Build a Business Web Site – The Single Most Important Step Before You Even Start

Keyword research is a well known subject, yet sometimes not as used as it should be. Keyword research is the most important part of any online business. Simply put, without targeted keywords, you’re wasting your time and money.

First, a clarification. We are now talking about the websites that are not promoting a brand. We focus on websites that attract potential buyers to our website, without spending millions on building a brand.

The whole point of any website is to attract visitors and offer them information they are searching for and eventually allow them to buy our products or services.

A well optimized (search engine optimized – SEO) web PAGE, offers visitors exactly what they are looking for. First, it must focus on the keywords that are related to our product/service and are specific enough that search engines show our page among the first pages in the search results.

So the keyword research is a process of finding keywords that:

• are related to your product/service
• they are specific enough, not too generic
• are ‘buying keywords’
• have low competition and
• relatively high search volume per month

Good example of the general keyword is ‘shoe’, specific (even buying) keyword is ‘men’s running shoe’ or even better – ‘men’s running shoe size 10′.The best results are achieved by creating specific web page for every keyword. Optimize pages for maximum 2-3 related keywords per page.

It is sometimes hard to define what is a ‘buying keyword’. The most important question is however, what is the intention behind that keyword? What are visitors thinking when searching for the specific keyword?

Low competition keywords can be found on Google. Find out how many pages are optimized for that specific keyword. How? Search on Google: ‘allintitle:”< your keyword >” ‘, e.g. allintitle:”men’s running shoe” (exact search).

This will return the number of pages that have that specific keyword in the title. If the number of pages is 50.000 or less, you might have a good chance, with proper promotion, to rank high on Google with that keyword.

The good number for search volume per month is always specific to your business. If you sell high-end products, maybe you just need 10 visitors per month.

As always, all the keywords and pages must be tested. Do visitors stay on the page, do they optin or buy?

So when you have your keywords, then you can start planning your website. Make sure one page is focused on 2-3 (maximum) keywords that define your product or service.