Are you conducting your very own SEO keyword research? Are you completely sure that the steps you are following in your research is effective or after all those months of testing, your website is still in no better shape in the search results? I would like to share with you how I do my own keyword research. You may or may not already be doing these steps but it is definitely worth your time to read this article.

Step number one for me is to have a complete understanding of what my website stands for or what it is all about. You might say that it is a very easy thing and that your site’s topic should be very obvious to you and to other people. But the truth of the matter is that it is not a simple thing to do. Not all website owners fully understands what the overall topic of their website is, especially if their site contains so many pages with varying themes or topics. Naturally it would be harder to say that your website is just about one topic. So why is this important? It’s because keyword research and search engine optimization is more effective and easier to do if you are working with only a handful of keywords.

The next thing that I do is to use a keyword research tool, which in my case I usually make use of the free keyword tool from Google. You can use other tools, even the proprietary ones. It is all up to your preference and in my opinion, there is no single authority tool when it comes to keyword research. If you are just starting out and your budget is limited, using the free tools is more than decent enough to help you with your research. I often begin my research by using broad terms and based from the results that the tool gives me, I would select the long tail keywords. That is because it is easier to rank for these keywords as the broad terms are often too competitive to get into.

The single most important data that I look at in the keyword research tool is the monthly search volume.  As far as I know, most internet marketers also do this. I pick out the keywords with a satisfactory amount of monthly searches. In my case, below ten thousand is usually good enough. Then I search for that keyword in the search engine and if there are just a few results, I keep that keyword aside for further evaluation and possible inclusion in my keyword list.

I always make sure that I only have one theme, also called topic, with which I will base my search engine optimizing efforts. I also use that approach in my keyword research, which is really helpful since it helps me narrow down my choices fast and effectively. Because if you are working with only one theme, it is a lot easier for the search engines to properly identify what it is that your website should be ranked for.

You are probably wondering how many keywords I usually get? It actually varies from one website to another and it often depends on the number of pages of the website. The reason for this is that I usually use just one or two keywords on every page. Still this also helps me stay focused with my seo campaign.

There are other essential steps that you must know when it comes to keyword research for seo, but the techniques stated above should be a good start for you. Do not over complicate your research process and find your own ways on how to simplify it. And keep your main keywords to a minimum so you will not get easily confused.

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