Choosing the correct keywords for your site

In this article, we focus on the correct way of finding out the keywords for which you should optimize your site for the search engines. This article will give you the formula for the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) – a mathematical formula which I have developed to help you determine which keywords you should be optimizing your site for.

Step 1: Open your text editor or word processor and write down all the words and phrases that you might have searched for if you were looking for a company which offers products and services similar to yours.

For example, suppose your company organizes packaged tours to Australia. Here’s a list of phrases that I might have searched for if I were planning to make a trip to Australia:

tourism in Australia
travel to Australiatravelling
in Australiatravel agencies
in Australiatravelling agencies
in AustraliaAustralian travel agencies

Of course, the keywords that came to your mind may have been different. But that’s not important – the important thing is to get an initial list of keywords.You may be wondering why I have not used single word keywords. Here’s why:

Five Steps to Effective Keyword Research

There’s no getting around it. Keyword research is a vitally important aspect of your search engine optimization campaign. If your site is targeting the wrong keywords, the search engines and your customers may never find you, resulting in lost dollars and meaningless rankings. By targeting the wrong keywords, you not only put valuable advertising dollars at risk, you are also throwing away all the time and energy you put into getting your site to rank for those terms to begin with. If you want to stay competitive, you can’t afford to do that.

The keyword research process can be broken down into the following phases:

Phase 0 – Demolishing Misconceptions

Phase 1 – Creating the list and checking it twice

Phase 2 – Befriending the keyword research tool

Phase 3 – Finalizing your list

Phase 4 – Plan your Attack

Phase 5 – Rinse, Wash Repeat

Phase 0 – Demolishing Misconceptions

Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide array of wonderful clients. And as different and diverse as their sites and the individuals running them may have been, many had one thing in common: they were self-proclaimed keyword research mavens right out of the gate.

Or so they thought

One of the most common misconceptions about conducting keyword research for a search engine optimization campaign is the belief that you already know which terms a customer would use to find your site. You don’t. Not without first doing some research anyway. You may know what your site is about and how you, the site owner, would find it, but it’s difficult to predict how a paying customer would go about looking for it.This is due to site owners evaluating their site through too narrow of a lens, causing them to come up with words that read like industry jargon, not viable keywords.

Remember, your customer probably doesn’t work in the same industry that you do. If they did, they wouldn’t need you.