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How To Steer Clear Of Major Keyword Mistakes

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.



Science or not, keyword selection can be absolutely vital for a site's success. Considering this, it is important to choose good ones. There are some very common pitfalls webmasters run into when selecting words. Understanding what they are can help you avoid making them, too.



One of the biggest mistakes publishers make is not using keywords at all. These are some of the most valuable online marketing tools. Keywords help you tap into potential incoming traffic. They can also assist in targeting the focus of a site. It's certainly not necessary to hire a company to help you out. A little personal research and proper application can go a very long way in helping sites gain traffic.



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.



Using no keywords isn't a good idea, but neither is using only a single word or phrase. The best strategy is to pick a theme and then choose words and phrases that build on that theme. This enables sites to work better with latent semantic indexing. WordNet can be very useful for selecting the right niche phrases to build a site around.



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.



Sometimes webmasters get into keyword research too much. These folks can make the mistake of not using keyword management tools. Although they have keywords, and likely a lot of them, these webmasters don't have the ability to easily filter, sort and refine their keyword lists. Ad Word Analyzer is a fantastic tool to help with this.



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.

Article Source: Free Content Articles Directory

About the author: Jeff Alderson specializes in maximizing traffic and sales. 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 site.

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