Keywords analysis and keywords research is the most critical thing you will do when planning to start a new website. To search engine optimize a website that had good keywords analysis before a line of code was written is significantly easier than a website that was changed to meet keyword phrases.

So what is a keyword phrase? – When anyone wants to find something on a search engine they type a number of words into the search box and hit search. These words are known as keyword phrases. The search engine will then look through its index of web pages trying to find the most relevant sites.

Lots of SEO companies will tell you that on-site optimization is essential and this is true but any optimization will only be as good as the keyword phrases you have researched and chosen.

Thus, keyword analysis must be carefully executed. The analysis needs to be performed in phases, and for each of the phrases researched we need to collect the following information for each keyword:

• Search volume – the number of searches made for this term
• Competition – the number of other sites that are competing for the phrase
• Competitors – the top 5 websites listing in results pages for the phrase

A useful FREE keyword analysis tool is Traffic Travis that gives lots of help around this research.

The three phases of keyword research are:

1. Identify Generic Keywords Phrases. The first step is to investigate the generic terms around your line of business. These are typically the terms people use when browsing for information on a topic and will not necessarily bring buyers into your website. For example, Coast Accommodation or Beach Accommodation.
2. Identify Niche Keywords. From the generic list we need to now find a niche in the market. Typically generic terms will have high number of requests and high competition. By going through each generic term and looking for niches that have a lower number of searches but with less competition will allow us to get a better ranking faster. An example niche could be Florida Beach Accommodation or Greek Islands Accommodation.
3. Identify Long Tail. Now we have a number of niches selected we can find the specific keywords that will bring in visitors that want to buy our service or product. If you think about it people may well be looking for cheap hotels or to compare hotels. Thus, taking your niche list play around with the following methods:
   - Adjective – add price or product qualifiers, e.g. cheap…
   - Product Type – add a product type, e.g. villa, hostel, B&B
   - Locations – e.g. Crete, Corfu, Jamaica
   - Vendor or Brands – e.g. Hilton, Holiday Inn, Marriott
   - Call to action – add words like: buy, solve, help, ways to

This will now give you your list of keyword phrases that your website needs to be targeted at. If you don’t have a website already you can now select your website domain names based on the niche selected. The advantage about doing keyword research first is that your domain name can include the keywords of your selected niche.

Once your have purchased your domain name you need to start with your website design and hosting. The first step is to host the website in your target region picking a supplier with a good track record of supporting its customers. Once your hosting plan is set-up you can now get a design company or create the website yourself. Our article on website design and hosting gives a lot more pointers to help you out here.

You should now have a website that has a domain name related to your keywords, has content or articles targeted at your keyword phrases. If you have done this correctly the website should start appearing in the search engine results but you will need to do some specific on-site optimization and off-site optimization to help your positioning in result lists.  Another option whilst your organic results are improving is to start a Pay Per Click campaign which can bring well targeted visitors into your website on day one.

Tags: affiliate marketing, articles, internet marketing, keyword research, seo