Have Goals, Whatever You Do

When you start a keyword research project, it needs to have a clear goal.

It is very easy just to hammer out a root keyword, and then launch the various keyword cracker tools on it, sit back, and spend two hours analyzing list upon list of 'possibilities'. But, this approach wastes a lot of time.

The alternative is to have concrete criteria.

Recently, I came across the Definitive Guide to Finding the Best Social Marketing Sites which uses this approach. In the eBook, each site which doesn't meet some strict criteria is dropped from the list, until you end up with a subset of social marketing sites (and Web 2.0 sites, too) which are worth targeting.

Rather than spending your energy targeting every single one of them.

(By the way, at $17 a pop, it's a worthwhile investment. And, I'm not even an affiliate!)

Keyword research is the same : if you don't have criteria for discounting the ones that look all right on the surface, then you will have to target them all. Some of the time, you'll get it right. Most of the time you won't, and that time is wasted.

And - the criteria change each time you want to pick a bunch of keywords! So, without a complete understanding of keywords and keyword research, you won't even know the formulas to apply.

An example. Web site owners targeting for sticky traffic will have very different criteria than those targeting for revenue. Sticky traffic is traffic that comes and stays awhile - so higher traffic rankings, with reasonably vague keyword phrases will be fine.

On the other hand, if you're targeting for revenue, then a high CPC and conversion rate will be more highly valued than pure traffic. Knowing how to tell the difference is half the battle.

That's where the Keyword Cracker comes in. Teaching you how to reach your goals, even when they change with each keyword campaign.

Because if you can save half your time, you'll be able to double your money. Put that way, how can you refuse?