Finalizing Your Keyword Research

When you are putting the finishing touches on your keyword research list there are a few other things you should consider that may help you refine your focus even further. You know, all too well, that not all traffic is good traffic. The quality of the traffic you receive matters a great deal when it comes to making sales. Limiting your competition is one of the best ways to ensure that you are making the sales you've worked so hard to earn.

Finding the right keywords makes this a lot more likely because it will not only draw in your target audience but will also limit the amount of websites you are competing with. It is much easier to find your way to the top of a list that has only 5,000 competing websites than it is to work your way to the top of the search engine rankings when there are 13,000,000. You want to make sure that the pool of competition is as small as possible so that you can rise to the top rather than feeling like a fish trying to swim upstream against a Niagara Falls of competitors.

So, how do you refine the focus and limit your competition? Instead of creating a website that is dedicated to ice cream makers, create one that is dedicated to the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment. By making this change you are still getting a topic that is fairly well searched BUT you are also reducing the competition from 1.5 million competing sites to just over 7,000. That is a HUGE difference. Even then though there are some that will argue that is unfavorable odds for competition and will require significant effort to optimize. How much work you are willing to put into the SEO process will determine whether or not this is a good keyword choice for you.

At the end of the day, the less competition you have, the greater the likelihood that you will be able to rise to the top of the search engine rankings with consistent effort. The more competition you have, the more effort you will need to make for those favorable results.

Use keyword research tools to help you find out how well searched a term is before deciding to use it on your site. Keep in mind that seasonal keywords are seasonal. If you want an accurate idea of what to expect it is a good idea to begin researching during the “off” seasons for these search terms. You should also be aware of the possibility of defining your keywords too narrowly. The result for this would be heading to the top of the heap for keywords that get little or no traffic.

If you have a site that offers a product or service that might appeal to local audience or international audiences be sure to include that in your optimization efforts also. For example, you could target the keyword “toys” and you would be competing with nearly 400 million websites. If you narrowed the focus to “toys made in America,” you would be refining your keyword competition to 13,000 sites. If you change it to “toys made in USA” you will have twice the competition of made in America but 5 times the search volume. Little things like this can make a world of difference when you are refining your keyword selection process.