Where you rank within search engines like Google depends largely on the competitiveness of a keyword phrase and how well that competition has done their own on-page and off-page search engine optimization. However, regardless of the market you’re in there will be sets of words that you can in fact rank well for, and pretty darn easily too. Here are the top 4 things you need to look for when you’re researching keywords for your own website. 1. How many searches are done on that keyword? At a bare minimum you’d like to see at least 3,000 searches done a month. This works out to be about 100 searches a day on average. Google’s keyword tool can give you a good estimation on how many searches are done a month but no tool is 100% accurate so keep that in mind. A variation of one-hundred searches or so either way can work well too. 2. How many competing sites are there in Google for that term? Do a quick search in Google for the keyword phrase you want to use and place this phrase in quotes. By placing it in quotes, you’ll get a much more accurate view of how many websites are competing for that same term. Using quotes tells Google to find those words in the same order you entered them in within any web page. This is important because it will give you a truer look at how much competition you’re up against. Results less than 40,000 is ideal since this phrase would be relatively easy to rank well for. 3. Using “intitle”. You can take this even one step further and see how many of these websites are actually using that phrase within the web page’s title; an extremely important spot to have your keyword. To save yourself some time you can double-up your efforts on this one by combining #2 above with this tactic. Within Google’s search box, enter in the main phrase you want to use in quotes “keyword goes here” and then add intitle:”keyword goes here” all within the same search box. This will kill two birds with one stone and find BOTH those sites that contain your keyword in their content AND within their web page’s title. The number you get back will determine your TRUE competition where on-page optimization is concerned. You’ll often find that some website owners use the phrase in their title but not in their content and vice-versa. Ideally you want to have them in both locations. 4. Online Commercial Intent. Even though we can rank well for a keyword doesn’t mean it will make us any money. So once we know that it gets plenty of searches a month, and its competition is low we need to determine if it’s a “money-maker”. To do this, do a search for MSN AdLab and once there, use the “Online Commercial Intent” tool. Enter in a keyword phrase and click “Go”. The tool will then give you an indication of whether or not it’s considered “commercial”. If it is, this means that those who search on that phrase are actually looking to purchase something rather than just browsing around for information. To Recap: 1. Locate a word that has at least 100 searches a day (or 3,000 searches a month). 2. Check that keyword at Google (and in quotes) to see how many competing sites there are. You’re shooting for 40,000 or less. 3. Double-check that these “competitors” are true competitors by also checking the title tag using intitle. 4. Finally, check the online commercial intent of that keyword phrase by using MSN’s AdLab tool. If you hit on all these steps, and begin to work on link building to your web page, your chances of getting a good spot within a major search engine is pretty darn good.

Get more SEO advice on our blog. It’s 100% free! Kristine Wirth is a full-time Internet Marketer who began her career creating websites in 1996. She has helped thousands of people understand how to create websites, use social media tools, and get their head around difficult concepts such as affiliate marketing and SEO so that they can grow a successful online business