Attracting online shoppers is most often a matter of your website showing up on search engine result pages. Keyword bidding is the process by which advertisers compete for top positions on these pages.

When online shoppers search for products or services, two sets of results are typically shown on the results page. One is the organic listings of web pages that are sorted according to relevancy and other search engine optimization factors. The other results are paid ads. These paid ads are also listed in order but based on the process of keyword bidding.

Advertisers choose keywords or key phrases that are targeted to a specific product or service web page, and bid against other advertisers who want the same keywords and phrases. Whoever bids the most for any word or phrase shows up higher in the order of pages and lists of search results. So, the highest bidder will be placed on the first page at the top of the list of paid results.

So, how much should you bid on keywords?

The first thing is to decide what keywords and phrases are best suited for your website. Ideally, each web page on your website should target specific words and phrases. Keep in mind, Google ranks paid ads not only on bid price, but also based on Quality Score. If you bid on unrelated keywords, you will get a lousy Quality Score and be charged much more per click.

There are keyword tools available like Ad Word Analyzer that allow you to search for different words and phrases and quickly determine how popular they are among both searchers and advertisers. Ad Word Analyzer lists keyword bid prices, so you can easily see what your competitors are paying for keywords you want to bid on.

Once you have your keyword list, you need to determine how much you are willing to bid for any specific word or phrase. In order to do that, you should answer these two questions…

1. How much profit will you make for each sale?

1. How many visitors will it take before a sale occurs?

For example, if you make $100 profit for each sale and your websites conversion rate is usually around 2 percent (eg. 2 out of every 100 people who visit place an order), you can bid $1 a click and still double your money.

Always consider the amount of profit from each conversion (sale) online when calculating your bid. Higher profits can compensate for low conversion rates. Likewise, products that convert at a higher percentage, but generate lower profits may not be worth the highest bids. Sometimes a lower bid, even if it means your ad isn't on the first page, produces the best ROI.

You should use Google Analytics to maximize your keyword bidding. With Google Analytics, you can study in detail every aspect of your ad campaign and test different approaches until you find what works. Always remove keywords that don't generate any sales.

If you apply these simple tips, you will have much greater success with your keyword bidding.

Keywords are the fundamental element of the Internet. When we search for anything on search engines like Google or Yahoo, we do so with keywords. We just type in the keyword and are immediately whisked away to listings of websites on the subject we are looking for.

With that in mind, it is no doubt that the intentional and careful usage of keywords is extremely important to online success. Take your time and closely inspect your keywords. By doing so, you can easily improve your search engine rankings and traffic.

So, what makes for a good keyword?

While there are numerous factors, the most important ones are the number of people searching for that specific keyword and also the number of websites that are offering information for it (these are your competitors).

The more people that are searching for your keywords the better. And the fewer websites offering information on it the better. Think of it as supply and demand. If the demand is high and the supply is low, then it is a good opportunity for you.

Now you may wonder, "How do I find these keywords?"

There are many ways to find high demand keywords. There are even a ton of free keyword tools that allow you to do some simple research, so you can start there if you like. Of course, I recommend a more advanced keyword tool like Ad Word Analyzer.

Usually the really good keywords are what are known as "long tail keywords". For example, don't target the keyword "golf" if you have a golf website. There is way too much competition. In fact, there are currently 617 MILLION competiting websites! It will be next to impossible to get a top ranking.

However, "personalized golf balls" only has 378,000 competiting websites. This may sound like a lot, but it's a heck of a lot less than the competition for "golf".

Then simply write an article on this keyword and add it to your website. Content is king, so put in the time to create high-quality content and you will be rewarded accordingly.

A top 10 ranking always means more traffic, which equates to more sales and profits! So, start right now and choose one new long tail keyword to target.

Yes, it's true!

Google finally decided to share this valuable data with everyone.

If you have not had a chance to run any keyword searches with the keyword tool, then I suggest you do so right now. You are in for a treat!

The search volume for some keywords is absolutely amazing. Now, it will be much easier to target the best performing keywords.

