Determining the right keywords is a critical step for anyone wanting to strategically increase reach and visibility of web pages inside SERPs (search engines page results).

Since for many popular search queries there exist a large number of sites on the Internet (having content related to it), what really counts is how high in the search results pages your site will appear or how to identify which will be the alternative queries for which your site could rank among the top results due to lesser competition.

Photo credit: Sophia Tsibikaki

Keyword-based reach and visibility is a major fundamental online marketing strategy that enables online publishers that their articles, product pages, or other targeted content can be easily found by a large number of online readers.

The formula is a little tricky - you will need to locate terms that are popular and relevant to your site, while striking a balance between those are that too generic and those that are too specific. The ideal keyword/terms to label an article or content section, should be terms that a potential customer would use when genuinely searching for a website with your content. And as Internet users become more educated, these terms are more and more granular, specific and most often made of two or more keywords.

In order for your content pages to be found by a very large number of Internet users it is therefore necessary that such pages be created with full awareness of the importance that the selection of appropriately relevant keywords for the title, key headings and for the overall theme of the content have in making those pages show up prominently on search engine page results.

The caveat, of course, is that you want to find terms and phrases where there is little competition, so you quickly achieve high ranking in the important search engines.

relevant + popular with searchers but not with competitors = success

But markets saturated with other sites competing for the same search terms make it difficult to find quality keywords. (Sometimes it is better to even optimize web pages for less popular terms, those that while being more targeted at your visitors will also likely have a higher conversion rate - than a less specific popular term.)

In all cases, the first critical step to determining keywords is brainstorming a list of logical terms and phrases that relate to your product or offerings.

This should be done by a number of individuals; sometimes people have very different ideas for search terms and by identifying a variety of people and
their search terms you may tap words that hadn't occurred to you.

There are also a number of free and low-cost tools available online and for download that will allow you to expand and research terms that have been brainstormed.

The mileage may vary a great deal but all the tools will assist you in determining where to focus your keyword efforts.

The tools listed here could also be of great assistance when strategizing an promotion campaign on pay-per-click engines, creating alternative, related keywords and keyphrases that
can be bid on.

In addition to examining log files to see what terms customers are using to find a website, consider also the following:

But here is my updated "keyword searcher toolkit", which can indeed help identify useful keywords and alternative keyphrases to provide better labelling and accessibility to your quality content.

Keyword Researcher Toolkit

• KeywordTumbler - KeywordTumbler takes existing keyword phrases and generates multiple variations, reordering the words. This allows you to build a large keyword list in seconds.
  http://www.keywordtumbler.com
• TheDowser - Overture Keyword Tool, Google Keyword Sandbox, Keyword Harvester, Google AdWords report analyzer, Google AdWords optimization tool, log file analyzer, conversion tracking and optimization tool.
  http://www.thedowser.com
• WordTracker - Wordtracker helps you choose the right internet marketing keywords that will help your search engine placement and ranking. Use Wordtracker for keyword research. Web marketing is all about search engine ranking, and that starts with the proper internet marketing keywords. Get a free keyword report and web site promotion information!
  http://www.wordtracker.com
• Keyword Suggestion Tools - A handy little tool will show you the results of your query from both Wordtracker and Overture for determining which phrases are searched most often. Enter a search phrase below to see how often it's searched for, as well as get suggestions for alternate (but similar) keywords.
  http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
• Keyword Ranking Tool - This utility can be used to check search engines for keyword ranking and track search engine ranking for your various keywords over time, which, as you probably know, is critical when doing search engine
  optimization.
  http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/
• Overture Keyword Tool - After entering a keyword or phrase, Overture provides a list of related phrases that have been searched on. The tool provides a count that indicates the number of times the phrase has been searched on.
  http://tinyurl.com/spl
• Topword Tool - Topword Tool is a free online tool that analyzes a complete web page and counts keyword occurrences, as well as keyword phrases (number in brackets), equal to or above that set in the Minimum Occurrences setting. It
  supplies a list of keywords and keyword phrases which are most likely to achieve the highest rankings on a major search engine. The tool will also analyze your meta description/keyword and title tags and then, through color
  coding, inform you of words/phrases which should be included. The main use for this tool is checking your optimization and tweaking existing web sites to rank well.
  http://tinyurl.com/56ron
• Google Suggestion - The Google Suggestion is a new online tool for webmasters. As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time. This is similar to Google's "Did you mean?" feature that offers alternative spellings for your query after you search, except that it works in real time. For example, if you type "bass", Google Suggest might offer a list of refinements that include "bass fishing" or "bass guitar". Similarly, if you type in only part of a word, like "progr," Google Suggest might offer you refinements like "programming", "programming languages", "progesterone", or "progressive". You can choose one by scrolling up or down the list with the arrow keys or mouse. The tool provides a number that indicates the number of searches a specific word or phrase has had.
  http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Keyword statistics give webmasters direct access to the minds of Internet consumers.

When you are able to start guessing ahead of your potential readers, what they would be writing when searching for what you have available, you are definitely on the right track to let your content become as visible and easy to find as it is possible today while driving targeted potential customers to your site like ants to an unattended picnic bag.

This is an edited and revised version of this original article:
Determining Keywords by Sharon Housley

About the original author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll software for creating, editing and publishing RSS feeds and NotePage, Inc. a wireless messaging software company.