Whether you know it or not, your website is already targeting certain keywords. Search engines extract these keywords from your on-page text, headers, page titles, inbound links and other factors. However, you might not have made a conscious decision to target those keywords. Even if you did, you might not be monitoring your rankings or have a sense of how good your chances are of ranking well for those keywords.

Choosing the right keywords are often the crux of the matter in getting found through search or not. As a result, keyword research is the foundation of an effective online marketing strategy, so brainstorm as many keyword ideas as possible by:

• Talking to clients to determine what terms they use in their search;
• Studying competitors' sites;
• Brainstorming variations of product and brand related keywords or adding descriptive or geographic variations;
• Last but not least, taking all the variations and entering them into the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, that will suggest numerous other variations.

Please keep in mind that keywords are the words that customers type into search engines, so search terms have many variations. If you are only focused on the most well-known version, then you are up against the stiffest competition, as the most popular keywords are typically the most competitive. Don't neglect other keywords or dare to forget common points of variation such as singular vs. plural, synonyms and acronyms, keyword modifiers, or just a different word order.

Turning to Google, the "Masters of Search", and its tools to support Webmasters and advertisers in finding the most suitable keywords is of course always a good option.

By MediaBUZZ