Of course, it's also important to know how many competing organic listings and paid listings there are. You are operating blindfolded without this data.

That's exactly why Ad Word Analyzer includes this data with every search, as well as all sorts of other valuable information.

I was actually the first person to include all of this in a keyword tool. It's the reason so many people are able to perform niche market research at lightning fast speeds, and make lots of money.

Now, with the inclusion of Google searches in Ad Word Analyzer, you have even more power at your fingertips.

So, if you are on the fence and still in need of a high-quality keyword tool, then this will be one of the best investments you are likely to make.

If you are doing search marketing, you are of course familiar with keyword research and targeting. This is your bread and butter. Your SEO website copy and tags are totally oriented toward those keywords and keyword phrases that you have found are relevant to your business.

Unfortunately, there's a downside to all this glory. Everyone else online is doing it too, and Internet traffic and trends are highly volatile. Both of those factors mean that you have to do this better than your competition if you wish to make serious money online.
 
Most search engine marketers are making several keyword research mistakes. You don't want to follow in their footsteps. You want to be set apart. So, pay close attention….
 
Don't use keywords that are little more than you company's or industry's insider jargon that few people would ever search for. You may think it makes you sound smart or that it will get you highly targeted traffic. Wrong! The average person doesn't know your insider jargon, even the bright ones. They most likely aren't searching for it, so don't use it.
 
For another thing, popularity is not the most important aspect for choosing the right keywords to make you money. What's most popular is also what's most being used, so its effectiveness for you is watered down. But what's more, the keywords you use MUST relevant to your business and to your target audience.

You want to target future repeat business and referral givers, not everybody and their brother.
 
SEO is not automagical. You have to use it as the tool it is, and be a marketing pro who thinks like his target audience thinks. Again the most popular or the coolest-to-you sounding keywords may be irrelevant to the vast majority of your target audience members. Research and select ONLY keywords that matter to THEM, not to you.
 
Also, don't most people search for a phrase or a string of related words, not merely single words? Yes, they do. Quit wasting your time on single word keywords for SEO. Use phrases. It's MUCH easier to rank higher for keywords containing 3 or more words.

With that being said, if you are certain there are particular single keywords your target audience hunts for, work them into a creative, sensible phrase. That will allow you to target them AND stand out from your competitors. Just don't waste a ton of time trying to rank #1 for these keywords. It will be very difficult.

Always, consider what you competitors are doing, but don't simply copy them. It is imperative on the Internet that you stand out from the crowd. On the Internet, uniqueness wins the market share and the money. Don't ever forget this.
 
And that leads to the fact that was alluded to above concerning Internet market volatility. You may wantto routinely review your keywords and determine if they are still highly relevant, or if newer keywords that are relevant have become more popular. It is unavoidable that keyword relevance can change over time. Keep abreast of these changes or lose buckets of money.
 
All of this means that you have to take your keyword research seriously. It's part of your business, so don't blow it off. Use a keyword tool to speed up the research process and zero in on targeted keywords with search volume. Do your thinking and researching into this matter very carefully. The rewards are definitely worth it.

This is obviously very important, but the better question might be…

"Is your niche actively searched for on the Internet via search engines?"

Search engine activity is the purest indicator that we have to gauge the quality of a particular niche. And while there are many tools at your disposal to evaluate these searches, the one that I recommend you use is called Ad Word Analyzer.

Ad Word Analyzer is an easy-to-use, yet very powerful keyword research tool that measures everything from keyword popularity, the number of competing ads on Google and MSN, the level of competition on Google for organic searches and more!

You can learn all about Ad Word Analyzer at AdWordAnalyzer.com.

After you install Ad Word Analyzer on your system, you simply run the program and type in the root word for your niche in the search box.

For example, if you plan to target the "job seeker" niche by publishing an ebook on "How To Write An Impressive Resume", then your root keyword would be "resume". If you wanted to write a low-carb recipe guide for people on the Atkins Diet, then your root keyword would be "Atkins Diet".

