As we talked in our previous posts, keyword research is one of the most important aspect for a website to have success. This does not mean that only by selecting the right keywords and building optimised content upon its the site will aim to the top of search engines without any other work as link building, but this is a crucial aspect in any campaign.

These being said, here are the most common mistakes webmasters usually do. Avoid them and your way to the top should be without to many barriers.

1. Single word keywords

We all aim to rank on first page for keywords like dating, web design, acne or any other popular terms these days, however one thing is sure : those keywords are for the big fishes. Without an incredible big budget and maybe years of work (and this does not imply 100% first page rankings) no one stands a chance. Long tail keywords are a great way for faster great rankings and with the changes brought by Google Instant going for long tail ones could be the smartest thing a marketer can do.

2. Competition ? What competition ?

Not analysing the competition before selecting the keywords one will promote is a common mistake. However, there are some webmasters that are analysing the competition but the wrong way. Are you searching for under 500,000 broad results ? Below 10,000 “” results ? Intitle : “” inurl : “” ? Do you check each competitors’ from the first page backlinks ?

3. I do not need any keyword research !

This is probably the worst way someone could go with. Just choosing a niche and not considering keywords to build content upon (and I am not talking about those single word keywords) will get you nowhere. Analysing and then choosing the right keywords to promote can literally change the way your site appears in the search engines’ results.

4. It has 40,000 searches/month – goldmine !

But broad results…Broad results are the most misleading results a webmaster could find. Always choose the exact match and you will see how numbers drastically decrease. And by drastically, I mean there are keywords with 10,000 searches each month in broad and only 80-100 EXACT searches monthly. Now that is a big difference, right ?

5. Buying keywords are best for monetising

Let’s consider you found a keyword with good numbers of searching and low-medium competition. However that one might bring you visitors but no money (as from CPC, CPA etc). Why ?you might ask. Because it is not a buying keyword. Let’s think for example, someone searching for paper history, is he interested in buying something or just reading when the paper appeared for the first time then leave that site ?

These might sound as basics of keyword research but many folks are failing in Internet marketing because of these simple mistakes. Keyword research should be seen as something as important as building the website itself or promoting it in different online/offline environments.