How do I choose keyword phrases? I get this question from about every client that I work with it so I will answer it here, so no long conversation will ever be needed again. Whether you are choosing keywords for a brand new site or a one that has been around for a long time, not much is different about the process.

The first step, even before doing keyword research is to determine your target audience. Does your business cater only to individuals in a certain geographic area or are you looking for international traffic? The second thing that needs to be determined is exactly what your company is about, really think about what differentiates it and gives you a competitive advantage. This is one of the biggest keys in all forms of advertising and something I rarely seeing business owners thinking about. Got a good idea of what you are all about and who you want to target? Great! Let’s move on to step 2: keyword research.

I do most of my keyword research using Google tools. The reason is because that is where most people are searching, and I trust that their statistics will be the most accurate. Keyword research is about finding out what terms that are related to your business get high volumes of traffic. It’s that simple! If your site had a high PR then focusing on short term phrases will probably send the most traffic in your direction. If your site is brand new, the answer is simple; choose more long-tail phrases that include the high volume phrases. This way, your page structure and inbound linking strategies are always building upon those short high volume keyword phrases.

There is one other element that I haven’t discussed and that is competition. Competitive phrases are often difficult to rank with on a brand new site that has a low volume of traffic. Sometimes choosing a few keywords that are more descriptive and not as competitive may be a good option to gain additional traffic while you are working on the more competitive phrases. Having the supplemental traffic from these lower volume terms plus the long-tail phrases will increase your site’s traffic and in the long run put you in a good position for focusing more on the best phrases.