Make sense?

Let me give you an example using the keyword "resume". I simply enter "resume" into Ad Word Analyzer and click the "Start Search" button…

Once Ad Word Analyzer has finished gathering all of the data, it reports that there are over 164,000 searches for "resume". This is excellent!

At this point you're probably wondering…

"How many searches are needed for me to make a lot of money in a niche?"

Well while it will differ a bit from niche to niche, a good rule of thumb is to look for niches that receive at least 25,000 searches each month to their root keyword.

In fact, if you're more conservative you may not want to drop below 35,000 root keyword searches per month, but it's really up to you.

Please note that while you will use to the root word when researching your niche, you don't actually want to use it should you decide to employ Pay Per Click search engines like Google AdWords in your overall marketing strategy.

Generally the listing prices for these root keywords are bid up way to high for the average niche info publisher, so your strategy should be to target specific, multiple keyword phrases.

Ad Word Analyzer will list the cost per click data for all of the keywords, so you will not at-a-glance whether or not you should use a specific keyword or ignore it altogether.

Armed with this valuable data, you can target the right keywords and dominate your niche!

In my opinion, a good keyword tool is essential to a websites success.

You absolutely must know what keywords people search for and how popular each particular keyword is. If not, you will have very little chance of making any decent money from paid advertising or organic searches.

So, what makes a good keyword tool?

1. Ease of use. If it's not easy to use, then you probably won't use it. This goes without saying, but I figured I'd mention this first.

2. Must report related keywords. This is where the money is. You should be able to plug in a primary keyword like "golf" and end up with a big list of related keywords (e.g. longtail keywords).

3. Keyword supply and demand. If you have a list of keywords, but don't know how many competing websites there are or what the search volume is, then you really don't have anything useful.

4. Number of ads on Google. Even if you don't intend to run any AdWords campaigns, this is still a very important indicator to monitor. If people are spending money on advertising, then there is money to be made.

5. Cost per click data. This is invaluable. You can quickly learn what keywords you can afford and the ones to skip altogether. Use this information, so never have to pay outrageous bid prices on a keyword that is unlikely to ever turn a profit.

6. Spy on competitors ads. You always need to know what your competitors are up to, expecially what AdWords ads they are running and what keywords they are bidding on. You can "clone" their success if you are armed with this data.

7. Multiple export options. You should be able to export your results into text, HTML or CSV format. Plus, you should also be able to save your keywords with quotes, no quotes or square brackets. This makes it easy to paste keywords into your PPC campaigns.

All keyword tools are definitely not created alike.

If you want a good keyword tool, one that delivers profitable results, and is used around the world by countless companies and professional webmasters, then I highly suggest you visit AdWordAnalyzer.com.

You might be amazed at just how easy it is to find new niches and low competition markets to target, as well as discovering money-making keywords you never even thought of using before.

Once you get your hands on a good keyword tool, you will probably find yourself asking the question…

"How did I ever get by without this before?"

Using search engines has become a part of life for many. An estimated 350 million people, in fact, visit MSN, Google and Yahoo every day to look up directions, find information or even search for products and services. Some of those people might just be looking for what your website offers.

What if you had the ability to discover exactly what these people were looking for?

This would give you the power to make a ton of money by delivering precisely what they want. Well, you can. Ad Word Analyzer is a powerful tool that reports exactly what people search for, so you can obtain that information.

Now, keyword research can deliver two very important pieces of information for webmasters. These are:

1. What people actually search for. For example, Jayne Brown might be looking for an affordable mortgage refinance. She may have gone to Google and searched "cheap home refinancing". What Ms. Brown types in is called a keyword. This essentially means what the person types into the search engine in order to find related information on the subject.

2. How popular a particular keyword is. When doing keyword research, it's also possible to find out how many times a particular keyword has been searched for. For example, it might turn out that 20,000 people a month search for "cheap home refinancing." When planning a marketing strategy, it's important to know how popular different keywords are.

