Keyword Research and Usage

Keywords used to be used for one major purpose – to stuff a web page so full that Google and other search engines considered them the most relevant to a particular topic. We’ve come a long way, baby!

Keyword research is going to change dramatically in 2010 in a way that will help marketers capitalize on trends more than they have been. To date, most keyword research tools have been a bit lagging in results.

But now, developers are coming out with real time trend data for keywords. Google Trends, for example, is updated daily. And now you can access Hot Topics and get an hourly snapshot of what topics are most being investigated by the public.

You can periodically log into these free tools to see what topics or content is relevant or can be connected to your own niche site. Then create an AdWords campaign or blog about it or Tweet something to get that current flood of traffic diverted to your own website.

I predict that you’re going to find more free keyword tools that are almost as competitive as the paid versions. Developers will make their money elsewhere with the tool. For instance, Wordstream just launched two free keyword research tools (Keyword Niche Finder and Keyword Grouper) that search for, build and clean your lists for you.

In 2010, Google and other search engines will be looking for ways to counter keyword spam. They’re going to have future functions that weed out spammers and try to connect searchers to relevant content they really want.

Keywords will also be delivered via Google using the Real Time Search function, which will run side by side with the older results and will include information from social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Somehow I have a feeling spammers will find a way to capitalize on that, too.

You’ll be using your keywords and phrases – dominating with long-tail phrases as usual – in more places online in 2010. Aside from using them on web pages, in AdWords campaigns, and on typical social networking sites like Squidoo, you’ll also consider using them more in video marketing (which many marketers fail to do) and on mobile advertising networks, which are on the rise.

Whatever methods you use, you’ll want to make sure you continually build your keyword list, clean it for duplicates and irrelevant phrases, and then put them to use for you instead of letting them sit on your hard drive.