WebProNews

Choose correctly, and keywords will make one's career. Choose poorly, and becoming SEO tartare for the competition may be the least of one's career worries.

WebProNews is at PubCon 2007 in Las Vegas, bringing you the latest in web marketing.

The search professional knows there is no lady signaling which door, or in our case keyword, to choose. Not that it would matter, because every door has a tiger behind it, so to speak.

Wil Reynolds of SEER Interactive said at the PubCon session, "Keyword Research, Selection, and Optimization," that the SEO needs to get into the mind of the searcher.

He suggested the tools at MSN Adlab can help the pro who "stays broad" with keywords, looks at their performance both incoming and outgoing, and keeps track of updates over time.

Stoney deGeyter of Pole Position Marketing said the high performance SEO campaign starts with a gathering phase. Find a short, unique two or three word phrase for a page's focus.

As more and more of those phrases become identified, they will have to be sorted. DeGeyter suggested a few ways to consider for the sorting:

•  Target Audience - What keywords will your audience most likely use?
•  Search Volume - What targeted keywords get the most search volume?
•  Profit Margin - Wich products or services provide you the highest profits?
•  Meet Demand - Can you meet the demand of the products and services?

In phase two, deGeyter said sorting and selecting keywords that will convert need to draw the target audience and apply directly to the site's content. In the last phase, segment keywords by determining searchers' intent, and identify which pages are most suitable for which group of keywords.

"Don't rush. Keyword research takes time and really is the foundation for your keyword campaigns," said deGeyter.

WebProNews managing editor Mike McDonald contributed to this story.

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