The type of research that you perform depends on the nature of your market and the strength of your brand. If you are a fashion or electronics retailer you know that your market moves quickly. In order to stay ahead of the market and competition you need to be looking for the next big thing, not the current one. There is one sector online where the next big thing is discussed 24/7 and that's on blogs, twitter and other social media. As for search there are a number of tools that enable you to search through blogs and social media, such as Google Blog Search.

 

If your market is not at the bleeding edge then you will need to conduct more conventional keyword research. There will always be single word terms that look attractive and attract huge numbers of searches. Keyword research requires that you maintain a realistic outlook. For example, if you have just started a website about F1 you may be tempted to optimise your website for the term F1. In reality the chances of your website hitting the front page of Google within a practical amount of time for the term F1 are slim because of the huge competition. However don't forget the long tail.

If you have not heard of the long tail I recommend reading "The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson or alternatively check out his blog. You will soon discover that there's more than enough traffic or business in the tail without having to target terms like F1. The key therefore is to look for key phrases that have a reasonable search volume but are not overly competitive. Google provides a basic competitive scale in it's keyword research tool, but there are more powerful tools around - which you generally have to subscribe to.

 

As an additional bonus you will be pleased to hear that the longer the key phrase the higher conversion rates. Why, well lots of people search for the term F1 but there's not enough information for you to determine the user's intent. Is the user looking for information on this season's races or tickets for Silverstone. If the user entered "F1 tickets Silverstone" you know exactly their intent...to buy tickets!

 

If you stick to the advice above you will also find that your cost per click is much lower, as you are not competing with every man and his dog for the top keywords.

 

Once you have identified the relevant low competition keywords, you need to write your advert. I would strongly suggest putting the keyword in the first line of the advert. This is because Google displays all of the words in your advert that match the search terms in bold, drawing the searchers attention to your advert.

 

Finally, in order to preserve your bank balance you need to enter negative keywords. Negative keywords enable your to filter out visitors that you don't want, increasing your conversion rates and reducing your costs. Sticking with the F1 example, if you have an F1 community website that does not sell tickets, then place tickets on the negative keyword list.