4 June 2009
Choosing the right keywords at the start of a SEO campaign can make a huge difference. Let us briefly tell you why...

Many a time I am asked when beginning a new SEO campaign - “Why do I need a keyword report? I already know what keywords I want to use”. The answer to this can make or break any future SEO campaign.

Keywords are the backbone of any optimisation campaign so ideally you want to select keywords and search terms that people are actually searching for. All too often people presume the keywords which they would type in to a search engine to find their product or service must be the same search term or keyword that the rest of the world is using. In some cases this will be true but when you look into this a little deeper the story unfolds even more.

Let’s take an example.

If a website sells “Cheap PC’s” most people would naturally assume that to find that website the best search term to type in would be “cheap pc’s”. In general terms they would be correct, but by focusing too much on this extremely obvious keyword (known as a short tail keyword), you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be millions upon millions of competing websites, all vying for the same custom.

This is a bad thing, as the more competitive a keyword or search term is, the harder it is to optimise your site. So you could potentially spend a lot of hard earned money paying out to optimise for a highly competitive short tail keyword to hopefully achieve great rankings, yet you’ll most likely struggle for traffic.

By taking the option of a keyword analysis report you are in effect asking somebody to search your chosen market to find the best high traffic keywords with the lowest amount of competition. This sounds simple but it’s a lot more complex, and in the long run it will pay dividends.

The outcome would be that you would be starting your SEO campaign with a set of bespoke, tailored search terms that have the best chance of driving relevant custom to your website. This means that you would be more likely to rank well for these search terms much quicker than the more obvious search term and will probably bring in more traffic, all saving you money in the long run.

In summary, remember that choosing the right keywords are the backbone of any SEO campaign, so this deserves thought and planning. By choosing not to have a keyword report you could end up paying lots of money for highly competitive terms which don’t necessarily bring in high volumes of traffic.

If you still don’t want to pay for a keyword report then please research your chosen keywords well before starting out and make use of all of the free resources that are available out there such as Googles keyword suggestion tool. This tool alone will not give you an ideal answer but will certainly be better than guess work.

Good Luck!