The basics of keyword research

A keyword is defined as a word which acts as the key to a cipher or code. Keywords are so essential and needed in order for a search engine to function properly and carry out the correct process. This is a very simple step to SEO and if it is done correctly, a website can be very highly ranked due to its keywords.

To start with, researching phrases and keywords lets you gain knowledge to target with SEO, but also you can understand your target demographic, too. It is always a positive aspect when visitors are on your website, but keywords allow you to target a specific audience. This means you are able to respond the customers demand, provide them with their needs and also respond to the change in the market place.

How to judge value of a keyword

As a webmaster, you would need to make sure that your website has keywords that represent your website as a whole, but this cannot prove how valuable it is to receive traffic from those searches. Therefore, to judge the value of a keyword, you must do it the classic way:

Make a hypotheses
Test
Repeat

Certain variables that can impact web marketing formula are...

Ask yourself: Does this keyword relate to the website? Would a searcher be pleased if my website came up in their search results and would they find what they are looking for on my website? Is the traffic result going to result in financial rewards or other organisational goals? When they answer is 'Yes' to all of these questions, you have found the right keyword link.
Search for the phrase in popular engines: Making sure you are aware of your competition on the World Wide Web is always important. So, type the keyword you wanted to use or have used in a popular search engine and then see what comes up in the search results. This gives insight if it will be hard to rank highly with this specific key word. Then, check if there are any advertisements running along the top and right hand side of the organic results? Typically, if there are more search ads appearing, it is more possible to be a high-value keyword.
Purchase a sample campaign for the keyword at Google AdWords and/or Bing Adcenter: If your website doesn't rank highly for the keyword you wanted, you can always purchase test traffic on Google Adwords. To do this, choose 'exact match' in Google Adwords and point the traffic to the relevant page on your website.
Using data you've collected, determine the exact value of each keyword: Businesses love search marketing because it gives them profit and is one of the highest return marketing investments. They put a value sum of money on each keyword they have submitted which allows them to see how successful or unsuccessful they are. However, sometimes it is not always accurate to measure the success because even the best estimations can completely fail.

Understanding the long tail of keyword demand

A long tail keyword is a keyword which is really specific to something that the search user is looking for. Popular searches only make up around 30% of searches made on the web, the other 70% lie in the long tail keyword demand search. Usually, long tail keywords translate better due to the people in the cycle of buying online, which search marketers have used to their advantage for a niche market. Overall, on the World Wide Web, there are smaller queries on the internet that are taking up a big amount of traffic.

^{featured image: www.darkpeakdigital.co.uk}