The keywords you or your competitors target online are basically the blueprint for everything you do to drive sales online. Choose the wrong keywords and you will waste lots of money and time. Especially if you are investing in advertising in search engines or SEO. Choose the right keywords and you will win big.

With over $5,000,000 of paid search engine advertising experience, spanning 8 languages targeting over 20 countries I can attest that the your keyword strategy is the single most important piece to the puzzle.

I remember one client was so convinced they had a complete keyword list that they missed out on the highest value keyword to their industry for two straight years. What a waste and shame.

There are many ways to discover new keywords, but the best way is to build off of your competitors lists.

The first step is to run a few Google searches of the more obvious head keywords for your industry. Open a bunch of your competitors websites and take a look at the title tag of their page, and you will likely see which keywords they are focusing on.

Once you do that, you can now advance to a more complete competitive intelligence strategy.

I would encourage you to use KeywordSpy.com which not only shows you all the keywords your competitors are bidding on, but also shows you all the ads they are using, and how often they appear. This will open up all sorts of opportunities to find out which keywords are driving the most value for your competitors. I would encourage you to follow the breadcrumbs, and click on various keywords to both discover new keywords, and to find new competitors you may not have known about.

Remember, your keyword research should never stop, and you should consistently revisit the list to remove poorly performing keywords and to add new keywords that you may not have discovered previously.

Happy Hunting.