Finding the Right Keywords

Finding the right keywords to target is not an easy project. There are many factors that need to be checked in order to choose a good keyword.

1. Firstly the most important thing is to find keywords that have decent monthly searches. There are many free tools available to check this. Refer to previous blog post on best keyword research tools.

2. Secondly you can use a tool like Google Keyword External Tool to find related keywords, or use the Wonder Wheel feature in Google Search.

The idea is to build up a hierarchy that has a main keyword on the top and the derived ones bellow.

3. Once you have the above you can go to Google to check how much competition exists for each keyword. You can check:

a. How many pages are returned in the results.
b. How many pages target the keywords in their titles and anchor text. Enter this into the search and enter your keyword in the relevant place: intitle:keyword inanchor:keyword.
c. Check which links are on the first page and what their page rank is.
d. Check how many backlinks the top competition has.
4. You could also check the competition on social networks.
5. You may want to use the search feature in Google News to see what articles people are writing on the topic and how often.
6. You could check blogs to see how popular your topic is and see how many comments are being left.
7. Place a Google Alert on those keywords so you can see what others are doing.

If it sounds like an awful lot of work why don’t you consider taking a Professional SEO Consultant to help you with this time consuming work while you get on with your business?