Keywords - The Goals of Research

The goals of keyword research are to:

Levels of Keyword Research

Keyword research and analysis should be performed on three levels:

On-Site Search Engines

Through the gathering and analyzing of on-site search keyword data, website owners can gain valuable insight into user behavior and various means and methods that can be utilized to create a more user-friendly site that successfully converts visitors into customers or clients.

If you have an on-site search engine, you will want to do some analysis of your server logs and look for:

At this point, you may be wondering why you would be looking at the numbers of characters and words entered as search queries on your website. It's really fairly simple. Functionality. Remember, whatever you do, your ultimate goal is to provide a website where people will have a positive experience, want to come back, and will recommend it to others. Search boxes are sometimes too short. When this is the case and a user enters several search terms in the box, they can't see all the words. At other times, some search boxes are too long. By doing a little research on your particular visitors' activities, it will aid you in making their experience on your site as pleasant as possible.

Not sure where to begin on this whole search box thing? Take a look at the size of the search boxes on Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. You can be sure, they've done their homework.

Search terms that yield results but no clicks are an indication that while the page may be optimized for the search term, the content of the page is not consistent with the wants or needs of the user. Often, rewriting the content is sufficient to resolve this issue.

If one were to find that visitors are searching for a specific keyword phrase on Google, finding your site, arriving at a specific page, and then searching for the same keyword phrase on-site, this could be an indication that one's visitors may not be arriving at the most appropriate landing page. In this situation, increased optimization and maximization for other site pages may be necessary.

For those on-site searches that yield no results, it is important to compare that data with the web search engine data. If web search engine data indicates a keyword phrase is popular, and one's on-site search engine data shows visitors have a genuine interest that same keyword phrase, it would probably be wise to create new information around that phrase or topic.

Using the tools and resources available on all three levels provides a complete picture of how your target audience finds what they are looking for.

Keyword Research Tools

To begin, the tools provided at Overture, Google, and Wordtracker are invaluable. They are all cornerstones of complete keyword research and provide valuable data.

For the most accurate and meaningful information, it is recommended that you gather keyword data from as many sources as possible, compile it, and maintain it historically. By gathering your keyword data from as many sources as are available, you will create a picture of broad scope that encompasses the query activities from a full spectrum of web users. In addition, by comparing the data from many sources you can search for common threads of activity and compare the activity from one search engine to another. It is important to remember that, while Google may now be the most popular search engine on the internet, it is not the only search engine on the internet. Nor has it always been the most popular. Nor is there any guarantee it will always be the most popular.

Use the widest base of information available when doing your keyword research and build the broadest base possible when optimizing your pages. The day may come when you'll be glad you did.

Website Traffic Analytics Software

Web analytics software such as WebTrends, HitBox, ClickTracks, and Omniture are also popular and useful when reviewing and selecting keyword phrases.

Web analytics software can also be useful in revealing unknown and untapped keyword phrases. Never assume that you know what keyword phrases your visitors are using when searching. Failing to maximize your site for important keyword phrases will mean missed opportunities for constructing additional entry points for optimization and link development campaigns.

Remember, keyword research and keyword analysis are ongoing processes.

After all, what good is information if nobody gets it?