One of the first steps to launching a successful SEO campaign is choosing the right keywords or keyword phrases.  Don’t let this task haunt you - there are a myriad of tools out there designed to help you discover which keywords get the most traffic, plus keywords aren’t permanent… more on that in a bit!

Where do I start?

Brainstorm.  Before you start exploring keyword research tools, take a few minutes to brainstorm what someone might search to find your products or services.  What keywords or phrases accurately describe what can be found on your site?  Do you have any pages geared specifically for a certain product, service, or keyword?  (Keep in mind, most people who are searching for your products or services may not be as knowledgeable about industry specific terms so try to think outside the box… what would someone most likely be searching?)

Now what?

As we mentioned before there are a handful of tools out there that will help you with your keyword research.  Our favorite is the Google Adword tool which allows you to type in the keywords that you brainstormed and see just how many people are searching for those terms.  Not only will this tool tell you how many people are searching the term you typed  in, but it will also give you an idea of how many people are searching related terms and it will even give you suggested terms that you may not have previously thought of.  Keywords with higher search volume will take longer to rank on, so we recommend choosing one high search volume term and two “tail terms” (think specific) that may not receive as much search volume, but which you’ll be able to rank on quicker.

I want to change my keywords, how do I do that?

Not to fear, choosing your keywords is not a permanent decision.  Go to Settings in your LotusJump account and select My Domain and Search Terms.  Click Edit and then you’ll have the ability to change your keywords.  Remember, it takes time to rank, so be patient!  It’s not a good idea to change keywords often too often.