How do YOU do keyword Research?

I'd like to hear different peoples strategy for keyword research. Thanks

 

Observe. Variation. If you looking for new keywords... look deeply into your statistics, not only to the top ones.

 

For example I do alot of celebrity sites.

So I search for the keyword "sarah" and I get 10-20 other keywords starting with sarah and ending in another keyword.

That is one of the ways....

 

Good tip. I think this could surely be expanded to include other phrases.

 

i read newspapers for the latest buzz wether about new weight loss products, movies, celebs and just about anything interesting.

 

First, I think of keywords that visitors might like to type on search engine and I would use keywords suggestion tool. I different variations of keywords. I also analyze my competitors keywords.

 

Do any of you use any paid tools or would free ones do the job.
Which of the tools are you favourites?

 

i use overture's keyword suggestion tool for keyword suggestions. Choosing ones that get a decent amount of searches (anywhere from a few hundred to over 1000), I enter those keywords on Google. I take note of how many results were found, and I research the sites that are in the top 5 or 10. Are they top level domains? Do they seem optimized for this keyword? What is their link popularity? Things like this I keep track of when deciding on new keywords.

 

First I researched keywords through various keyword tools.
Then found count of the keyword and related keywords with overture.
Then i search for the competition of the particular keyword in google through "keyword"[within quotes].
Then i use the wordtracker formula to find the KEI.
Wordtracker formula:KEI = (P^2/C).
Put it this way Count*Count divided by google competition.In this way i found KEI.Its almost near to wordtracker results.So doing this manually i think is a great idea.After this, i narrow down some results for use on my page.

Please tell me if iam doing correct this way ?

I invite suggestions !

 

also think as like an user to select the right keyword

 

I also use overture for keyword suggestion. Also try to monitor the keywords meta tag what they use and how popular that keywords.

 

Hmm, those are good ideas. Seems like all of you just use the free ones and do the rest of the work yourselves.
seoperson,when I read your post I was like WOW. You are able to do all that manually. I am sure it would be a lot of work.

Awesome.

 

thanks 30dayswithruss for ur response.
Yah its a lot of work and that sets the stage for next phase for seo.

anyway thanks a lot.

 

YEap keyword research is the biggest pain in the ass when doing a campaign.

 

spot on!!! i do the same and it really does help to do your research before hand

 

You can actually see the volume of search for related keywords in Google using this adwords tool:

https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox

--Joe

 

nice and free tool for keyword research.. :d

 

I basicaly do what everyone els do I must improve my strategy

 

I'm using a similar approch with little variations on selfmade spreedsheets:
- instead of "keyword" I'm using: allintitle:"keyword"
- formula KEY=(P^x/C) where x is variable depending of niche: 1.6, 1.4, 1.8, ...

 

I generally try to imagine what's in the mind of my visitors.

Will they search for "web design"? For "web design Romania"? for "build a web site"?

Then I compare my suppositions with actual statistics from Google AdWords campaign performance.

Finally, I take decisions based on this.