The last stage of your research prior to optimization of your website is the keyword research. This means spending some time using the process of trial and error to find the most relevant keywords and/or phrases to optimize your website with. First, make a list of the words that you think will be useful in relation to what your business does and what people may search for to find you. Then, do some local searching with mixed phrases untill you find terms that list multiple competitors. If you see the majority of your competitors all showing up on the first page of SERPs for a certain key phrase, you'll know that it's a valuable phrase.

(Ideally you should use some form of keyworrd research tool but they are often complicated to use and quite pricey. The method we are going to use is  simple and reveals plenty of info for the average small business owner who's just getting started with SEO. However, if you really want to get in depth research without spending the money on expensive software, you can always use some of the FREE SEO TOOLS offered on our free tools page.)

If you own a designer clothing store in Miami and "Miami Designer Clothing Store" yields worthy results, try "Designer Clothes Shop in Miami" and "Shop Designer Clothing Miami" or "Designer Brand Clothes Miami". Get creative with it. If you carry 3 or 4 designer brands, including let's say Armani, then your focus should include searching with keywords such as "Armani Store in miami" or "Miami Armani Clothing Store". These slight variations may help you find keywords and prases that you haven't even thought about using, while at the same time allowing you to add focus on a niche category since you sell Armani. In the long run, this will strengthen the ability of your business to get listed for a variety of search terms all related to designer clothing, the geographical area of your store, and even the brands you carry.

Be sure to take some time to visit your competitors websites and look for keywords they use to describe their business - these are most likely going to be the terms you used to find them in the search engines. If their business is within the first few listings, chances are that their website is optimized for SEO. Looking around their website and comparing the things they sell to the keywords in their text will give you a better idea of why they are showing up for certain search terms. Continue to search with different terms and continue to evaluate the websites of similar businesses untill you feel like you have a decent understanding of where your business should stand.

Once you feel comfortable and have a better understandning of what your competitors are doing, make a list of at LEAST 20 to 30 mixed phrases. Be sure to include the variations which reflect the brands you sell or any specialty services that you may offer. Then, go back through that list and choose 9 or 10 of the best ones. These keywords/phrases should be 100% relevant to your business and easy to use within the text of your website.

If you're confident that you have a solid list of keywords or phrases, type those phrases into the search engines and evaluate the results once more. You really want to be sure that your optimizing your site for terms which relate as closely as possible to your specific business. If you are satisfied with what you have, your keyword research is done; at least for now. Keep in mind that even after the initial optimization, you may discover other words or phrases you'll want to optimize for also, which is completely fine and not at all uncommon. Regardless, you still want to start off on the right foot with a strong list of terms which will be the foundation for an ongiong and sucessful SEO process.

In the next article, we'll discuss how to properly include your newfound keywords by writing copy or editing the existing copy for your websites pages. This will be the first real step of implementing your SEO research directly into your website. Once your copy is properly written we will cover the final steps that are taken to complete the optimization of your site.

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