Another Excellent Free Internet Marketing Tool

As I have mentioned before in other articles there are truly very few free internet marketing tools that are even worth a thought. That said, there are a couple of free marketing tools that are worth not only a thought, but a full-on investigation! One of those tools is what I refer to as the Google Keyword Research Tool. It's actually the free Google keyword tool that's associated with the Google AdWords program - but anyone can use it and it's a great resource for anyone doing business online.

And what's so great about the Google keyword search tool? Well, I'll tell you, it can give you a lot of insight as to what your website's content should focus on.

One of the best ways to draw traffic to your website from the search engines is with a niche website. I won't go into a lot of detail about niche sites in this article, but if you don't know what a niche website is, here is a brief explanation:

A niche site is a site that is information bases and addresses a small segment of a larger market. It doesn't really sell anything - though certainly it can, and its main purpose is to offer people whatever information they are looking for. The theme of a niche site is closely related to whatever product or service you bring to the web - but it's not about your product or service - it's a general interest site that focuses on products or services like yours.

The purpose of a niche site is first to brand yourself, and second to gain the trust of people who are potential customers or clients for your business, and build relationships with them.

Now whether you use a niche site or not, the free Google keyword tool is an excellent resource for any business because you can use it to find out what kind of information people are looking for online. Once you know what people are looking for, you can provide it to them either with a niche site, or by writing relevant articles and publishing them online at one of the better article directories.

And why the heck would you want to take the time to do that? Excellent question!

You want to publish articles either at a directory or on a niche site (or both!) because although people use the internet for many things - the internet remains the number one destination for information. People use the internet to look for information - and they use it for that purpose a lot!

Frankly - if you offer a service online or are product marketing online, one of the wisest things that you can do to boost your sales is start writing and publishing general interest articles that are related to your product or service - articles that address the benefits of products/services like yours and that address the concerns of your target market by highlighting the solutions that products/services like yours will provide.

But there is a bit of a catch to this scenario... You can't simply start writing articles that address issues that you think people in your market might be having. If you want your articles to result in traffic to your website you need to write articles that focus on the information that people are actually searching for.

This is a crucial point which I personally learned from experience. I once created a website that contained over 100 articles. The articles focused on topics that I thought my audience needed to know... Sadly, the information that I was providing wasn't what people were actually looking for. The resulting traffic to my site from the search engines..? Close enough to zero to make the experience hurt!

So how do you find out what people are searching for on the internet? Simple - use the Google keyword search tool which you will find at: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal.

The tool is free, extremely easy to use, and provides you with invaluable data. Once you land on the keyword tool page, simply enter the captcha into the security box correctly, and let the magic begin!

Start your research with a really broad keyword term that is highly related to your market - for instance if you were marketing vitamins you might start your research with the keyword phrase health and wellness.

A word of caution here - though you start with a really broad keyword term or phrase, you likely won't base your articles on that term or phrase. Why? Because keywords like health and wellness, weight loss, fitness, travel, home business, work from home, beauty, etc. are far too competitive. Instead you will look for keywords or phrases that are related to your main keyword, which have good search volume (the number of searches per month) but are likely to have much lower competition.

Let's look at the keyword health and wellness as an example. The phrase health and wellness is used as a search term over 300,000 times per month on Google. That is excellent search volume, but there are already thirteen million existing pages on the web that focus on that term - and that's way too much competition! If you use a term with that much competition, you will never see any traffic from the search engines.

In order to get traffic from the search engines you will need to find a keyword that has good search volume (1000 to 3000 searches/month is good) and reasonable competition (between 1000 and 25,000 existing pages is what I aim for... the lower, the better!). This is where the keyword tool is invaluable. Not only does it provide data on the term you enter, it provides a list of additional, related keywords. Go through the list and find a few keywords that support your product/service. If there is nothing on the list that works, keep plugging in keywords and drill down until you find some that are relevant.

Looking again at health and wellness, some keywords that would be relevant, far less competitive, and would make great article topics would be: good health information, good health supplements, or nutrition and good health. All of these terms are closely related to health and wellness, would make excellent article topics (based on topics that people are actually searching for), have good search volume, and far less competitive.

The Google keyword search tool is one of the best free internet marketing tools that you will ever come across - though you may never have considered it a marketing tool as such. It provides you with the data you need to address the needs and concerns of your target market. Sure there are software programs that can automate the process for you - and they are much quicker, but if you are on a budget, such tools may not be an option for you. A budget is no reason to fret! Invest a little time, effort, passion, and elbow grease and Google's keyword tool will get the job done - and done very well at that.

Morgana Braveraven has been marketing online for more than eight years. For more great Internet Marketing Help and further information on another useful internet marketing tools visit Morgana at: http://Smart-Internet-Marketing-Help.com.

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