If you've read even one of my posts about getting your online business off the ground, you know that it takes a LOT of research. We're talking about post-graduate thesis level research. But, that doesn't mean it needs to be some giant, complex process that you'll never be able to understand. On the contrary, I'm a fan of what I call simple streamlined keyword research. Basically, stop over-thinking it.

The Tiers of Keyword Research

There is a time and place for in-depth research, but when you're just getting started, you can psych yourself out by spending too much time trying to get it all just right. For example, if you're just starting a new blog or informational site that is designed to showcase your knowledge, stop thinking so heavily about which keywords you'll optimize for. Instead, spend some time developing strategies that will translate to more readers and long term rankings - basically, write a lot of good useful content.

On the other hand, if you're starting a heavy duty AdWords campaign in a very competitive niche, you'd better spend some time preparing a more rigorous keyword set because no PPC campaign can succeed without it.

Getting Your Keywords

Start simple - look at your competitors. Go into Google, read their pages, and do some basic page searches in Google's AdWords toolset. You'll find the basic keywords they're all using and can see how effectively they're ranking for them when you do searches. Once you've done that, it's time to decide if there is room for you to compete with those phrases or if you need to focus on a different subset of that niche, or even on longtail keywords that will create a more detailed search profile of your prospective readers.

If you're going to be doing any PPC ads, make sure to head to SpyFu.com and review the AdWords data for those keywords. If the clicks cost $2 each, you may want to find a different niche or do a great deal more research to ensure you're nailing your searches. I can't possibly provide an outline of what you'll need to do to build up an AdWords research campaign here, but keep in mind that the more detailed you can get the better. I know where your mind wants to go - and you shouldn't let it. Be patient and be prepared to spend a lot of time making very long keyword lists.

Checking the Keywords

When all is said and done, make sure those keywords you've researched are all going to convert to both traffic and sales. That means checking them in a tool like WordTracker or even just Google's Keyword Tool. You need to be sure that you have plenty of traffic coming in on those keywords, that they will translate to solid sales and that you'll be able to transition them effectively to long term traffic not just short term results.