It is interesting how many people get into online promotion without doing a proper keyword analysis. Every time we get a new client we analyze their keywords just so we can make intelligent suggestions and focus our article writing, blog posting and other marketing efforts on the correct terms.
Over the years we've use different tools for keyword analysis, but the one we like the best is Adword Analyzer. You can do a targeted analysis of keywords that shows you how many searches have been done in the last period, how many sites are competing for that keyword, and how many advertisers are paying for Adwords and Overture ads targeted at that keyword.
That kind of information is invaluable whether you're considering running an article marketing or PPC campaign. It shows you which keywords you can focus your content towards and dominate in the SEs.
With all the options available to marketers these days, this kind of tool is more important than ever.
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By doing keyword research, you can at least find something someone is looking for, and then provide them with that something. Pretty simple concept, actually. But most people still fail to do it.
Good post.
Mike
I think a couple of difficulties people have in choosing keywords are
a) they don't really understand how the process works, and
b) they can't possibly be sure what to focus on until they have done quite a bit of experimentation.
So often we (and I include myself here) don't get around to doing serious keyword research until we have "failed" with a few projects.