Keyword research and analysis is essential if you want your internet marketing business to be found.   When a user enters a search term, also known as a ‘keyword,’ into a search engine, the engine runs through the billions of pages in the database and awards each one a ‘relevancy score.’ The higher your score, the higher your listing will be in that search engine. If your site doesn’t contain the keyword used by the searcher, the only score it’s going to get is a big, fat zero. So your first task then is to make sure you know which keywords are most relevant for each of your sites.

There are a few different ways to can work towards doing your own keyword research and analysis.  The first is to look through the biggest search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN you can type in what you know your keywords to be, or the words you think people might use to find you and then analyze the results you receive. What you are looking to discover is how many people are searching for what you are offering based on your keywords.

I will just stress here that this type of keyword research should take place before you have your website up and definitely before you create a product based on your idea but if you are finding that your product isn’t selling carrying out keyword research can definitely help to change that.  The trick to keyword research is finding the right words that your potential customer uses to find you and this is an art in itself.

Once you have the search results in front of you another way to discover how popular your keyword is, is to look at the paid advertising on the right hand side of the search results.  If there are no adverts on that side then you have either tapped a new market with potential or an area you shouldn’t touch with a 10-feet pole because nobody else has!

Of course if there are a number of advertisers then you can assume that there is definitely potential in your idea and now all you need to do is carry out keyword analysis to determine the keywords you will use in your internet marketing business.

Not too surprisingly, a number of companies have popped up to supply specific keyword services for a fee. The best of these is WordTracker.com. They’re not bargain basement, but you get what you pay for. They’ll give you all the keywords you need and in my experience, they’re a sound investment. There are free services available when carrying out keyword analysis and paid services. Your budget will determine which one you use but if you are serious about building your internet based business then a paid service is really your only option.

As you make up your list of keywords, bear in mind that it’s also worth looking at key phrases. It’s quite possible that a user looking to buy flowers online might search for ‘red roses’ or ‘cheap bouquets’ as well as just ‘flowers.’ Key phrases are often overlooked by competitors, so you’ve got a pretty good chance of getting a high placement with the right combination.

Don’t worry too much about the competition though. Some people will tell you that you’re better off trying to find keywords that no one else has thought of—as if there were any!  In my experience, what I’ve found is if your competitors are using certain keywords, it’s because they know they work so rather than try to reinvent the wheel just try to figure out the most popular keywords and the best key phrases to put on your site.

Keyword research and analysis in internet marketing is as important as having a BUY NOW button on your website and you are missing out on sales if you do not pay attention to this area. If you are not confident about how to carry out keyword research then think about outsourcing it to someone who is already experienced in this field.

Too many people join internet marketing and make the mistake of trying to do everything alone when they are not really qualified to do that. If you think you do not have the money to pay for this service think again because the outcome of not doing your keyword research right is zero sales.  Also keyword research will take you days, possibly weeks to complete yourself and you will never really be sure whether you have truly gained the right words to use in your business. An expert will be able to look at your business and instantly recognize the keywords that will work for your internet marketing business.

Whether you do it yourself or pay to outsource make keyword research and analysis an important part of your product creation system and you will enjoy the success that comes from people finding your internet marketing business and buying your product.

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Diane Corriette runs the Women Internet Marketers social network at http://www.womeninternetmarketers.net.  She helps people build and profit from using blogs, podcasts, free ecourses and membership sites and shares her expertise and personal experience in internet marketing to help people avoid the same mistakes that she made. Read her eBook at http://www.myinternetmarketingmistakes.com