Keyword Research & Keyword Difficulty

The keyword is the key!  The keyword search is one of the issues that new marketers and companies trying a web campaign have trouble with.  They understand the concept of web marketing and sort of get the fact that customers search online.  However, perhaps they still have trouble understanding what actually happens in the standard keyword search.

First, let’s review the basics.  The Internet is made of a network of computers and this network accesses major search applications, which we know colloquially as Google and Yahoo.  These search engines allow users to search for popular or specific keywords and keyword phrases, since they search and index all of the web’s new content.  The “search engine” entity is a rather insatiable monster, one that wants to be constantly “fed” new content.

So, in order to be discovered by the search engines, your content must be keyword rich, and there should be plenty of it to search.  Now the hard part comes…how can you possibly predict what people are searching for?  Some businesses simply guess at which keywords seem right, and this is not always a wise course of action.

There are two applications that can help you create more targeted keywords (which lead to better targeted traffic).  First, consider the Keyword Research tool.  Google Adwords is the most popular tool, though there are many others.  This application allows you to see what people are actually searching for in terms of total search “queries.”  This will help you to identify the most popular keywords, statistically speaking.  Based on the information you uncover, you might decide to experiment with both popular and more niche oriented words.  Studying the results of your keyword search is another part of strategizing for SEO.

Another application that may prove useful is a Keyword Difficulty application, which reports to you the competition for your keywords, as in search data, a difficulty “score”, volume, top 10 rankings and other information.  This is an effective tool, since it actually forecasts the battle ahead for these popular or somewhat popular keywords.  You can find these online, and one of the most popular locations is from SEOMoz.

Both of these applications are very useful, but it’s also wise to scout the competition (perhaps 3-5 companies) and also follow some of your instincts for what your customers are thinking at the moment.  Balance all of these factors out and you will find an effective keyword strategy.