How to Use an Online Keyword Research Tool

Plan, prepare and research keywords before using an online keyword research tool to optimize your time. Paid and free online keyword research tools are both available, but a paid tool is often less cumbersome, as you can usually input several words or phrases at once and will get more results than with a free program. Paid programs allow you to build a wide suggestion list and then narrow your results until you find your niche.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Spend some time surfing the web and looking at other sites in the same field to learn about the keywords you choose to research. Review the keywords used by the highest ranking sites to begin building your list of possible keywords.

2. Use the online keyword research tool of your choice and input one keyword at a time to get related keyword suggestions. Build a list of related keywords. You are looking for not only the keywords that are within your field, but also the keywords that people search most often. Write down the most popular keywords in your field.

3. Compare the number of sites using your keyword with the number of times your keyword is being used in searches. This is called the KEI, or keyword effectiveness index. The higher the KEI, the better the keyword. Not all online keyword research tools will give you the KEI. You may need to do your own additional research to get an estimate.

4. Begin using keywords to develop your website once you know which keywords being used the most and with which sites you feel you can compete.

Tips & Warnings

• Consider using a paid online keyword research tool if you are going to be doing a lot of keyword research, especially if you are thinking of doing keyword research professionally.
• Hang around some Internet marketing discussion forums and browse Internet marketing websites to get the low-down on keyword research tools that offer the best results.

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