Keyword research is the one of the most important first steps that must be taken for e-commerce or consumer facing websites to become visible on major search engines, the first step towards search engine optimization (SEO).  Keyword Research can be a daunting task, but can be fun and exciting with the right tools and direction.  Many times you will even find alternative ways to market your business and untapped opportunities you can focus on to increase your offerings through the process of Keyword Research.

My friend Ashley Barnes recently contacted me through social media and asked for advice on how to do keyword research.  She is launching a tourism business in Buenos Aires and knows that “this online marketing thing is important, but don’t know where to start.”  Many small and medium size businesses are in the same boat as Ashley… they know that keyword research is important but have no idea where to start.

I have decided to help the people in the boat of keyword research confusion.  I feel that the best way to explain this process is through example.  So I have taken on the task of completing keyword research for Ashley’s brand new website, www.entreargentinatours.com and am outlining the steps below.  Please use this as a reference for your own keyword discovery.

The first step in Keyword Research is Keyword Discovery, and the best way to start your discovery is to brainstorm all of the possible words a person might use to find your site through a search engine.

I asked Ashley to start the brainstorming process by compiling as many keywords as she could think of for her business.  I told her to think of any keywords that her customers might type into a search engine to find her site.  Remember that her site is brand new, so she has no analytical data to interpret her top performing keywords.  If you are reading this article and have not started keyword research for your website, I encourage you to go ahead and brainstorm your own list.

This is the initial list Ashley sent me:

This list is an OK start, but needed a little bit of help before starting.  Notice terms like “Art, Wine, and Food tours”.  This term is way too broad and would do no help for her without some focus.  This term should be expanded to: “Beunos Aires Art Tours” “Beunos Aires Wine Tours” “Beunos Aires Food Tours”.  Also terms like “Mendoza” should be more specific like “Mendoza tours”.

Take a look at your own keyword list.  Do you have any broad terms that can be more focused?

I revised Ashley’s initial list to resolve these terms and came up with this list:

This list is not perfect, but good enough for us to start utilizing web tools for keyword discovery.  Notice how our keyword list just went from 25 to 50 just by focusing search terms to become more specific.  I encourage you to do the same before utilizing web tools for optimal results.

Continue reading Part 2 of Exotic Keyword Research focusing on Utilizing Keyword Discovery Tools to find out what to do next!