Keyword research is an investigative tool used by anyone with an interest in finding and analyzing, the data applicable to the actual search terms people enter into the search field of search engines, when they conduct a search. In other words keywords are the terms people use when they do a search in any of the search engines.

Keyword research is vital and forms the backbone of ALL Internet Marketing efforts. There are two types of keywords, active keywords and inactive keywords. Active keywords are those keywords that searchers input into a search engine when the searcher wants to take an action, mostly to buy a product or service. An inactive keyword is a keyword that searchers enter into a search engine when the searcher wants to get information on any subject. To better understand these concepts let us use the keyword “laptop”, this is an inactive keyword because the phrase does not refer to an action, but produces generalized information about the subject “laptops”. An active keyword is specific in nature.

This is the keyword research process, do not omit any stage of the process.

Prepare Your List
This process benefits from consultation. Interact or brainstorm with others. Friends, family, co-workers even employees who could be of assistance.

Use the Keyword Research Tool
There are a number of research tools available to website owners for the purpose of keyword research, but I will always recommend that everyone gets familiar with Google’s keyword tools.

Build Your List
After completing the previous step, transfer the data from the CSV files you have created to excel worksheets by category and save the files.

Streamline the List
What is left should be a list of keywords that can be used for the website. One final step; sorting them according to those that one can compete for and those one can not.

What Is Your Focus
Before we go into the specifics of competitiveness, a word about the list. The list will reflect the markets in which the business operates.

What Is the Competition Like
As we have noted, the real competitors for keyword are the sites on the first page of the search engine. How do we analyze them? There are lots of factors that could be used.

Finalize the List
At the end of the keyword research, one should be left with a list of keywords (usually 20 to 30) that will be used to optimize the website

Read more on the keyword research process in the article on this on our blog: FishersGold’s Keyword Research