Keywords are critical to the success of your search engine optimization efforts. But how do you know which words are the best to choose? Well, the easy answer is research. But where does the research come from? And how can you make sure the research is accurate?

First, if you’re going to be optimizing an article or a blog, you should have the keywords selected before you start writing. Most professionals will create a lengthy list of words and phrases they want to use then just pick words from the list each time they write content. It makes things easier in the long run.

Second, keywords need to be directly related to your content and should be something a normal search engine user would type in to find you, your product, or a similar service. That should always be in the back of your mind. Then brainstorm a list of all the keywords and phrases you can think of. Chances are you can come up with a decent amount but that can easily be expanded.

Third, my preference is to use the Google Adwords keyword research tool. Even if you’re not using Adwords, you can use this tool for free to check out the popularity of your terms and to find other related words people are searching for. For example, if you were selling blog writing services, you could use the tool to check out the keyword “blog writing.” You’d find out that some other frequently searched terms include “blogs writing” and “creative writing blog.”

Fourth, avoid being too general with your keywords, especially for common words, such as “dog.” You won’t get to the top of the results that way and most people use more specific search terms anyway. For instance, you should always have some keywords that include your location, too.