A simple method to find the Internet keywords you want to optimize for!

Here is a simple but very effective method to know the keywords your prospective customers will use to search...

Ask them!

Yes, not very original and certainly not innovative... But still a very powerful idea!

If you have any kind of offline dealing with your customers, simply add a new question into any form they might fill in. You can also make a simple on-line or printed  survey form for this.

If you are in the travel business, you can probably ask the following question...

If you are looking to travel to [name the city or country here] what would you type in to search on-line for finding hotels there?

Make sure that you ask only the one question above. Most people will gladly answer a simple, precise question like that without any objection.

Here is what you should do...

For each of your product or service create a question similar to the above. Spend some time polishing the way the question is framed.

Add this question to your offline and on-line forms. If you already do surveys, add this question to your survey. Ask the question to friends and existing customers,  preferably after purchase, or send them to the survey form in your "thank you" email.

Collect as many answers as you can...  Then combine the data from your survey with the data from your own log files.

Within a few weeks or months you will be sitting on a keyword gold mine!

Collect the keyword phrases and use Keyword Strategy Studio to find the top sites ranked for those keyword phrases. Are you listed? Study the competitors who are listed. Are those websites offering what the customers are really looking for? Can you improve your sites so that your solution is superior?