subject: A few quick tips to advance your keyword research [print this page] A few quick tips to advance your keyword research
Keyword Research is invariably the single most important stage in most SEO Campaigns if you're not targeting the right keywords, if you're not targeting the keywords that will drive more revenue and customers to your website, then you're not operating at full efficiency. When performing keyword research it's important to take into account all the possible variations and to cover all potential bases. If you miss one particular keyword then invariably that's a keyword that your competitor will pick up on, start optimising around and start driving more revenue through.
The most important element of keyword research is to target all conceivable variations of your term. Use all of the tools at your disposal and search for variations within Google. Use advanced search operators to identify broadly relevant keywords and use the suggested search function within Google to identify whether or not you are missing out on any additional terms. Another crucial step within Keyword Research is to ensure that you are targeting both singular and plural variations of your target terms factor these variations into your keyword research at all times otherwise you will miss out on a lot of potential traffic.
Another important tip when performing keyword research is to get a gauge on just how competitive a keyword is before you begin to place all your eggs in one basket and throw everything at targeting it. While it may be the most relevant term in your niche, it's important to be realistic. For example, it's very unlikely that a small bookshop in a small town will ever even come close to outranking Amazon for the keyword "books". Generic terms should be predominantly confined to long-term strategies your keyword research, in the initial stages at least, should be focused around ranking for more long-tail variations and driving more traffic and customers through your website through content development and concentrated link building rather than throwing all your eggs in one basket.
