack bowling bag? A Google search for black bowling bag has just a little over 1 million pages for that keyword phrase. Now we're getting somewhere. However, 1 million pages is still a lot of pages to be competing with - and we don't even know if people online are looking for a black bowling bag.

While that was just an example off the top of my head, that was an idea of how this is going to work.

The typical searcher online will use 3-4 words to search for the information they need. Internet users are getting smarter as the internet matures. They know that if they want to find a black bowling bag that they will not get the search results they want by simply typing bag into Google... or even by typing black bag into Google. They will at least type black bowling bag into their search - probably even more descriptive such asblack bowling ball bag, or discount black bowling bags.

You get the idea so I can stop with the bowling bag thing now.... haha!

Your goal with keyword research is to:

• Find the words people are using in Google to find information about your topic - these are your keywords.

• Use the keywords you find that have the least amount of competition in Google so you have a better chance of ranking at the top for a Google search - you will do this with your keyword research.

• Give the searcher who clicks thru to your page the information they were actually looking for. In the long run, you still have to have quality content for your web page to be successful AFTER a searcher gets there.