Inbound Marketing Blog

How a keyword selector tool can and should help you develop the foundation of your inbound marketing strategy.

There are many quality keyword selector tools available at no cost. There are also many that drive down deeper into the process and are fee based. Each one of these resources will help you at least gain some insight. The choice of which keyword selector tool to use will be determined by the your level of experience, expertise and the status of your inbound marketing strategic process.

Keyword selector tools available are as follow:

1. Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool
2. Wordtracker Free Keyword Selector Tool
3. Keyword Selector Tool
4. Overture/Yahoo Keyword Selector Tool

The keyword selector tool as part of your inbound marketing strategy:

The keyword selection and evaluation process is the foundation of your internet marketing or inbound marketing strategy. It is where all of your ongoing inbound marketing efforts will be launched. A good keyword analysis will isolate and define where your target market is speanding their time, what they are researching and searching for in detail and who is competing for that valuable search engine results page real estate. If you get this element wrong, you risk wasting much of your time and budget delivering the wrong message to the wrong or audience. Great keyword selection is about market focus and allowing your target market(s) to "trip" over your message.

Don't under estimate the importance of this process. Your upcoming SEO (search engine optimization), blog development and social media promotions will rely heavily on the results produced by your keyword selector tool.

The basic information that should be produced by any keyword selector tool are as follow:

1. Monthly searches for each considered keyword
2. Level of difficulty for each keyword
   • This could be a number from 1 to 100 that indicates the level of competition for a given keyword
   • It should be based on monthly searches against the number of other sites competing for this keyword.
   • This process will highlight "lower hanging fruit".
3. Your current ranking for this keyword.
4. Variations or derivatives of a more general keyword.
   • Sometimes known as a "long-tail keyword"
   • The more general a keyword is, the more it lacks niche focus and in many cases is too competitive for the start of an inbound marketing strategy.
5. PPC value: The relative cost if you were to utilize a pay per click approach.

Summary: Your selected keywords are the link between you and your target audience and possibly the main link between your website and productive traffic and conversion. That connection needs to be as accurate and as powerful as possible as all else will depend on your keyword selections.

Although you may be able to run a keyword selector tool internally (DIY), I strongly suggest speaking with a certified inbound marketing consultant to answer any questions or concerns. Then you'll be in a better position to know that all elements of your inbound marketing strategy are connected. This includes your design, SEO, blog, social media and conversion strategies. I see in too many cases that keyword selection, SEO, blog and social media efforts run too independently and lack the common thread of your main strategy.

Useful resources:

Keyword Selection & Strategy Process

Choosing the right keywords for your SEO plan and Inbound Marketing strategy is one of the most important components for your success.

There are some basic rules to get this foundational work completed accurately. Here are some steps and check points that should help you develop or supervise your own inbound marketing strategy. I have posted an example of what a good keyword analysis and database should look like.

The general concept here is to start with what I call "long-tail" keywords. These type of keywords have lower levels of competition so you can consider these, the lower hanging fruit. The goal is to balance the activity or monthly search volume against the competition over those specific keywords.

1. Brainstorm your master list by yourself
2. Brainstorm with your team
3. Brainstorm with your customers
4. Enter than list into a keyword selector tool
5. Use that brainstormed keyword list in the keyword suggestion tool to further expand the master database.
6. Prioritize each keyword with a level of importance
7. Sort by search activity
8. Sort by competition

	Keyword	Relevance	Monthly Searches	Difficulty	Visits	virtualsuppo... rank
Showing Records 1 - 50 of 1007 < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... >
	daniel shlifer virtual support	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	1
	daniel shlifer virtual support systems	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	1
	difference between seo and inbound martketing	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	1	1
	inbound marketing project	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	1	1
	inbound marketing sarasota	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	1
	inbound marketing vs seo	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	1	1
	inbound marketing vs. seo	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	1	1
	sarasota inbound marketing	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	1
	seo for speakers	1 2 3 4 5	Low	17	1	1
	seo report matches scanned	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	1
	siesta key seo	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	1
	viirtual support systems	1 2 3 4 5	Low	24	0	1
	virtual support systems	1 2 3 4 5	Low	30	3	1
	virtual support systems inc,	1 2 3 4 5	Low	25	0	1
	virtual support systems inc.	1 2 3 4 5	Low	25	0	1
	virtualsupportsystems	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	1
	www.virtualsupportsystems.com	1 2 3 4 5	Low	17	0	1
	dan shlifer	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	2
	inbound marketing analysis	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	2
	inbound marketing exclaim	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	1	2
	inbound marketing florida	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	2
	lead generation software search engines	1 2 3 4 5	Low	10	1	2
	companies offering inbound marketing	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	3
	inbound and outbound marketing sample	1 2 3 4 5	Low	< 10	0	3
	inbound consultand	1 2 3 4 5	Low	21	1	3