In this post I am going to tell you about keyword research.But before I start, Let me give you a quick recap of things I have said in Pat-1 of search engine optimization series.In part-1 of this series I have written an introductory post on SEO.I have told you about on page and off page optimization and factors to be considered for on page and off page SEO.Now in this post I will tell you about 1st factor of on page SEO, Keyword research.

Why Keyword Research is important?-

Keywords are the basis of search engines.The algorithms or programs may differ for different search engines but the basis remains same for every search engine.Infact keywords are the most important factor which should be considered in organic search engine optimization.If you have done everything right but ignored correct usage of keyword then it is unlikely that you would be ranking high in SERPs.

How one should do keyword research

Although there are many keyword research tool available on the internet but most of them are paid.Here I will tell you a method to research your keywords yourself without investing even a single penny.

You can do your keyword research with two free tools- Google Adwords keyword tool and google search.In the paragraph that follows I will exactly tell you how to do it?

Once you enter a keyword in Adwords keyword tool , the tool presents you with a big list of related keywords,with last month search volume,average search volume and search volume trends as shown below in the image.

(Click to enlarge the image)

Now, choose keywords with high average search volume and increasing or uniform search trends.Increasing search trending will show up as increasing height of bars in search volume trends column while in uniform trending the height of bars will almost remain same.

Choose as many keywords from adwords keyword tool as possible.Once you have finished choosing keywords you should analyze those keywords.

Analysis of keywords-

Analysis of keywords is a bit tricky thing to do.But once you learn it will become easy for anyone.For analyzing keywords google search is single best tool.Make a search using each of your selected keywords.The search page looks like as shown below- (click on image to enlarge)

Look at the top right of the page showing the number of webpages that are competing for that keyword.Note down the number for each selected keyword.In addition to number of webpages competing for each keyword ,you should also analyze following things-

1)Whether the webpage ranking on the top of SERPs for a particular keyword is a home page or some inner page.

2)The pagerank of webpage on the top of SERPs for a particular keyword.This can be done by google toolbar.Install google toolbar if you have not done so yet.

3)Whether the webpage on the top of SERPs is using exact keyphrase or semantic words.

4)Whether the keyphrase is enclosed in heading tag-h1,h2 etc. in top ranking webpage.

5)What anchor text the webpage is using in its external links.

Make a chart of your findings on a excel sheet or a piece of paper.Now you are ready to select your keyword.

You should select a keyword which has-

1) Lower competition as shown by number on the top right side of SERPs.

2)The top webpage for that keyword is an inner page,has lower pagerank and doesn't usees exact keyword phrase in its heading or anchor text in its external links.

With this your keyword research is complete and you are ready to place those keywords in your posts.In the paragraph that follows I will tell you about the proper keyword placement.

Keyword Placement-

Keyword placement is as important as keyword research because if you are not able to place your keywords in your posts properly then all your effort of keyword research will be wasted.

Remember the following points while placing your keywords-
1) Place your primary keyword/phrase in the title.
2)Always use your primary keyword in the starting of first paragraph and in the last paragraph.
3)Use your secondary keywords in sub headings.
4)Sprinkle all your keywords within your post ,maintaining a keyword density of 3-6%.A keyword density of 3-6% means for every 100 words roughly use your keywords for 3-6 times.

With this I have come to an end of my post on Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Part-2 which was about keyword research..Now, I am sure ,you have got very good idea about keyword research and placement.In the next post ,I will tell you about internal linking pattern.So, just check back soon or subscribe to my feeds for my next post of organic search engine optimization series.





Next posts of this series are-

Organic search engine optimization (SEO)-

Part-3 (Internal linking) ,

Part-4 (html tags) ,

Part-5 (Blog architecture) ,

Part-6 (Sitemap and Navigation) ,

Part-7 ( Off-page optimization-link building) and

Part-8 (Anchor Text)

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