The keywords you pick track progress, determine success, and bring traffic. The keywords you select need to:

• Be relevant to your business
• Be terms your viewers actually use
• Bring as much traffic as possible

To get started write your content as you normally would. Then look for the key ideas. Plug those terms into DigitalPoint’s suggestion tool to see if changes will drive more traffic.

Caution: Search results tools tend to inflate results. Even if you get #1 you still won’t see nearly that much actual traffic. And different data centers show slightly different results. Keep this in mind when planning.

Also, use a thesaurus to see if there are variants of your keywords that might be better. I actually suggest you use as many word variants as you can in your writing, provided it reads well and appears natural (not forced).

Be realistic when choosing your keywords. Phrases with a lot of searches will have a lot of competition. They are also prone to Google’s sandbox. Very competitive keywords are worth going after but the approach should be that of a marathon, not a sprint.

I suggest keeping an overall site theme for a reasonably competitive keyword. Then fill the site with content for related terms that are not as competitive. As you get more wins you can tackle more competitive terms.

Reasons to start with less competitive keywords include less expense learning, building confidence with small victories that will encourage you along the way, and to help you avoid Google’s sandbox. You have a limited amount of resources and you want to make the most of them that you can, especially when starting out.

Check your server logs to see what terms your site is actually drawing traffic for. These keywords are gold - you already have an established track record with them and they have already proven to work. Fight to own them!

Finally, track your progress. There are many tools out there to help you. My favorite is MS Excel. It’s easy to set up and work with and generate reports.
If you are getting a ton of traffic and no conversions you are targeting the wrong keywords. A smaller amount of traffic that converts is better than a lot of traffic that doesn’t. Keep your ROI high as possible.

Keyword Tools:

DigitalPoint Keyword Suggestion Tool - Includes both Overture and WordTracker

Google Suggestion Tool
Thesaurus
Google Rankings - See where you are at with the 3 main Search Engines.
Free Keyword Tracking