By: Richard Legg
Submitted: 2011-12-20 14:00:32 | Word Count: 540
Using Google keywords tools makes your online life a little easier. You don't have to pay monthly subscription to get accurate, up to date keyword information. This free keyword tool can help anyone with their online marketing efforts.
No matter what type of online advertising you are doing, having a great list of targeted keywords is imperative. If you don't, you will either have ineffective campaigns or you will waste a lot of money on pay per click campaigns, or both. There is a fine line between a good keyword and a keyword that simply has too much competition.
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You need to find the keywords that land somewhere in the middle between a decent amount of searches and too much competition. That is a rookie mistake: thinking that a keyword that gets a ton of searches every month is a good keyword to target. The truth is that any keyword like that will be hugely competitive.
Even if you can afford to spend the money on that keyword, why? In virtually every niche online there are many, many keywords that aren't so competitive that it will cost you an arm and a leg to advertise with them yet you can still get a lot of monthly searches. Unless you're a glutton for punishment I would steer clear of the overly competitive keywords and focus more of your attention on those keywords that fly under the radar.
A good rule of thumb is to target keyword phrases that have three or more words, get at least 1,500 searches a month and have less than 20,000 competitors. These parameters will be a great place to start. You will be able to tune it in more as you go along but you need somewhere to start, so use this guideline.
When doing your keyword research make sure that you carefully consider the parameters for the exact type of campaign you are planning on running. For example, if you are running a pay per click (PPC) campaign, you'll want to have a ball park idea of how much each keyword will cost you when it's clicked on.
The average cost per click is one of the details you can include in your keyword research. Of course, this is just an estimate, but it gives you a place to start. Another thing you may want to consider is the amount of competition. This too can be found (an estimate only, it's not a 'solid' number) when doing keyword research using the Google keyword tool. All of this can be put together to give you a snap shot of what keywords are good ones to go after and which ones will most likely be a waste of time.
Out of all the major search engines: Google, MSN and Yahoo, Google is the top dog. You can benefit from their knowledge about the people who are using their search engine to find information online.
Using Google keywords will give you a unique insight as to what words and phrases people are looking for when doing a search online. Finding these keywords can be like finding a treasure map. If you put together a great campaign using great keywords it's just a matter of time until you'll find internet treasure.
