Have you been doing your own seo keyword research and if yes, are you confident that you are using the right approach? As you may already know, keyword research should be among the first things that you should be doing in your search engine optimization. In this article I will be sharing with you the steps that I take whenever I conduct my own keyword research.

The first thing that I usually do is to have a full grasp of what my website is all about. Sounds simple, right? It isn’t and that’s where most people commit mistakes early on. It’s because they cannot pinpoint or zero in on the specific topic that the website is tackling. Is your website about making money online or is it about blogging for money? While both makes you earn money through the internet, they are not the same thing. The blogging for money site is more focused on its topic compared to the first one. That is why before you even begin to conduct your keyword research you must first know what it is you are offering to the world.

The next thing that I do is to use a keyword research tool, which in my case I usually make use of the free keyword tool from Google. You can use other tools, even the proprietary ones. It is all up to your preference and in my opinion, there is no single authority tool when it comes to keyword research. If you are just starting out and your budget is limited, using the free tools is more than decent enough to help you with your research. I often begin my research by using broad terms and based from the results that the tool gives me, I would select the long tail keywords. That is because it is easier to rank for these keywords as the broad terms are often too competitive to get into.

The single most important data that I look at in the keyword research tool is the monthly search volume. As far as I know, most internet marketers also do this. I pick out the keywords with a satisfactory amount of monthly searches. In my case, below ten thousand is usually good enough. Then I search for that keyword in the search engine and if there are just a few results, I keep that keyword aside for further evaluation and possible inclusion in my keyword list.

I always make sure that I only have one theme, also called topic, with which I will base my search engine optimizing efforts. I also use that approach in my keyword research, which is really helpful since it helps me narrow down my choices fast and effectively. Because if you are working with only one theme, it is a lot easier for the search engines to properly identify what it is that your website should be ranked for.

How many keywords can be considered enough? It depends on the number of web pages contained in your website. I often use just one or two keywords per page and that all of these keywords are related to just one topic or theme to maintain the consistency.

There are other essential steps that you must know when it comes to keyword research for seo, but the techniques stated above should be a good start for you. Do not over complicate your research process and find your own ways on how to simplify it. And keep your main keywords to a minimum so you will not get easily confused.