An essential component of any SEO campaign is picking the right keywords. Unfortunately, many people don’t really understand the concepts behind picking keywords. I’ve seen many people, even so-called SEO experts, who think it’s just a matter of coming up with a few randomly-chosen phrases relevant to the page subject.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

What a Niche Means to You 

It’s important initially to identify a niche, or a part of the market that you’d like to focus on. The best way to do this is to first compile a long list of relevant keyphrases and do some research. You don’t want to use them all, so you’ll need to eliminate words that are simply too competitive for you to attempt (for now at least) and those which are never or rarely searched, because these will be a waste of your resources because they won’t result in the kind of traffic you’re looking for.

Then, ideally you’ll come up with a list of keywords that will bring you steady traffic, and for which you have a chance of achieving a good ranking fairly quickly.

Keyword Tools

Wordtracker is the keyword tool of choice for many SEO consultants and online marketers. Personally, I think the results are just as good with Overture. And the new MSN tool looks promising: we shall have to wait and see.

Eliminate Generic Terms 

Let me give you an example of what’s a waste of time. Recently I was collaborating with a client to choose a list of keywords for a page on ‘pizza franchise’. The client was eager to use ‘franchise’ as a keyword. ’Franchise’ is what’s called a ‘generic term,’ meaning it can be part of a wide range of totally unconnected searches. I pointed out that the great majority of people who might end up on the page after keying ‘franchise’ into a search would be looking for a franchise in something other than pizza. Only phrases containing the words ‘pizza’ and ‘franchise’ together should be considered. This is what’s meant by targeting, and it’s an effective way of only getting the type of visitor you want.

The next step is to do a little more research. See which sites come top of a search for each of the keywords or phrases you’ve chosen. Study them carefully, because you’ll need to do whatever they’re doing, only better, to get ahead of them in a search. Remember that the more specific the keyphrase is to whatever you’re offering, the more targeted your traffic will keyphrase; therefore, the happier your visitors will be. If they’re happy with what they find on your page, they’ll be far more likely to take their visit to the next level, whether that’s clicking through to your online shop or to your contact form.

Only after you’ve conducted a lengthy session of research into keywords for your page can you go ahead and consider beginning to write optimized content (another essential component of SEO).

The Holy Grail of SEO 

Picking the right keywords, in a nutshell, will bring you highly coveted pre-qualified traffic.

Is it tedious? Yes!

Is it worth it? Undoubtedly!

SEO Tip: You can get a good idea of whether your keywords were a good choice by taking a look at your site statistics. If you’re using Google Analytics, take a look at the traffic that’s coming to you through the search engines (as opposed to directly or by referral from another site) and see how long those visitors spend at your site. If it’s only a few seconds, then you need to rethink your keyword strategy.  If the average is several minutes per visitor, then you’re doing something right. If you don’t get many conversions even though people are spending time at your site, then you need to take a look at your copy. It’s not persuasive enough!