Keyword research is a form of marketing research, with the goal of learning what terms your prospects use to find your product, service or small business online. But that’s just the beginning. Keyword research will also show you the amount of competition for each keyword you’re targeting.
Your keyword research goal is to find the terms with the highest search activity and the least competition.
“Long tail” search terms are three to four words long and very specific. For instance, the term “pricing baseball cards” is very specific. It has a Google keyword effectiveness index of 878 according to Wordtracker, meaning it has very high search activity and little competition. Remove “pricing” from the term though, and you’re left with a poorly performing term with a keyword effectiveness index of only .05.
Effective Keyword Phrases for Marketing your Small Business
Optimizing for a highly effective keyword phrase can land your Web page near or at the top of the search listing. Settling for a poor performer with either low search activity, high competition or both, may well land your Web page at the very bottom of the search results.
Photo Credit: Bird Watching by squacco on Flickr. (Creative Commons)
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