Nothing is more important than keyword research when you’re first building your website. From choosing the domain name to targeting your market demographic.

So why did we title this blog “How to Choose the Wrong Keywords!”? Well, it’s unique, and there’s plenty of other sites that will tell you how to choose the right keywords. They all fail to first inform you what to avoid. So here we go.

Assume

Assumptions at any part of this game are going to kill you in the long run. Never assume, you may think you’re taking a short cut, but you’re not… it’s going to cost you.

• Don’t assume that your primary keywords will generate traffic! (analyze potential traffic volume)
• Don’t assume you’ll be able to rank well for your keywords! (review your competition)

Estimate Traffic using Broad Match

If you’re using Google’s keyword tool (which we do recommend), don’t rely on the default results… look deeper, analyze exact match and phrase match. They tell a lot. A general rule of thumb is to focus on keywords that have greater than 1000 exact match searches and less than 500,000 search results. This still does not guarantee anything, but once you review your competition you’ll have a better shot at understanding what you’re going up against.

Use only 1 Keyword Tool

We recommend Google’s keyword tool alongside MSN adcenter tools. SEOmoz and Market Samurai also provide a variety of quality free tools.

In summary, avoid these three pitfalls and you’ll be off to a great start.