SEO Keyword Research Using PPC

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keyword research means looking up the right keywords for your website or marketing campaign. These are the keywords that are going to be both applicable to your website and to the people searching.

They have to be popular enough to be worth investing time in whilst hopefully having the least amount of competition (although that last factor is not something you can truly affect).

PPC means pay per click and it is a form of affiliate advertising. Using the Google AdWords program, it is possible to research some very good keywords.

Start with the keyword research tool

With Google AdWords you are given access to their Google keywords tool. This is a tool that used to be available to anyone up until recently. It enables you to places keywords into its search engine, and it will give you back large lists of potential keywords that you may wish to try.

The keywords are often in categories. You will see the keyword alternatives in a list that has some vague category idea. You click on that category and all the applicable keywords appear within that category. In most cases, a lot of the keywords it suggests will be unsuitable for your website. But, a lot of the suggestions you may be able to use. You should note down as many as you think are applicable.

What to do now?

At this point you may start spreading your keywords around your website in some form of an orderly fashion. You should use the ones that you think are the most powerful a number of times. At this point you are able to keep an eye on your Google Analytics to see which pages start to bring in more traffic as a result of your keyword additions.

This is a sound way of doing your keyword research because you may start adjusting your keywords according to their performance as time goes on. However, you can be a little more sophisticated about it.

The price per keyword on the tool

If you look at the keyword tool you will see how much people are paying for the use of each keyword when placing them on affiliate adverts. You can use this information to a degree. It is not going to tell you which the best keywords are because a certain keyword may cost a lot for reasons that are not applicable to your website. However, you can look at which keywords are hardly used at all.

Do not abandon the keywords that are hardly used at all. You can still use them on your website, just do not rely on them or make them your most prominent keywords. Instead, keep them out of the way and in the background and check your Google Analytics to see if they are performing well (unexpectedly).

Testing your keywords with Google AdWords

You can run trial and error tests with Google AdWords to see which keywords bring the most traffic to your landing pages. All you do is create an advert and place a few keywords on it. You can then sit back and watch to see which keywords are getting the most clicks. You should then consider crafting your landing pages around the most successful advert and keyword combinations.

If people are clicking on your affiliate advertising, then they are typing in a keyword, and then being influenced by your adverts. This gives you a good idea of what they are thinking and what they want when they type in a search term. You can alter your web pages so that they appeal to that person when they type in their search term.

See which adverts convert into sales

You may get some keywords that get you lots of clicks, but few of the clicks convert into customers or convert into people who stay on the website. If this is the case, then either the landing pages need some work, or the keywords are not as good as they appear. If it is the keyword’s fault, then it is a good thing that you have discovered it.

You can optimize your website without the keywords, whereas your competitors will keep them. They will be getting traffic that does not convert and you will be working on other keywords that actually bring traffic that converts.

Using the right keywords and the information you get from Google AdWords clicks and subsequent conversions, you may get a very clear view of your target consumer. If you are clever, then you will also come away with some very good targeting information that allows you to rank up your website and pull in traffic that converts.


Author’s bio: The article was provided by Sonia Jackson who writes for http://www.royal-essay.com. She answers all your questions about writing and editing.