I just want to show you the range so you can see how important it is to do this kind of keyword research. Though you may be able to guess some of the results especially at the high end, I’d be willing to bet you’ll be surprised along the way.
I got another one of those horrible emails today…deriding keywords and keyword research because it’s just about SEO.
I hate these emails especially when they come from people who should know better. All it does is spread a whole lot of misinformation that leaves new online business owners confused and overwhelmed as they try to sort it all out. It’s not right.
So let me see if I can shed some light on the issue without adding to the confusion.
First, keyword research is not just about SEO.
Second, SEO does matter if you want traffic to your website.
- Keyword research is first and foremost the best way of identifying a niche market online (and it could be argued offline as well). It’s a way of doing market research that tells you what people are looking for and how much competition you have to deal with in that niche market.
Once you have identified a niche market, keywords can be used on your website to improve your organic Google results and they are essential for pay-per-click advertising (AdWords).
But first and foremost, keyword research is about finding a profitable niche market. What used to cost large companies thousands of dollars can down be done by solo entrepreneurs and freelancers for a few hundred dollars.
- SEO doesn’t matter if you have no interest in getting traffic to your website through the online searches of your customers.
If you have other ways of driving large amounts of traffic to your site then go for it…though IMHO none of them leverage your time as effectively.
It’s a choice, but why on earth would you ignore 2 major sources of traffic….organic search results and pay-per-click search results…when they could make the difference between online success and failure. It just doesn’t make any sense to me to ignore something so important.
Furthermore, the basics of SEO are easy, and the basics can take you a very long way. You don’t need to hire an “SEO expert” who’s spouting a whole lot of hocus pocus, and is as likely to get you banned in Google as ranking well.
The basics mean using a little bit of knowledge, some great Wordpress plugins, and a good list of keywords. Honestly that’s all you need to get on to page 1 in Google. I know because I’ve done it repeatedly.
For non-business people going online the terms and acronyms can be daunting. So often you’ve got geeks who are immersed in this stuff defining terms with more geekish geekese (not sure which describes the language of geek better)
To hopefully save you from the same frustration, I am starting a series of posts that define terms used in internet marketing. Many of these stumped me for the longest time. Either I couldn’t find a clear definition or I just wasn’t grokking it…probably a bit of both.
So let me know what’s stumping you and I’ll do my best to define it.
