I tended to complicate my keyword research activities to the point where I found one or two good keywords and used them over and over. Not only was this boring, it was not effective.

Now I perform a thorough keyword analysis prior to entering any niche, or any internet marketing activity for that matter, and generate a list of 25. I rank these based on exact phrase match ie. competition as well as local search count ie. demand.

I love keywords and love the see the articles and other published materials I have written on the first page of Google.

At one time I spent a lot of time using the free Google Keyword Tools, which are excellent.

The frustration I had was the amount of time it took to undertake the process. It just was not automated enough for me.I finally bit the bullet and purchased an automated system. It freed up a lot of time and basically took the guesswork out searching for popular long tail – low competition keywords.

I believe the best way to find the right keywords are to use a keyword research and analysis tool. For example, I use Market Samurai’s keyword tool. I select keywords for clients that have at least 80 daily searches and have fewer than 30K sites competing for them. If your keyword is too general or too popular it’s likely not to be relevant and if it is, may be way too competitive to hope for a 1st page placement on Google. For sites that don’t have much SEO authority and backlinks it’s imperative they begin producing the right keyword rich content via their pages and then in their blog articles – and then promote it via their social media networks.

More great info. keep the hits coming!

The Franchise King

People may not be searching for branded terms as much, but I don’t think they are reducing the length of their search queries. They may not search ‘Round Table pizza’ but they also don’t just search ‘pizza’. My experience is that they are searching terms like ‘pizza places in Denver’ or ‘Austin takeout pizza’. How should this affect their choice of keywords before they take the great steps you outlined?

This post was mentioned on Twitter by SuzanneSaxeRoux: RT @smallbiztrends Are You Getting The Most Out Of Your Keywords?: We talk at length about how important social me… http://bit.ly/9vWgvI…