Selecting targeted keywords...

[SkinnerW]

Most of you probably will agree with me that one of the best kinds of traffic you can get is highly targeted organic traffic from search engines. Visitor that was looking for something specific and referred to your site for that exact term more likely to convert to customer than any other occasional web surfer.

Many times we see someone's claim that "...I am #1 on Google for such and such...". The question is: would anyone else ever look for this exact term?

Choosing correct targeted keywords or key phrases should be the first step in development of the website.

I use following tools to find most popular search terms:

- https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
- Free Keyword Suggestion Tool from Wordtracker
- http://inventory.overture.com/d/sear...ry/suggestion/

For example to find most popular terms for this forum I would use word "webmaster". All keyword selectors returned the same result: most searched terms in this category would be "webmaster tools" and "webmaster resources".

You may also use some of the less competitive terms which will give you a better chance to rank higher.

Now you have a starting point to build content or optimize existing pages around it...

What techniques or tools do you use to optimize pages?

[espmartin]

I use your second link excessively (wordtracker) and WebCEO's keyword tool.
High KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) is what I go for most times.

[SkinnerW]

Than may be you can describe how you calculate this value or which tool you use to determine this index...

[espmartin]

Actually, wordtracker's results will list the KEI of your chosen terms for you.
WebCEO will detail in its own column the KEI of a term as well.
KEI:

The KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) is the square of the popularity of a keyword multiplied by 1000 and divided by the number of sites that appear in search engines for that keyword. It is invented to measure which keywords are worth optimising your site for and is mostly used by Search Engine Optimizers (SEO). The higher the KEI, better the keyword for your website.

[SkinnerW]

Just found another free keyword selection tool: Keyword Selector Tool

This one pulls data from overture and shows Martin's favorite KEI together with CPC.

I am not sure how accurate these CPC numbers are but this could be a great indicator if you are planning to use Adsense or YPN on your site...

[deal4412]

I like to use SEObook's keyword suggestion tool, because it estimates the traffic for that keyword from the 3 major search engines: Google, Yahoo, and MSN (in order of market share).

[cooldude007]

Google suggest is excellent tool as keyword sugggestion tool.

It is the summary of searches for the previous 3 months.