What is Keyword Research and How to Do it Simply

Keyword research is simply where one goes to find out what people have been entering into search engines. Online marketing professionals like search engine optimization and pay-per-click consultants regularly conduct keyword research to help the business segments they are consulting for. Internet marketers or Niche marketers understand that this practice is one of their lifeline activities for success.

But why is it important?

It’s all about understanding Demand. When you key your search term in your favorite search engine, you are stating your demand. You want something. It could be to search for more information about a topic, or to learn more about something, get a (hopefully unbiased) review about a product or service.

Or, most interestingly, have a buying intent to purchase online. The final demand is where marketers get very excited over – the search term (henceforth, keyword) that you entered, already qualifies you for that need, product or service. You are merely an Offer away from being a customer.

So how do you conduct Keyword Research? There are a few keyword resources available, that collect search terms from different sources. Most have free access, and some offer premium plans. The most obvious of the free resources is from Google AdWords (URL: adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal).

The strong point about Google is that you are able to segment the harvested keywords into geographical locations. You may not already realise this but the use of English is not uniform from region to region. Certain key phrases may be used more often in the United Kingdom than in the United States. If you are targeting a global market via the Internet, it is important to know these nuances.

Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery and Miva are a few of the other popular keyword repositories that are used during the harvesting of keywords. These services tend to reveal long-tail keywords which are usually not as heavily competed on. Of course, when the niche matures, these would naturally become more competitive. Time to market velocity becomes an important factor.

Keyword harvesting is only the first part of Keyword Research. For each keyword in your list, you would still need to determine a few more things. How much average search volumes is there on this keyword? How much competition is there and what is the estimated advertiser bids are there? It is possible to calculate the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) from these numbers. Taken in context to the rest of the keywords in your list, you can see the relative degree of competition faced.

Another aspect of Keyword Research (especially for the Pay-Per-Click marketers) would be to see the quality of the competition on a specific keyword. Did you know you can use Google’s Ad Preview Tool to view the ads on a particular keyphrase? You will also see the number of advertisers currently in play. If you do find a keyword that only shows 9 ads, congratulations! It doesn’t take much to be the 10th advertisement and still be on Google’s Page 1.

If you are new to researching keywords, the manual process is initially a long, tedious and daunting one. But it’s a fruitful learning experience. Grouping keywords into topical clusters is also a practiced skill. Over time, you will begin to differentiate the user intents of certain keywords over others. Before long, you will begin to spot those profitable keywords that your business can benefit from.

Keyword Research Pro is a powerful new “Single-Point” software for marketers researching keywords online. From a single screen, Keyword Research Pro will pull keyword data from major resources today, including Google, Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery and more. For each keyword, you will also see the search volumes, estimated bid prices and even the competitors’ advertisements. Putting together your competitive keyword baskets has never been easier. Read the full Keyword Research Pro review.

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