Successful marketers on the Internet rely on a keyword tool to help them find targeted keywords, so they can build their sites based on proven interest from searchers. Keep in mind, the more complete any keyword list is, the more visitors a site is likely to get.

Good keyword lists contain a variety of different, but related keywords and every conceivable variation of those keywords. This includes synonyms, plural and singular forms of the keywords.

You can never have too many keywords. Not to mention, you should strive to add more keywords to your keyword list over time, for maximum results and traffic.

The simple truth is that keyword research is important for anyone who uses a website to earn money or wishes to boost their business to the next level. Although there are numerous types of people who can benefit greatly from good keyword research, here are three examples:

1. People looking for free traffic from search engines. Every website needs more traffic. You can never have too much. All you really need to do is figure out exactly which keyword people use when looking for specific products and services that are sold. Once that's known, the website owner can add content and use the right keywords in this content to drive traffic its way.

2. Anyone that uses PPC search engines. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN, will let people buy advertising on their websites. To make this work, you have to know what keywords people search for. Once that's done, you can start getting targeted traffic in 15 minutes or less. The more fine tuned the keyword list, the better the results are likely to be.

3. Deciding on whether or not to develop a product or service. There's no point at all investing time and money into a project if nobody is interested in it or searching for keywords you can think of related to the project. On the flipside, keywords with heavy search volume and a ton of related keywords would indicate a big demand, which would warrant additional research and consideration.

Keyword research is really the cornerstone of any successful business online and is absolutely essential to a websites success. If you don't perform keyword research then you will be less likely to succeed. Sorry to spell it out like that, but it's the simple truth.

Keyword research is important for helping webmasters and Internet marketers make sure they pick the highest potential, most appropriate keywords to drive qualified traffic to their sites. When qualified traffic lands on a site, the chances for conversions increase greatly.

Picking keywords by hand, however, is virtually impossible. Even when hundreds of hours are put into the effort, there is no data to show whether the keywords will really pay off. This is where a keyword research tool can speed up the process and ensure better keyword selection.

So, what is a research tool?

This is typically software or a service you can find on the Internet that automates keyword research. All you need to do is type in a keyword that pertains to your site's focus.

This can serve as a starting point for the tool to work for you. What the keyword research tool does is examine the keyword that is entered in it and also seeks out other related keywords.

If, for example, you type in the keyword "mortgage," a keyword research tool might deliver keywords like cheap mortgage, second mortgage, fast mortgage, mortgage interest rates and so on.

A tool like Ad Word Analyzer pulls this information from a massive database that is based on keywords people have used for searches in the past.

This means you are given assurances that keywords these it suggest are actually those that are used and therefore, valuable. In addition, you can see just how popular any keyword is.

Industry Information Revealed

One of the things that a keyword research tool can do very well is show you just how much about your industry you might not know or may have overlooked. The keyword research tool can reveal keywords that you didn't think of or forgot to use.

This simple fact makes them very important. It is never a good idea to rely only on yourself solely for keyword selection or research.

Bells and Whistles

In addition to building a great keyword list, you're probably going to need to expand, edit, save and manage your keyword lists. Ad Word Analyzer was designed to do this and a whole lot more.

Would you like to know how many competitors are bidding on your keywords?

No problem. Ad Word Analyzer gives you this extremely valuable data.

Would you like to spy on your competitors ads?

Piece of cake. You get a detailed insight on your competition without opening your browser.

Would you like to control your PPC costs?

Ad Word Analyzer automatically identifies your least to most expensive keywords.

The list goes on, and on… I suggest you visit AdWordAnalyzer.com to get the full story.

In summary, a keyword research tool is vital for helping you make sure your keyword list is lean, mean and focused, so you can target the traffic you really want.

Taking the time to use a keyword research tool can actually save a great deal of hassle and maximize your results with PPC and SEO traffic.

SEO keyword research is actually a lot more fascinating than you might realize. When it's properly conducted, you can peer into the minds of your potential visitors and see exactly how it is they look for products, services and information online.

