Keyword Research

One of the first methods in keyword research you can use for discovering how customers find you is search engines. Using Yahoo! search or MSN, type in the keyword or phrase that best describe each of the products or services your company provides. In the search engine result pages(SERPs) note how many of your direct competitors are in the top 20 and browse the webpage that is linked from the search result. If none of your competition are listed than the keyword research is letting you know the word or phrase is not a good choice or that the competition lacks the skills to get good SERP position. The later is good news for your business.

Now that you have a list of the competition by keyword/phrase and SERP position you can find out who is sending them link popularity. That is, what other websites are linking to the competition. This will provide you with insight to who your online customers are and where they go to find information and products like those your company provides. For this keyword research the best source is found at Google. Type in link"mycompetitorswebpage.com" and hit the enter key. Of course you replace the mycompetitorswebpage with the actual webpage name you logged from above. The results that Google provides will be all of the webpages that have a link to your competitors webpage. Dynamic keyword research methods are not always fancy and sophisticated, sometimes they are just invaluable! You might consider sending an e-mail to all of those domains that link to your competition to request that a link be added that points to your webpage. Paid advertising on those websites is another method you can use to lure customers away from your competition and over to your webpages. Pay particular attention to the webpage content, what is the page about, how did they link to your competitor, why did they link to them? Try to discover how you can provide a better resource or better information, etc. to take the link away from your competitor and at the very least get a link a head of theirs.

A creative keyword research source is to go looking for what customers are searching for. This may sound fishy, but the major search engines track the keywords and phrases people use when performing a search. They provide the information to the public too. If you have had no luck in finding where your customers look for your products and services or where your competition is listed online, using a keyword finder may open your eyes to different phrases and words. Yahoo/Overture tool is one of the better resources. Type in a keyword and the results provided will show you how many searches were performed in the previous month. Additionally the results will provide you with all of the variations that were used for the keyword/phrase. Often the variations in the keyword research will identify the more frequently used word/phrase the customers search for. Are you beginning to understand now how keyword research helps you to find customers online so they can find you? Of course you are! And, yes, you are very welcome. Now it's time to move on to the next step for getting your business ahead of and out of reach to your competition: Keyword Density