Part 2: Internet marketing and keyword selection

If you have read Part 1 you are already familiar with the concepts of demand, supply and profit potential. You have also been introduced to Wordtracker and Overture. If these concepts and services are new to you, please refer to Step 1.

Because, not surprisingly, the same concepts we used to evaluate the profit potential of an industry niche also apply to internet marketing and keyword selection. With the obvious addition that your keywords must be relevant to your web page content.The higher the demand, the lower the supply, the better for us. It really is that simple.

But there are a few more factors that you should keep in mind when deciding on keywords. When you develop web sites to rank well in search engines you should always be looking to play all angels. What do I mean by that? Make it as easy as possible for you web pages to rank well. Internet marketing is still in many ways in its infancy. With this follows that some "obvious" niches are crowded whereas other "less obvious" niches offer little competition. Look for that little extra to put you ahead of your competition. The factors below are in themselves not enough to get good rankings. But add them to all your other efforts and you may find that it gives you that little extra.

Phrases bring buyers on the Internet

To succeed as an internet marketer you should stay away from generic terms and focus on phrases. Phrases bring buyers. Generic terms bring visitors - or traffic. Keywords such as "fast cars" or "cool this" and "free that" are usually of little use to you. Again, I am writing about internet marketing assuming that you are in this to make money.

Instead focus on phrases or keyword combinations that are more specific. Maybe "cheap cars miami florida" or "car wax acid protection". Do you see the difference?

Internet marketing and keywords with obvious buy signals

Included in this category would for example be specific product names and authors of books. If someone is that specific in their search chances are that you have their Attention, the Desire is there, they are obviously Interested - now your web page needs to make the vistior take Action and buy (see newsletter article on AIDA).

If you use names and titles you should be aware of trademarks. If there is a trademark on the term you want to use, always check that it is OK with the holder of the trademark.

Check out your competition

As I have already stated internet marketing is in its infancy. There are thousands of keyword combinations with profit potential. Do not pick a keyword combination with fierce competition. Especially since it is so easy to analyze your Top 10 competitors.

Your first step is to download and install the Google toolbar. Visit the resource section for how to instructions. The Google toolbar will allow you to see the Google page rank for any web page you visit. Why is this useful? Because knowing the page rank of your top 10 competitors gives you an indication of what is needed to make it on to page 1 in the search engines. And rule number one in internet marketing is to make the first page. Let me give you an example.

Go to Google and search for your chosen keyword combination. Now visit each web page in the top 10 and analyze the results for the following

what is the page rank

is the page optimized (see part 3)

The answers to these questions will give you a good idea what it will take to make it into the Top 10. For example, if result number 10 has a page rank of 8 (maximum 10) and is well optimized - you may want to focus on another keyword combination. But it is much more likely that result number 10 will have a page rank between 3 and 5 with poor to medium page optimization. Following my approach to search engine internet marketing will help you beat that.

Now, keep in mind that beating your competitors page rank does not guarantee that you will outrank that page. But again, every little helps, and this analysis has served me well in achieving numerous top 10 search engine positions.