Keyword research is a method of identifying the best search phrases for a website. Keyword research and selecting is the main foundation of any successful search engine optimisation (SEO) and marketing online campaign.

By researching the right keywords for your website will help you measure the size of a potential online market you wish to target and help you understand your potential catchment markets behaviour. By knowing this keyword research information and selecting the right keywords based on this information will help you to start driving more relevant traffic to your website. These new highly targeted keywords can then power your search engine optimisation, link building campaigns, press releases and other online marketing efforts.

Effective search engine optimisation only works if you choose the most appropriate keywords for your website copy, and for your articles, blogs, title tags and Meta tags. However, it can be tricky deciding whether to choose the most popular keywords to be searched or to select less popular keywords that do not feature on your competitors’ websites and pay per click sponsored links.

Google Adwords keyword tools works quite simply; you enter a word or phrase that fits with your business and then you click the keyword suggestions box. A list of suggested words will come up accompanied by statistics including advertiser competition and the local monthly search volume. Wordtracker is also a keyword suggestion tool and Yahoo marketing offers a good keyword service but you have to be a Yahoo subscriber.

Keyword tools provide an insight into the popularity of certain keywords. The key to SEO success is to select keywords that are specific to your business or industry and are not generic. On the other hand, it is crucial to choose keywords that are regularly entered into Google’s search boxes. A point to bear in mind is that there is a difference between selecting keywords to rise up the free rankings and selecting key words for bidding on sponsored links.

Within the body copy of your website, for search engine optimisation to be most effective, it is a good idea if your SEO copy contains a mix of the most popularly searched keywords, complemented by a few keywords that are uniquely associated to your business.