Research your Keywords [SEO Wed. Vol. 4]
In the fourth entry of SEO Wednesday, we will look at researching the keywords that our target audience would use when searching. By knowing the keywords that our audience will use when they search, we can generate content for those keywords, making our site more relevant, hopefully moving it one step closer to the top of the SERP (search engine results page).
**Tip # 3 **on the highrankings.com website is: Research your keyword phrases extensively. The phrases you think your target market might be searching for may very well be incorrect. To find the optimal phrases to optimize for, use research tools such as KeywordDiscovery.com (Paid), Wordtracker.com (Paid), Google AdWords, and Yahoo Search Marketing data.
A quick glance at my AWR Keyword Report (AWR - Advanced Web Ranking - discussed in a previous SEO Wednesday) shows that the keywords that I would like to be ranked for are; ask how to, ask me, computer how to, computer tutorials, mac tutorials, pc tutorials, quicktime tips, and web design tips. The report also indicates that the only keywords that I actually rank in the top 20 for are gbradhopkins and mac tutorials. Currently gbradhopkins.com ranks around #17 in the major search engines for mac tutorials while none of the other keywords are in the top twenty. 
Instead of using a paid keyword service as recommended by highrankings.com, I’m going to look at two tools to find out which keywords people are using.
The first tool is the Overture Keyword Selector Tool. The intended purpose of this Overture tool is to allow you to search for selected keywords, and find related keywords and their popularity to guide you when bidding on keywords when advertising with Overture.
It also works as a nifty tool to research keyword popularity.
Keyword Search: PC Tutorials 391 total searches done at Overture in October 2005 for the keyword PC Tutorials and related keywords like pc anywhere tutorial, pc repair tutorial, etc. An alternative search for computer tutorial reveals that there we over 3000 searches for the top three related keywords; computer tutorial (2030), computer security help and tutorial (679), and free computer tutorial (494). This indicates that computer tutorials would be a better keyword to optimize for, as opposed to PC Tutorials.
The other tool we are going to look at is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool that you can use after signing up for an account with Google AdWords. The great thing about this tool is that you can put in a URL and analyze the page for keywords related to the content of the page. Below is a sample search that I did for gbradhopkins.com.
By selecting Keyword Popularity from the Show Columns drop down menu, you can see the search volume for each keyword. If you plan on advertising the site in AdWords, the tool also shows the Advertiser Competition for each keyword.
[![http://www.gbradhopkins.com/archives/upload/2005/12/adwords-research-tool-thumb.gif][7]][7]
Once you have decided on the relevant keywords for your website, you need to begin creating content based on the keywords that you have selected. The more content you can create for each keyword, the more relevant your site becomes in the eyes of search engines.
Next week we are going to look at designing and categorizing your site architecture and navigation based
on your keyword research.