Keyword research is often mentioned on the internet but what is it, how do you do it and why should you?

What is Keyword Research and Optimization?

When people are looking for something on the internet they will generally do this by using keywords. Keywords may be typed into Google, YouTube or Facebook search but no matter what you are looking for you will need to use these words.

Keyword research helps the internet marketer (or potential internet marketer) know what keyword terms people are searching for, how many people are searching for these terms and what kind of competition they will be facing if they choose these keywords for their website.

Keyword optimization refers to including keywords in specific places on your website and at specific densities to get your website listed as high as possible on the search engine results pages so that your website is one of the first that people will find when looking for these keywords.

Why is Keyword Research Important?

Now you know what keyword research is, why is it important? The reason for this is that if you do not optimize your website for good keywords where there are relatively high search volumes versus low competition your website could get lost amongst millions of others in a saturated market where there is no longer any room for more competitors.

The opposite is also true, you could optimize your website for keywords that no one is looking for and hence will not be found or make any sales.

How to Do Keyword Research

There are a number of free and paid tools available to help you do keyword research. Two of the best are the Google Adwords keyword research tool and the Wordtracker tool. Wordtracker is a paid tool with a free trial, the Google Adwords keyword research tool is free - just sign up for an Adwords account.

When doing keyword research you will enter keyword terms you have thought of for your website into a text box on the website and then the site will search for related keyword terms and give you an indication of the search volumes for the different terms, the amount of competition and the ratio between these two. With Google Adwords keyword research tool you can also find a wealth of other information such as local search trends, potential prices if you use Google Adwords as an advertising tool, etc.

Google Adwords and Wordtracker work slightly differently to one another with Google allowing you to enter more potential terms, the area you want to target (if any) and the language your website is and then press the search button for results. Wordtracker allows you to enter one term and then drill down to find new terms, add them to the 'keyword basket' and then get results when you are done.

The key things you want to consider when choosing the keywords you are going to use are the number of searches being done and what competition you will be facing. If the search volumes are too low or the competition is too high then you will probably want to avoid these terms.

Keyword research is essential for ensuring that visitors find your website online and will give you an idea of what the market is like in terms of how many people are searching for these terms and what competition you will be facing. You can either use Google or Wordtracker to do this keyword research (or a number of other free or paid tools).