Background:
Every effective search engine optimization campaign begins with keyword research.
There is no point in having great content if no one is able to find it. Keyword
research allows you to locate common keywords (or keyphrases) that search engine
users are looking for.
The goal is to find popular keywords that are relevant to your products and services.
Initially you will want to focus on keyword popularity and keyword competition.
Later, once conversion data is available, this will become a large contributing factor for
keyword selection.
Below are a list of tools available for performing keyword research. Some tools
provide more data than others. Since the data is often generated from different
search engines, you will want to use them in combination to obtain as much data
as possible. You can then use this data to assist in your decision making.
Keyword Research Tools
Google Adwords - Keyword Tool
Popular search tool that allows you to locate keyword variations using various criteria
such as keyword popularity.
Overture - Keyword Selector Tool
Allows you to search for keyword variations and unlike most other search tools,
you can see actual monthly search counts.