Use a specialized tool

Not too surprisingly, a number of companies have popped up
to supply specific keyword services for a fee. The best of
these is WordTracker.com. They’re not bargain basement, but
you get what you pay for. They’ll give you all the keywords
you need and in my experience, they’re a sound investment.

Googlefight.com is another useful tool to see whether one
keyword is more popular than another. The site compares two
keywords and tells you which is more popular. It’s free and
has a limited use, but it’s fun to play with.

As you make up your list of keywords, bear in mind that it’s
also worth looking at key phrases. It’s quite possible that
a user looking to buy flowers online might search for ‘red
roses’ or ‘cheap bouquets’ as well as just ‘flowers.’ Key
phrases are often overlooked by competitors, so you’ve got a
pretty good chance of getting a high placement with the
right combination.

Don’t worry too much about the competition though. Some
people will tell you that you’re better off trying to find
keywords that no one else has thought of—as if there were
any!—and others will tell you to throw in keywords that are
only slightly relevant to your businesses.

In my experience, that’s a waste of time. If your
competitors are using certain keywords, it’s because they
know they work. And if you pick up any users using
irrelevant keywords, you’re not going to sell them anything.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel here: just try to figure out
the most popular keywords and the best key phrases to put on
your site.

Whichever of these methods you use—and I tend to use more
than one—you should end up with a pretty comprehensive list
of keywords that you can stick into your website. The next
question then, is how do you use them? When a search engine
assigns relevancy to a site, it looks for the keywords in a
number of specific areas.