by Larry Lang, 7/21/2007

Using keywords to help find your niche in a competitive market is a "must". Make certain the keywords you identify really tell your potential customers what it is that you are offering. If you are selling a certain kind of widget having a particular characteristic, look for keywords that describe this characteristics that people might be interested in. The more precise you can be, the better your chances are of finding the angle for you to enter the market place. By using too general of a keyword, you will have too much competition. It becomes very difficult to be listed high enough in search results for anyone to see you, let alone to be listed within the top ten search results for that keyword.

Most keyword-search software tells you how many searches have taken place for each particular keyword that you enter. Depending on which keyword software you use determines whether you need to use a multiplier to obtain a more accurate look at the number of searches done for that keyword.

An example of this is results from Overture. For Overture results, multiply the results anywhere from 5 to 7 times. I use 5, which gives me a conservative number to work with. The more searches that a keyword has, the more popular that keyword is.

There is more to look at than just the total number of searches a keyword has had for that month. Determining how many web pages are competing for the same keyword is also necessary. If there is too much competition, it becomes a very hard niche to have any kind of presence. Most keyword software gives you what the competition is for each keyword that displayed in their results box. Obviously, a higher number of searches and a lower number of competitors give you a better chance of being listed within the top ten spots on the search engines.

What is the effectiveness of your keywords you have chosen to use on your website? More information is needed to determine this. This is where KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) comes in to play.