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Developing a keyword list is one of the very first things to be done if you intend to place anything on the internet from a website to an article. The purpose of this is to attract search engine traffic. This type of free online traffic is also referred to as organic and is very highly targeted. Through the proper use of keyword optimization which involves the correct selection and placement of your keywords in any content you can easily increase your website traffic.

Let’s have a look at a simple 5 step strategy you can use every time you need to develop a list of keywords for use online.

Compile a List of Relevant Keywords

Based upon the business or product(s) you are focusing on assemble a list of keywords that you feel are relevant. The use of synonyms is encouraged as this will give you a larger based of words to choose from while also minimizing some of the competition you may face.

Select a Keyword Research Tool

Select a keyword research tool from the many that are available online. Some are paid versions while many are free but choose the one you are most comfortable with. The paid versions generally allow you to conduct more extensive analysis in a faster time period but many free versions will also suffice for what you need to do.

The Google keyword suggestion tool is the most highly recommended free tool available.

Conduct the Keyword Research

As you conduct your keyword research categorize your selections into sub-sets of 5-10 keywords for manageability.

Check Search Frequency

Here is where you determine the popularity of the keywords you have chosen by checking on the frequency of the searches conducted for each word. Obviously you will want to have a good amount of searches since you need for people to be looking the keywords you will be using to promote your business or products(s).

Check Keyword Competition

After determining the search frequency you want to see how much competition each word faces. This will ultimately be the final determining factor in which keywords you are going to use. Too much competition means it will be that much harder to rank for that word. It is best to find those keywords that have ‘healthy’ search results combined with less intense competition.

After compiling a list of relevant keywords that have strong search results matched with a minimal amount of competition you now have a short list to work with.

Your keyword list is the basis from which you will develop and increase the amount of search engine traffic to your content or site. With the proper use of keyword optimization which involves the selection and use of keywords, you can easily attract this free online traffic. The 5 step strategy we reviewed above is a procedure that can be used time and again for accumulating a keyword list. Correctly done this strategy will increase the exposure of your published content and/or boost your website traffic.