Keyword Research Part 2

If you managed to follow the first part of this article then you should have a list of keywords which you think will be productive. The next step in keyword research is to develop search phrases. Search phrases are variations of the keywords you have developed already. For example if your keyword is “seat cover” then possible search phrases could be “leather seat cover”, “personalized seat cover”, “replacement seat cover” and so on. A good way to develop these phrases is by entering a keyword into either of these two tools:

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/keyword-suggestion-tool.html
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

It will then list the other phrases and words people are searching for. Simple as that!

Some things to keep in mind when developing these phrases:

• Avoid single word search phrases
• Develop multi-word search phrases
• Work on variations of the same search phrase – try adding -ed, -ing, -s or other endings on the phrases to make variations.
• Mix word order of the search phrases. Instead of “replacement seat cover” try “seat cover replacement”

Now that you have a list of search phrases you need to decide how many and which ones to actually use on your site. This is one of the hardest parts, but to make it as easy as possible there are a few things to think about. When deciding on how many to choose, I generally find it best to pick 3-4 search phrases to target. This gives you a good amount of traffic and allows you to start ranking in a reasonable amount of time.

First make sure the phrases specifically apply to your site. Don’t use keywords or phrases that you know will deliver traffic to the site if they don’t apply to your site.

Second don’t target single word keywords if possible. They might have the possibility of bringing in a lot of traffic, but it’s going to be near impossible to rank highly enough for the keyword and there will be a lot of competition.

Lastly try to use overlapping keywords. This not only helps to develop and strengthen some of the keywords, but also creates conceptual strength throughout the site.

At this point you should have 3-4 solid search phrases that you can now apply to your site. If you’ve done your research properly and have picked phrases that specifically apply to your website then you should be well on your way to ranking for these words. Good luck!

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Related Posts:
Ranking in the SERPs - Part 1 - Keyword Selection
Keyword Research Part 1
Ranking in the SERPs - Part 3 - Tips & Techniques