by Jeff Alderson
It would be nice if keyword research was an exact science, but it’s not. Contrary to what marketing firms selling the latest, greatest and most expensive selection tools will tell you, this type of research is more of a form of art.

Despite its real categorization, keyword research can be very important to a site’s overall chances for success. It is very important to select solid, relevant keywords. Unfortunately, many webmasters fall pray to some very common mistakes when selecting their words. Having a handle on what they are can help you avoid them.

The biggest keyword related mistake, hands down, is failing to see how important they are. It’s a simple fact that keywords are very powerful marketing tools. They help sites earn traffic, ranking and even revenue. They can even help focus the entire theme of a site. Although hiring an expensive firm isn’t required to see results, selecting goods keywords is important.

Another stumbling block is the research process itself. The improper use of keyword research tools can lead to poor keyword selection. Keyword counts, for example, are only estimates. Tools that reveal these are useful. Just keep in mind they don’t reflect the total searches from Google, Yahoo and MSN. The numbers they reveal are simply estimates taken from one source. Plus, some tools report different keywords. To compensate, you might consider using multiple tools for keyword selection. Using Wordtracker and Ad Word Analyzer both is a good idea. By doing so, you can discover more keywords.

Another issue that crops up a lot is the use of only a single keyword or phrase on a site or page. The truth is it is simply much smarter to select a theme and then choose multiple words and phrases to support it. This works to boost latent semantic indexing, too. Picking niche phrases can be done with a little help from WordNet and other similar tools.

Another sticking point centers on Keyword Effectiveness Index reliance. KEI is the ratio of the number of times a particular keyword is searched in regard to the number of sites ranked for that word. It is meant to help webmasters figure competition for a term. KEI is useful, but the thing to look for is how SEO strong the top sites on the list happen to be. Tools like SEO for Firefox and SeoQuake can help with competition checks.

Webmasters who really get the power of keywords often box themselves in with too much research. The mistake these folks make is failing to use keyword management tools to direct their efforts. Spreadsheets can help, but tools like Ad Word Analyzer can be much more valuable. They can sort, filter, and even list related keywords you never would have come up with on your own.

Publishers sometimes jump the gun on doing their research. It is important to remember that tools like Wordtracker store data for the past 90 days. This means researching words at off times can result in skewed numbers. Doing a Christmas keyword search in June, for example, will not produce the world’s greatest results. Timing research is important.

The last two things to watch out for are greed and waste. Many publishers go after keywords that pay out well. This can be great, but the truth is lower paying niche keywords can bring in more earnings over the long haul. They tend to have less competition. Waste comes into play when webmasters get over excited about research. Often, they will create list after list of targeted, niche keywords and never put them into action. It’s smart to focus on a single niche, implement the project and then move onto the next.

Keyword selection is an art form that can deliver some major perks to a site. Although finding the right keywords to use can take time and effort, the payoff can be big in terms of visitors and even revenue.

About the author: Jeff Alderson specializes in boosting traffic and profits. He is also the developer of numerous PPC and SEO tools. Jeff suggests using a keyword generator like Ad Word Analyzer to find keywords for your site.
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