Keyword research is a special art.

Keyword research should begin with our own experience of our topic. If possible, we will have some background knowledge on the topic of our pages. By considering what we believe to be the most likely keywords that people will search for, we can then progress to using software and keyword research tools to complete
and effective keyword research campaign.

The search engines themselves are a good place to start. As well as the search
results, they offer a number of tools that can help.

Here are some general steps in keyword research:

1. Create a seed list.
2. Use Wordtracker to find the most popular terms in your seed list and reject low volume keywords.
3. Dig deeper into the long tail – e.g. chocolate, chocolate gifts, corporate chocolate gifts.
4. Broaden your search to related terms and dig deep again.
5. Organize and prioritize what you find. But many people give scant attention to developing a really great seed list.
6. Google Adwords: Keyword Tool – enters any term or phrase and get back data about both the average search volume and the volume from the previous month.
7. MSN AdCenter: Research Keywords Tool – you need to be logged in to use this, but the data is solid and shows actual counts.
8. Wordtracker- Keyword Tool – although the numbers Wordtracker shows are frequently less accurate than the two above, they are reasonably decent for estimating comparative search volume. Unfortunately, due to the declining share of Wordtracker’s data sources (the Infospace owned search engines – Metacrawler, Dogpile, DoGreatGood, etc.), niche and long tail term volume estimates can be way off.