How To Steer Clear Of Major Keyword Mistakes

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.

Although there might not be an exact science behind it, keyword research is critical to the success of a website, or can be. There are some very common mistakes that many make when researching their keywords. Knowing about them is half the battle in avoiding them.

Perhaps the biggest mistake many make is failing to use keywords at all. The truth is keywords are very powerful and vital to success. They help websites obtain traffic, which can lead to revenue. They can also assist in focusing a site's theme. While it's not always necessary to hire an expensive firm to select the best keywords going, having keywords included in the mix is important.

The research process itself tends to stymie some. The biggest pitfall here is incorrect use of keyword research tools. For example, many believe keyword counts revealed by these tools are accurate. The truth is they are just estimates. Tools that can help you see these estimates are useful, but they don't reflect the total number of searches from all major search engines. It is possible to compensate by using several tools for research. Programs like Ad Word Analyzer, and Wordtracker are both great. And you will find unique keywords with each, so your list will be more complete.

Another big error that a lot of publishers make is using only a single keyword or phrase in their content. The trick nowadays is to create related words and phrases that fit the theme of the site. This helps take advantage of latent semantic indexing that is more common now. Tools such as WordNet can be useful for helping in selecting phrases to include.

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.

Failure to use keyword management tools can also be a rather big mistake. Those who are really into keyword research can rapidly come up with thousands of keywords. A tool like Ad Word Analyzer can very much help with sorting, filtering, and analyzing the results.

Another pitfall is poorly timed research. If, for example, keywords are desired for a seasonal promotion, it's wise to choose them closer to the season. Programs like Wordtracker only store date for 90 days. This means research won't be reflective of the terms that are needed if the "season" in question has passed.

The last two major hurdles that get in the way of keyword selection are being too greedy with keyword selection and doing research, but never cultivating it. A lot of publishers pick the highest possible paying keywords and stick with them. The reality here is that lower paying, niche keywords and even long-tail keywords pay less per click, but they can pay off with more incoming traffic over the long run. This is true, because there aren't as many competing sites as with other high paying keywords.

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.

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