Arguably one of the most frustrating things when it comes to creating a website is the process of keyword selection. This is not just the process of selecting phrases that are winnable, but those that have commercial potential. Over the next few minutes, I am going to go over a few key criteria that I use to measure whether or not my keyword choice is a good one at that.
Before I go too far, I would like you to get a grip of what kind of user it is that you would like to attract to your website. This is the one thing that most webmasters fail to understand before they choose keywords. To put it bluntly, the behaviour that you visitors exhibit will be clearly determined by the kind of phrase that you choose.
This is where we can talk about the difference between buying and info phrases. For example, someone who searches for a website based on the keyword "guitars" will more than likely be searching for information within a broad spectrum. However, if a searcher finds your website based on the keyword "Schecter C7 Guitar Flame Maple Finish", then you can be assured that the outcome of that visitor could result in a commercial action being taken. For example purchasing a product through an affiliate link.
Next, you are going to need to assess the kind of resources that you have available to you at the time. Competition is going to be stiff in most niches, and whilst there can be a vast difference between the competition between some keywords, easy wins are always a good start.
For example, lets say that "Schecter C7 Guitar" receives 15,000 searches per month and is extremely competitive, however, "Schecter C7 Guitar Flame Maple Finish", receives only 300 searches per month, and is moderately competitive, you will want to focus your time on the easy wins first. By focusing on keywords that are easy to win, you will find in the long run that it is actually easier to rank for those ego keywords that have much more competition.
The last thing I will mention here is vital when it comes to keyword selection, and sadly enough, most webmasters just do not do this. I am talking about planning in advance. When you are creating a new website, always plan out your keywords, and assess the level of difficulty it would take to rank the site. This can be a clear indication up front of the possible success of a website, and will also allow you to plan ahead.
I see it all too many times when a webmaster dives in head first and tries to rank for every single keyword that they can think of within their niche, and the problem is that they reach a plateau with their traffic volume, and nothing seems to increase from there. The goal is to focus on the easy wins, rank for them, then move forward.
