Keyword Research As Competitive Intelligence
If you understand Internet marketing in the slightest then you know that keyword research is essential. And competitive intelligence is no less so. Did you know you can take care of both essentials in one action?
It is permissible to steal your competitors’ keywords. When you start your keyword research, one of the first things that you should do is visit the websites of your key competitors and take a look at their meta tags. Don’t just look at the home page either. Look at all of their important pages and make a list of the keywords on each page.
You won’t necessarily use every keyword your competitors use. You probably will use some they aren’t using. But by surveying the keywords that your competition is using, you can better judge how you should approach your niche and which keywords are important. It’s a very simple competitive intelligence maneuver and one that many new Internet marketers often overlook.
Using Google’s External Keyword Research Tool
No Internet marketing campaign is complete without keyword research. Google has a great keyword research tool for anyone just starting out on their journey and who hasn’t built their website. If you’re just getting started on the planning of your site then the Google AdWords External Keyword Research Tool is the right tool for you.
What I like about this tool is you can search for keywords by descriptive phrase or by associating your research with a website. If your website is already built and you want to see if there are any keywords you may not be targeting then you can check the Website content box and generate your list of keywords specifically for a website you own.
Otherwise, you can enter your keywords and phrases, check the synonym box and filter for words you don’t want to use. When you click the “Get keyword ideas” box, the keyword research tool will generate your list of keywords based on what you enter in the words and phrases box above. Then you can play around with the data by measuring the keywords and phrases against each other in three columns:
- Advertiser competition
- Local search volume
- Global monthly search volume
This tool is useful if you are running AdWords campaigns or if you are just conducting initial keyword research. I highly recommend it as a free tool.