Selecting the Right Keywords for Search Engine Marketing

Here’s a fundamental concept that all budding search marketers need to understand: How to choose effective keywords for your online marketing efforts.

While approaches and strategy change from medium to medium (search engine optimization keywords vs. pay-per-click keywords vs. local search keywords) there are some fundamentals of keyword selection that work across all types of search engine marketing.

Defining Keywords
Before we jump into the actual keyword selection process, I want to define what a keyword is in a search engine marketing context. So, in the context of this description, we’ll refer to a keyword as:

A single word or multi-word phrase that is used when searching for information on a search engine.

Even though “keyword” seems to indicate that it’s only a single word, such as “insurance,” it can also be a short phrase, such as “auto insurance,” or an even long phrase like “my grandmother wants to buy auto insurance for her 1982 Buick.” In this context, if a searcher is searching for something on a search engine, that search is a keyword! (That’s a lot of search in one sentence!)

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