Every webmaster and business owner looking to make an impact online must consider the right SEO keywords that will not only help their website progress, but also convert traffic into customers.

Too many web agencies and site owners are only considering being found for keywords that on the face of it are highly searched for, often ignoring SEO keywords with less search volume but that are more relevant to the businesses core products or services. These keywords are far more likely to convert if you are offering a relevant product or service.

When it comes to the issue of how to choose SEO keywords, How2Media would advise that all options and avenues are considered. The following methods are all popular but sometimes used incorrectly.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool – As it says on the tin; this method of researching keywords has been designed with Google’s paid advertising medium in mind, it is however an extremely useful SEO tool. We would recommend that you search using exact match over broad match so that you know exactly how many monthly searches there are, broad match will show more searches but this type of search will also include non-relevant searches that simply include your keyword.

For example; if you are an ecommerce website owner selling motorcycle tyres then it makes more sense to simply target all relevant and exact traffic based around your various product offerings. If you were to do a broad search Google will take into account the word tyres, motorcycle, cycle, motor etc and include them in the search volumes. People searching for anything other than your products will not convert into paying customers.

The other benefit of exact match searching is that it also helps you to understand your industry potential, if you know your business conversion rates from website click, to enquiry and eventually a sale, working out from the start the exact amount of traffic will help you to project potential return on investment via your website and also monthly and yearly turnover. Being able to produce accurate forecasts could help if you need to raise business finance or investment.

Be Realistic - Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will you dominate your chosen sector overnight for the most competitive of keywords. By this we mean that you should consider the short, mid and long term aims of your business and website when choosing SEO keywords.

Obviously you will want to rank highly for the highly search, relevant sector keywords as these will drive the highest amount of targeted traffic to your site; this will take time, effort and resource alongside a lot of ethical search engine optimisation work to achieve. We would advise you consider this challenge a mid to long term goal depending on the competition you face for these SEO keywords.

To get to the mid to long term stage you need to consider how to make an impact in the short term in terms of driving traffic and of course generating revenue from sales. How2Media would recommend that you look at all your product or service offerings and include them as a vital part of any SEO campaign.

Taking the example of motorcycle tyres again; this type of keyword would be deemed as a generic offering of your types of products. For example; a keen motorcycle enthusiast will know which tyres suit their riding style, the weather and bike the best so it is unlikely that they will perform a search simply for motorcycle tyres as a generic. They are more than likely to search specifically for a tyre that they know works well for them and only click on a website that reflects their desired search.

If you optimise your website for the specific product types, no matter how long tailed then you have a great chance of having a high conversion rate in the short term on lesser searched SEO keywords. As the product type and search will be so specific, the amount of competition on these types of SEO keywords are much less which means your site will rank highly in the short term if you implement your search engine optimisation strategy correctly.

Competitor Analysis – Any business and website owner should know who there competitors are. There are generally three types of competition to any business;

• Industry Leading
• Upcoming/ New
• Existing

It is essential when choosing SEO keywords that you understand all of your competition no matter how big or small a threat you deem them to be to your website.

You must think outside of the box, think about the primary industry leading SEO keywords such as the highly searched generic terms and also perform searches yourself for these terms. In general the websites appearing for the generic terms could be deemed as online industry leading websites as they are already at the stage of your long term goals. You should learn from their good work and look to better it through a well thought out and implemted onilne marketing strategy.

Performing searches for the more specific products will also help you to see who are existing rivals for your desired SEO keywords and give you increased knowledge of all the competition you face for keywords across the board.

Keeping an eye out for new competition by checking which websites are paying for Google Adwords will help you to see potential future rivals in the organic search engine rankings; also try and learn from upcoming, new competitors who look to be making progression up the rankings.

By taking into account all these factors when it comes to the issue of how to choose seo keywords, you will not only increase your online standing but also protect your business and website in the future.