This is the second of a three article series which describes the method I use to develop comprehensive lists of keyword phrases used for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay per Click campaigns.

In Part I, I discussed the brainstorming techniques I use to develop a broad array of single, relevant keywords. In this section, I’ll show you how to combine these keywords to create a preliminary list of keyword phrases. In Part III, we’ll review the major keyword research tools and how you use the phrases developed in this section to yield a complete and thorough list of keyword phrases.

The overarching goal of keyword research is to develop the broadest array of relevant keyword phrases. Naturally, you will want to accomplish this is the most effective and least time consuming way. The first step is to develop a preliminary keyword phrase list by combining the words you developed in Part I. After refining this list, you will be able to use it with keyword research tools to develop your final, optimized list.

Developing a preliminary keyword phrase list will save you an enormous amount of time and energy by avoiding the trap of researching single keywords. In this example, our goal is to develop a list of keyword phrases related to the Philadelphia apartment market. Using a single keyword, such as “apartments”, in a keyword research tool will return about 2% of the keyword phrases relevant to a Philadelphia apartment search, and 98% junk. Obviously, it would take you a long time to sort through this mess.

The next step is to eliminate duplicates from your preliminary list of keyword phrases. For instance, you wouldn’t want to search for keyword suggestions using “Philadelphia apartments” and “Philadelphia pa apartments” – just one search term, “Philadelphia apartments”, covers all the bases. The search for “Philadelphia pa apartments” will simply yield a subset of the results for “Philadelphia apartments” – an exact list of duplicates of all the phrases that contain the word “pa.” As we’ll see in this example, it’s unlikely you’ll eliminate all duplicates. You can, however, minimize the number of duplicates with a carefully developed list.

My preliminary keyword list for this example includes:

Philadelphia apartment
Philadelphia apartments
Philly apartment
Philly apartments
Philadelphia apt
Philadelphia apts
Philly apt
Philly apts
Philadelphia rent
Philly rent
Philadelphia rental
Philly rental

This list creates some unavoidable duplicates (e.g. Philadelphia rental apartments will be a result for Philadelphia rental and Philadelphia apartments), but, for the most part, each phrase will generate a unique list of relevant keyword phrases.

With this list in hand, you are now ready to move to Parts III and IV where you’ll learn about popular keyword tools and use them to generate your final list of keyword phrase recommendations.

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