If you are reading this article, you must have realized how important search ranking is on Internet marketing.  Thus, you look for ways to improve search ranking and find out the importance of keywords. Keyword selection sounds simple, and people don’t seem to have a problem picking them.  But, you will soon realize new keywords you added to the web page still neither attract more traffic nor improve search ranking.

What you did not realize is that the moment you select the popular keyword, you are in for a much fierce competition.  And, if your web site doesn’t stand out in the field, it will end up in the rank nobody cares to browse.  It is why we, LoyalStaffs, Inc like to share keyword selection strategy with you and offer a full service if requested.  Here is the process of keyword selection.

1.      Identify your target audience

The first step of successful public speaking is to know your audience and to use the same language.  Finding the right keyword is like preparing a speech to lead the audience to action.  And, without understanding your audience, you cannot write an effective speech, since the audience represents a group which has a specific goal or common interest.  They can also be described as having common grounds from sex, age, educational background, computer knowledge, product knowledge and Internet usage.  If you can segment your audience by these categories, you can come up with effective keywords to address a niche market.

2.      Identify keywords of your business or company

First group of keywords you are looking for are words that refer to your nature of business.  Then, you can expand keyword to include words that describe business activities and functions, or products and services you or your business provide.  At this stage, the more keywords you can come up with, the better chance you have in finding the right keywords.

3.      Research on keyword usage

At this stage, your goal is to research on search volume of keywords identified in previous step.  Once all words are compared for popularity, we recommend you to trim the number of keyword to a manageable number.  To accomplish this, you decide the number of keywords you plan to manage first and then start eliminating keywords with least search volume.

4.      Research on supporting word to make keyword phrase

While search volume of major keyword is great, competition for them is also fierce.  Thus, use of keyword phrases instead of a keyword is effective for two reasons.  It helps to avoid unnecessary competition for search ranking while it helps to narrow down to a serious audience.  Research on keyword phrases is a two step process.  First step is to list keyword phrases logged in the research tool.  Then, you can start screening out those not likely used by your target audience in step 1.  The next step is to rank the remaining keyword phrases based on search volume.  You repeat these two steps from keywords screened out from previous step. 

There are more details on how to go about selecting keyword phrases.  It is advisable to depend on a professional marketer such as LoyalStaffs, Inc than to do it on your own, since it is cost saving and productive in the long run.

James S. Lee

President of LoyalStaffs, Inc