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Keyword Research for Organic SEO
By Scott Van Achte (c) 2007

So you have decided to venture out into the world of SEO. The
first thing you will need to do is determine the direction of
your campaign in relation to the key phrases you are choosing to
target. This article will focus on how to find keywords for your
organic campaign, as the process is slightly different for PPC.

Many site owners know immediately what phrases they want. If you
feel like you know what you want, before you start take a brief
step back and assess if this really is the best phrase for your
site. Yes, it just may very well be the perfect phrase, but if it
isn't, you could wind up spending a lot of time and money
pursuing a ranking that either will never happen, or will provide
very little value to your site.

There are a few key areas to look at when choosing a target
phrase:

   1. Relevance – Is this phrase even relevant to your site and
      its content?
   2. Search Frequency – Are people even searching for this
      phrase?
   3. Competition – How competitive is this field? Is it even a
      feasible target?

Where to start – Create a List of Phrases
So where do you even start with all this keyword research. Before
looking up search frequencies and competition you need to create
a list of relevant phrases. Open up an excel sheet and type out
all relevant phrases that come to mind, do a little brainstorming
as there are no wrong answers at this stage.

After you have exhausted your thoughts, move over to your
website. Open it up and navigate throughout recording any keyword
phrase ideas that spring up checking your title tags and body
content. Once this is done, do the same thing with your
competition. Visit some sites that you know are in direct
competition with you and go through them recording any relevant
phrases you see.

By now you should have a long list of potential targets, a list
that will grow further as you look into their search
frequencies.

Find a Keyword Tool
The next step is to open up your favorite keyword research tool.
There are many to choose from, two of the more popular being
WordTracker (http://news.stepforth.com/tools/exit/wordtracker.php)
and Keyword Discovery (http://news.stepforth.com/tools/exit/
keyworddiscovery.php), although many still use the
free, Overture (http://inventory.overture.com/) tool. It is
important to note that no keyword tools give you 100% accurate
search figures. In most cases you will get numbers representing
a sampling from various search engines. These numbers are best
used in comparing one phrase to another to find out which is
more popular, rather than determining specifically how much
traffic to expect.

Check the Search Frequency
Once you've opened up a keyword tool, begin entering your keyword
phrases and record their noted search frequency. Be sure to
scroll through the results recording any additional phrases that
are both relevant and have acceptable search frequencies. The
exact number of searches required to make a phrase acceptable
depends widely on industry, and even the search tool being used.
A phrase with only 100 searches per month may be perfect for a
secondary target, but in most cases may not be the best bet for a
primary phrase.

Sorting Your List
You now should have a very exhaustive list of potential target
phrases and their corresponding search frequencies. Sort this
list in descending order based on the number of searches, so that
the most popular phrase is at the very top. In many industries,
the top few phrases may be completely impractical to target due
to the competition, but we'll determine that a bit later.

Check the Competition
The next step is to get a feel for how competitive these phrases
are. In the next column in your spreadsheet, place the number of
results returned by Google for each individual phrase. The lower
the number of competing pages, in most cases, the easier it may
be to achieve rankings. (Note: this is not always the case, but
it is an indicator).

At this point, you will have a long list sorted by search
frequency, along with the number of competing pages. If you are
fortunate, you will see one phrase immediately that jumps out –
solid searches with low competition. This just may be the most
ideal target phrase.

Does this phrase fit well with the theme of your site? If so, go
to Google and take a closer look at the ranking websites. Does
your site fit in with the general feel of these results? In some
cases it may not, as your phrase could have different meanings
(especially true if using acronyms). This phrase may represent a
completely different part of the world if geographically
targeted, or simply may be littered with mega competitors such as
eBay, Amazon, WikiPedia, and others. If you can see your site
fitting in with these results, it's time to assess the general
feasibility of this phrase.

Take a look at the number of back links, and indexed pages each
site has. Do your numbers compare? If you find that the top 10
ranking sites all have back links well into the tens of
thousands, and your site has a dozen or so, you may want to
consider a different phrase. If the ranking sites are in the high
tens, or low hundreds, and your site has a dozen links, then you
have something to work with, if you are willing to work on
increasing your link counts. The number of pages indexed is less
important than links, but if you have a 6 page site and you are
planning on competing with thousand page sites, your chances of
success will be much lower.

The real key is to try to find a phrase that offers relevance,
decent searches, and competition that is not way out of your
league.

Pick a Phrase to Drive Qualified Traffic
For organic SEO it is usually best to focus on one primary phrase
that best suits your site, while targeting more specific
secondary phrases for relevant sections of your site. With
organic SEO, how many phrases you should target is somewhat
limited by the size of your site, the larger the site, the more
phrases you will have the ability to work towards.

The phrase with the most searches is not always the best fit.
This is largely true with the real estate market.

Because everyone has free access, I will use the Overture Keyword
Selector Tool for an example. The phrase "real estate" saw
3,057,037 searches in January of 07. On the surface this phrase
seems like a dream come true, but you have to consider the
geographic issues.

If your office serves the Seattle area, is someone searching in
Orlando likely to be a qualified visitor to your site? In most
cases no. Targeting the phrase "Seattle real estate" with 12,441
searches, seems like a much better choice as it would deliver
more qualified traffic. While this phrase is still quite
competitive, it is not nearly as difficult as simply "real
estate". Take a look at the big picture and determine not only
how likely it is that you may achieve rankings, but whether the
traffic generated from such a ranking would actually have a
positive impact on sales.

Conclusion
Doing some research to find the best target phrase is the
groundwork for your SEO campaign. Without it you'll be flying
blind with no clear direction on goals. Take the time up front to
do a little research and determine whether the dream phrase you
have in mind is a worthwhile target or not. If it turns out that
it's not, it's better to find out before you invest your time and
money on an SEO campaign. Knowing the level of competition and
search frequencies for a target phrase beforehand will help you
make informed decisions and give you the best chances for
success.
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Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Search Engine
Placement (http://www.stepforth.com). Several years ago after
graduating from Camoson College with a Diploma in Computer
Systems Technology, Scott joined the team at StepForth and began
his SEO career. When he is not busy with work he can be found
out at the golf course, fishing, or simply spending quality
time with his wife Lyndsay.

Scott can be reached at mailto:scott@stepforth.com
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