“Targeted Keyword Phrase” is one of the primary buzzwords (buzz-phrases); we e-commerce entrepreneurs all hear and read about. However, it is easier said then done. If the keywords are too general, your website will be hit with a lot of traffic you don’t want or need, resulting in only a few or no buys. If the keywords are too narrow, you might not get enough traffic, resulting in only a few or no buys.

Using a PPC (Pay Per Click) site like Google Adwords or Overture can result in a high expense with few or no sales for general words. For example, my Website Rothline.com is an online catalog for computer and video games and pc software. When the site was started, we used the keywords, “video games,” “computer games” and “pc software.” We got a lot of traffic via Google Adwords and Overture. But only a few sales. The expense for the PPC was higher than the profit for those sales.

So we went back to the drawing board and established a new list of keywords. This is the process that we currently use:
First, we use the following websites to search with keywords and assess the results; Google Adwords Keyword Search, Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool, 7 Search Keyword Search and Google.com

By using a general keyword like “video games” we use the Google Adwords Keyword Search to create a list of more specific keywords and similar keywords. Then from those lists we use the Overture Keyword Search to determine how many times a keyword was searched in a previous month.

For example with the keyword “video games” that we used in the Google Adwords Keyword Search we found the keyword phrase, “action game.” Since this phrase is more specific to a type of video game that Rothline Entertainment markets we used that keyword phrase in the Overture Keyword Search.

The Overture search results displayed that “action game” was searched 68525 times in the previous month. That number count is too high which will result in a lot traffic to our site but few sales. By using that keyword phrase would at 5 cents cost per click we would end up with a potential $3425.25 PPC expense. Granted now all Internet surfers would click on every ad of ours that would appear the keyword. So let’s assume that only a third would actual click on our ad to go to our site. That would still result in about $1,142.08 in PPC Expense. Still a high expense.

Now overture has also listed the keyword phrase, “action video game” which has a previous month search count of 182. Our philosophy on keyword phrases is that if the keyword search count for the previous month is between 50 and 300 that is a good balance for a targeted keyword phrase. 182 hits to our site would be about $9 a month for the PPC. Much more affordable with a list of some more targeted keyword phrase, we are more likely to pay less for the PPC and get more sales.