What the Heck is SEO, #6: Keyword Research

In my last post in this series, we talked about the power of links. By now you should be starting to realize that SEO is not rocket science or black magic - it's a simple set of guidelines that Google and Bing ask webmasters to follow so they can figure out what web pages are about. 

You're probably eager to start revising your content and building links that contain your keywords. But what are your keywords? And how do you know which keywords to use?This post will provide a brief introduction to the concept of keyword research, and show you a free tool for getting the job done. 

"SEO is not rocket science or black magic - it's a simple set of guidelines that Google and Bing ask webmasters to follow so they can figure out what our web pages are about"

Using the right keywords can make the difference between getting lots of traffic and new business, or having a beautiful website that no no ever sees. The key to using the right keywords is knowing what people actually search for on Google and Bing. And this information is not as top secret as you might think!

I'm going to let you in on a little secret many SEO companies don't want you to know - Google (which you'll recall from my first post in this series has roughly a 90% market share in the U.S.) gives away this information for free! 

Just follow these easy steps:

• Go to the Google Keyword Planner and sign in or create a free account.
• Enter some keywords or phrases you think people may search for in your geographic area.
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• Have fun playing around with Google's keyword tool and exploring the many phrases people actually search for on Google. The tool is actually pretty intuitive and user friendly.

Here is an example of how you might use it in real life: Let's say you want to add two pages to your website, one about how to avoid foreclosure by selling your house fast for cash, and one about wholesaling to build your buyer's list. You're trying to figure out if people tend to search for "wholesale real estate" or "wholesale properties". Here is a real example from the Keyword Planner:

As you can see, "wholesale real estate" gets four times as much volume as "wholesale properties" for my geographic area (your area may be completely opposite - do your own research!). Thus, I might emphasize that keyword phrase over some of the alternatives in my page.

How might you use the other two phrases shown in the table above to plan your website?

"Using the right keywords can make the difference between getting lots of traffic and new business, or having a beautiful website that no no ever sees."

If nothing else, the Google Keyword tool is great for comparing different keyword combinations and checking their relative traffic. For example, if the tool says the phrase "Chicago Home Inspector" generates 250 searches per month, and the phrase "Chicago Home Inspections" generates 25, you can safely assume you'll get a lot more traffic if you rank well for the first phrase. But your actual mileage will vary.

My two favorite things about the Google Keyword tool are 1) it's absolutely free, and 2) it's from Google, so this is about as close to the horse's mouth as you're going to get.

And that's it in a nutshell. If you do your homework as you begin the SEO process, you'll get a lot more bang for your buck!

So now that you know what your keywords are and you've got them in the right place on your website, you're ready to start building links, right? But how the heck do you do that?

Subscribe and stay tuned for my next post in this series - Link building strategies!

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Jeff Copeland is a real estate broker and property manager in St Petersburg, Florida, and broker/owner of Copeland Morgan LLC. You can find him on Bigger Pockets under @Jeff Copeland.