When you have unlocked how people actually search for things related to your particular niche, you gain the ability to create content that is highly relevant, useful to your readers and that even boosts your credibility.

The trick is in learning how to address your audience and speak the same language they do. If you master this, you're likely to find your rankings with the search engines rises, as well!

Here are 5 keyword research tips to help you get maximum results:

1. Use the right tool. There are many different options for keyword research tools, but they are not all created equally. Google's Keyword Tool is a good free one to use.

However, consider using a paid keyword tool too. They often prove more beneficial. Ad Word Analyzer provides much more data than Google does, and you can easily filter and save your results.

2. Be focused. While it is tempting to think "keyword" really means just using a single word, in many cases it's the multi-word (eg. long tail) keywords that really pay off. For example, a doctor with a practice in Los Angeles probably won't enjoy very much interest or ranking for the word "physician."

A focused phrase that includes geography and specialty, however, will really pay off with targeted traffic. Think "los angeles pediatrician." When creating the right keywords, don't overlook the power of similar words either. For example, "los angeles children's doctor."

3. The numbers matter. Although it's true the actual reported numbers of monthly searches in keyword tools don't reflect all the searches online, the data is still a very valuable indicator. It is vital to ensure that enough people actually type in the keywords you are considering to make using them pay off.

Do temper choices with realism though. Expecting to rank high with an extremely competitive keyword is a tall order to fill. It's not that it can't be done, but it will require more work than getting a top 10 for a less competitive keyword.

4. Relevancy is crucial. Be certain to consider each keyword in regard to its actual relevancy to your mission. If you sell dog leashes, getting a high ranking for purple cat collars doesn't make a lot of sense. While it might gain you traffic, it won't be the right kind to translate to sales.

Keep your eye on the prize while selecting keywords to use and rank for!

5. Gauge keywords based on value. For each keyword, ask yourself if it can result in content that readers will find useful or interesting. Good keywords are those that can help satisfy visitor needs, help sell, and also generate incoming links.

Selecting the right keywords is vital to a website's success. When focused, relevant keywords are used and the right content is developed to support them, traffic and rankings both follow.

It's possible to blow an entire marketing budget on the wrong keywords. After all, if the keyword phrase "cheap DVDs" fits your business, it makes sense to try to get a #1 Google ranking for that phrase, right?

Wrong! If your "cheap DVD" business happens to specialize in only rare horror movies, what's the point of driving tons of traffic looking for romances, comedies and even action flicks?

Is it really important to you to drive untargeted visitors to your DVD site? Will any of these people really care about your rare horror movies?

Since the answer to that is probably a very big no, before you event start building a website – stop!

The first thing you need to do is find out what keywords really fit your niche. Whether it's your own products or you're an affiliate marketer, it doesn't make sense to start building a website before doing keyword research.

When looking at different keywords, resist the urge to set unrealistic goals, like getting a #1 ranking for "cheap DVDs."

It simply makes more sense to invest extra time in building a website with numerous specialty pages. Each of these pages can focus on its own targeted keyword like "cheap Italian horror movies".

The key is to focus on the real business goals of a website. The idea is to develop as many pages as possible that each include one targeted keyword, so they can rank high on their own.

More pages = more traffic. Plain and simple!

To select the best keywords, I suggest using a keyword tool for researching keywords. A good keyword tool will help you find targeted keywords, with much less competition.

This 'hidden gold' (as I like to call it), can get you higher rankings in less time, and without the hassle of highly-competitive keywords.

Once the keywords are selected, be sure to use them to your advantage. This means having them in all the right spots in the HTML coding…

The primary keyword for each page needs to show up in the title, description, headlines, first line of text, and at least a few times in the body text. Just make sure the text reads well and the keyword isn't overused.

Most people agree the keyword density of a page should be between 4% - 12%…

But, never sacrifice content quality for higher keyword density. You want the text to sound natural and flow well, or else people will exit quickly.

You can easily beat out your competition by selecting the right keywords and using them wisely on your pages.