The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

This is a guest post by Zeke Camusio, founder of The Outsourcing Company.

Before you can begin your SEO marketing strategy, you must perform keyword research. Understanding the keywords customers are using to search for your products and services will save you time and money.

You could start by simply creating a list of words you think your target market would use, but the right keywords may be different than what you think. For example, let’s say you are an auto dealer. You may think that your prospects are typing in the word “cars” when in reality most of them are typing in the word “automobiles.” Luckily there are both free and low-cost keyword research tools that can help you distinguish the right keywords!

1. TwitScoop - This Twitter tool updates trends and popular search terms every minute. Type in your desired keyword and TwitScoop will provide you with a cool graph showing you the stats.  Not only that, but this smart baby will also list the most-recent discussion related to your search term.
2. SeoBook Keyword Tool – This is a free service powered by Wordtracker, the granddaddy of all keyword research tools. SeoBook Keyword tool links to Google Trends and Yahoo! Suggest. It also displays research results from Keyword Discover, another popular research tool, as well as offers the estimated search volume for the top three search engines: Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.
3. Google Analytics – If you don’t have access to your website’s statistics, you can embed Google Analytics into your website to measure your Internet traffic results. Google Analytics allows you to see what keywords people are using to link to your site and how much traffic is being directed from search engines and direct links.
4. Your Competitor’s Website - No, it’s not spying on your competition. It’s doing a competitive analysis to see what is working and not working for your competitor’s site. Here’s a simple way to find out what keywords your competitor is using:
   - Go to desired website.
   - Right click on the body of the page.
   - Left click on “View Source.”
   - A window will pop up in Notepad with HTML codes.
   This is where you can see the meta-tags and keywords that your competitors are using to attract their traffic. If you want to get more technical, go to www.rankquest.com and type in your competitor’s site. It will return your search with how many times the keywords are used on the website.
5. Wikipedia.com - Known primarily as a reference source, Wikipedia can be your ticket to keyword success. It is popular, high ranking on search engines and has some free tools you can use to get the most out of your keyword research. Try Wikipedia Article Traffic Statistics to see how many times a topic has been viewed on Wikipedia.

Keyword research tools are essential to your Internet marketing success. At first it may be time consuming to research, but in the end you will come out on top, knowing exactly what words web surfers are using to find you—thus surpassing your competition and increasing your sales!

Zeke Camusio is a serial entrepreneur. His sixth endeavor, The Outsourcing Company, is an Internet marketing agency with offices in Aspen, Colo. and New York. Zeke writes an entrepreneurship and Internet marketing blog called Let’s Do It! Check it out at http://www.theoutsourcingcompany.com/blog/.