What Is A Keyword?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

After this morning’s post it dawned on me that if you are brand new to Internet marketing you may not know what a keyword is. I don’t want to assume. So here’s the definition of a keyword:

A keyword is any word or phrase that a searcher will type into a search engine search box in order to find information on.

That’s almost anything isn’t it?

Keywords And The Internet Economy

In the Internet economy, some keywords are quite valuable whereas others are not valuable at all. Many new Internet entrepreneurs will look for the keywords that receive the most search queries, but this may not be the best plan. Many keywords that only receive modest attention could be more valuable as a niche.

For instance, search engine optimization is a very popular search term. On the other hand, Google optimization is less so, and CMS optimization even less. Perhaps most SEOs wouldn’t be interested in marketing themselves as a CMS optimizer, but if that is what you do then CMS optimization would actually be a more valuable keyword to you than search engine optimization because with the latter keyword phrase you’ll be competing against bigger fish who have been in the lake longer. That’s not good for your business just starting out.

You Better Bet Your Keyword

Let’s use another example. Suppose you want to start an Internet business that focuses on gambling. You want to set up an affiliate site to drive traffic to your favorite online bookmakers, but you only play online bingo so all of the affiliate programs you want to promote are for bingo sites. Well, you don’t want to use the keyword “online gambling” for your website because it’s too general and there is a lot of competition for that keyword. You are mostly focused on bingo, therefore “online bingo” is a better fit for your niche website. If during the course of your research you find out that there is a lot of competition for “online bingo” but less competition for the keyword phrase “bingo betting tips” then you could build a website focused solely on providing bingo betting tips and drive traffic to your affiliate sites through your website. This way you develop a niche online business around a valuable keyword, but not a keyword that is so valuable that the competition is tough to overcome. Your barrier to entry is lower and the potential is still there for a modest to good income.